AOC still had nearly 800 unread texts a year after her shocking 2018 victory: 'She never called anyone back'
- As it turns out, AOC is not an "Inbox Zero" kind of person.
- She still had nearly 800 unread texts a year after her shock 2018 victory, per a new book.
Members of Congress, they're just like us. At least those of us who have hundreds of unread messages.
In June 2019, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez watched as Tiffany Cabán, a progressive ally, appeared to take the lead over establishment-backed challenger Melinda Katz in the Democratic primary for Queens District Attorney.
"This is wild. Like truly," the New York congresswoman texted reporter Ryan Grim at the time. "I told her that if she needed help with the incoming deluge of texts and calls [let me know] but I'm pretty sure I still have unanswered texts from primary day."
Ocasio-Cortez then revealed, in a screenshot sent to Grim, that she had 795 unread texts. She had defeated Rep. Joe Crowley in a shock primary victory almost exactly a year ago, by that point.
"Lol that's still from the primary," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "I hope [Cabán] pulls it off."
Cabán ultimately lost to Katz when the votes were fully tallied, though she won a seat on the New York City council in 2021.
That's all recounted in Grim's recently released book, "The Squad: AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution." But even beyond eschewing the "Inbox Zero" mentality, former aides to the congresswoman said she often had a hard time getting back to people in her early days as a member of Congress.
"There are certain members where they would call her, and she didn't return their calls, which, as you know, is unprecedented in this business," an unnamed House Democratic leadership aide told Grim.
Corbin Trent, her first communications director, said that Ocasio-Cortez "just gets so freaked out when people see — when there's access, she's just real closed off."
"It's true. She never called anyone back," Trent added, according to the book.
And Dan Riffle, a top aide to Ocasio-Cortez from 2019-2021, even told Grim that some heads of state did not get their calls returned, citing the physical impossibility of responding to a deluge of messages.