“Just an unqualified bartender”

Representative Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude from Boston University in 2011 with a double major in economics and international relations. During college she interned in Ted Kennedy's office handling immigration casework, which is constituent service, the actual daily work of a congressional office.

After graduating she worked at the National Hispanic Institute as educational director and founded a small publishing venture, Brook Avenue Press, aimed at children's books about the Bronx. She also organized for the Bernie Sanders 2016 campaign. So she had campaign experience, legislative office experience, nonprofit management experience, and a relevant degree before she ever ran for office.

The bartending experience is true and simultaneous to the other activities. Her father died in 2008 during the financial crisis, the family faced foreclosure pressure, and she waited tables and tended bar to help her mother keep the house. That is a normal thing for a person in their twenties in New York to do while their credentialed career pays nothing.

She promotes it because it's a class signal, and because the contrast with the average net worth of Congress is the point she's making.

She has an impressive resume and it's even more impressive how these things aren't well know.

I think that says something about the quality of her character.