Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s tough Bronx image is being questioned again — this time over an old nickname from her suburban upbringing that’s resurfaced online.
The latest stir came after AOC clashed with President Trump over his decision to bypass Congress and strike Iranian nuclear sites. In a post on X, she declared, "I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast."
But critics say that "Bronx girl" claim glosses over her actual background — specifically, her move to Yorktown Heights, an affluent suburb nearly an hour from the Bronx, when she was just 5 years old.
Locals there knew her not as AOC, but as “Sandy,” a high-achieving student who attended Yorktown High School and impressed her teachers. One of them, Michael Blueglass, called her “one of the most amazing presenters” he’d ever seen.
After graduating in 2007, she went on to Boston University, majoring in economics and international relations — not exactly a rough-and-tumble path.
Critics like New York GOP Assemblyman Matt Slater, who says he attended high school with her, blasted her portrayal as a gritty Bronx fighter. “She grew up in Yorktown,” he said on Fox News. “She was on my track team. This whole image is just a lie.”
Slater also posted old yearbook photos, fueling social media claims that her Bronx branding is political theater. “Everybody in our community knows this is just a bold-face lie,” he said.
Ocasio-Cortez fired back on X: “I’m proud of how I grew up and talk about it all the time. My mom cleaned houses and I helped. We cleaned tutors’ homes in exchange for SAT prep.”
She added that growing up between two very different worlds — Yorktown and the Bronx — shaped her views on inequality and drove her political beliefs.