However, Sanders’s October heart attack changed the calculus.
Ocasio-Cortez called the Vermont senator in the hospital, where he was getting restless and barking at a nurse that “I want to get out of here,” to inform Sanders she planned to endorse him, sparking the then-78-year-old to pump his fist in the air.
Her support culminated in a raucous rally in Queensbridge Park in New York City later that month that drew over 25,000 attendees.
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“It wasn’t until I heard of a man by the name of Bernie Sanders that I began to question and assert and recognize my inherent value as a human being that deserves health care, housing, education and a living wage,” Ocasio-Cortez said during the rally.