Won’t she do it? Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that in under 24 hours, she was able to raise over $2 million for Texas relief efforts. By early Saturday morning, she tweeted that the fundraising had reached $3.2 million.
AOC’s office told Yahoo News on Friday that on Thursday evening via Twitter, the New York Democrat urged her 12.4 million Twitter followers to donate money to Texas’ five charities working the frontlines amid the historic arctic blast.
The rare winter storm slammed the state with snow and frigid cold temperatures earlier this week. Millions of Texans lost power and water, and dozens lost their lives.
Around 11 AM (ET) Friday, AOC’s fundraising efforts reached the $2M threshold. The funds will secure hundreds of thousands of donations for Family Eldercare, Feeding Texas, Houston Food Bank, ECHO (Ending Community Homelessness Coalition), and Bridge Homeless Recovery Center.
The fundraiser has also added five additional groups.
“Team AOC is launching relief efforts for Texas starting today,” the congresswoman tweeted. “Our first effort is a partnership w/ 5 Texas orgs getting on-the-ground relief to Texans ASAP. If you’re able, please donate here – it’ll split your contribution to all 5.”
“Feeding Texas is humbled by the outpouring of support from people across the country. Hundreds of thousands of Texans are going to need help from their food bank in the days and weeks to come, on top of the millions already struggling to feed their families during the pandemic,” Celia Cole, CEO of Feeding Texas, told the outlet.
Adding, “We are particularly grateful to our elected leaders in Texas and Washington who are helping raise money for Texas food banks. These donations are critical to helping food banks keep their communities nourished and resilient through this crisis.”
AOC requested donations at 5:42 PM (ET) Thursday; four hours later, she announced her efforts had reached $1M.
Thursday was the same day Senator Ted Cruz returned from his vacation to Cancun, Mexico. A trip that he was widely criticized for taking.
AOC and Cruz have repeatedly clashed with one another since she was elected to Congress in 2018. She has called on the Texas Senator to resign for his role surrounding the January 6 Capitol riot, adding that his part “almost had me murdered 3 weeks ago.”
AOC will be traveling with Houston-area district Rep. Sylvia Garcia this weekend.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke seems to hit the nail on the head when mentioning Cruz: “I understand he’s vacationing in Cancún right now when people are literally freezing to death in the state he was elected to represent and serve.”
“I don’t know how much we were expecting from him, to begin with,” O’Rourke told Vanity Fair in an interview. “That guy wants nothing to do with government, or at least our form of it.”
I can’t believe we’ve surged past $3 million for Texas!
Houston Food Bank is using resources like these to try to get 30,000 meal boxes out in the next TWO days.
They’re just 1 of 12 Texas orgs were now partnering with.
Let’s keep going!
Give here: https://t.co/4PQkp3Z4KV https://t.co/AgBGq54p29— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 20, 2021
