The New York Democrat launched its fundraising campaign on Thursday after extreme cold, ice and snow caused the power grid failure managed by the Texas Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT) – leading to blackouts and a boiling water warning for almost half of Texas. Fundraising reached $ 1 million on Thursday night. The next day, Ocasio-Cortez said the number of donations had increased to $ 2 million and announced that he would visit the state.
On Friday, the congresswoman said she would fly to Houston to join Texas Democratic Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia to distribute supplies. While in Texas, the progressive legislator and other Democrats visited food distribution centers, water delivery locations and covered the damage left by an unprecedented storm.
Ocasio-Cortez, along with Garcia and Texas Rep. Al Green, said on Saturday that he wanted to work for assistance to Texans after volunteering at the Houston Food Bank and visiting the home of a family that was affected by the winter storm.
“It’s one thing to read about what’s going on, it’s another thing to see the damage for yourself,” she said. “The message in Washington is we are not going to let people get caught up in a lot of red tape. We are going to try to get this assistance out of the house as much as people need and as soon as possible.”
When asked by CNN whether Ocasio-Cortez had raised money or visited a disaster site before, the New York Congresswoman said this was her first event outside an effort to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and some relief work before be elected.
“Our first major relief effort was last year when Covid collapsed and therefore we were able to build a relief and fundraising operation and we started working on it with Covid, but that was in our home district , and before that, we had mobilized for relief from hurricane Maria, but that was before I was elected member of Congress, “she said. “I think this is just something that we should be able to do whenever there is an area in our country that needs it.”