State Assemblyman Matt Slater challenges Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Bronx girl” narrative, citing suburban high school roots as evidence against her claims.
At a Glance
- NY State Assemblyman Matt Slater has publicly challenged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “Bronx girl” identity.
- Slater, who attended Yorktown High School with AOC, posted a yearbook photo of her to question her narrative.
- The feud erupted after AOC invoked her Bronx roots during a social media spat with President Donald Trump.
- The controversy highlights the long-running debate over AOC’s background, as she was born in the Bronx but moved to suburban Yorktown at age five.
The Yearbook Photo That Sparked a Feud
New York State Assemblyman Matt Slater (R) has thrown a wrench into the carefully crafted public persona of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), using a high school yearbook photo to question her “tough Bronx girl” identity. The public spat ignited after AOC clashed with President Trump over his administration’s recent military strikes on Iran. In her social media response to Trump, Ocasio-Cortez declared, “I’m a Bronx girl. You should know that we can eat Queens boys for breakfast.”
Slater, who was a senior at Yorktown High School when Ocasio-Cortez was a freshman, seized on the comment. He posted a picture of her from the school’s yearbook on X with the caption, “If you’re a BX girl, then why are you in my Yorktown yearbook? Give it up already,” as reported by the New York Post.
A Tale of Two Zip Codes
The undisputed facts of Ocasio-Cortez’s upbringing are more complex than her simple “Bronx girl” moniker suggests. While she was born in the Parkchester neighborhood of the Bronx, her family moved to a small house in suburban Yorktown Heights in Westchester County when she was about five years old, specifically so she could attend better public schools. She graduated from Yorktown High School in 2007 before eventually moving back to the Bronx after college.
“A Bold-Faced Lie”?
Slater and other critics accuse AOC of deliberately downplaying her comfortable, suburban upbringing to cultivate a more “authentic” working-class political brand. “I think it’s time that (AOC) comes clean about her background,” Slater told Mid Hudson News. “She is not a Bronx girl; she grew up in Yorktown… pretending she is this tough girl from the Bronx is disrespectful to our community.”
In an interview with Fox News, Slater called her narrative a “bold-faced lie.” He claims his phone has been ringing with calls from former classmates, relieved that “the truth is finally coming out.”
For her part, Ocasio-Cortez has long argued that her political identity was forged by the “stark contrast” she witnessed between the opportunities available in her suburban school district and the struggles of her family members who remained in the Bronx. However, for critics like Slater, this explanation remains a calculated narrative from a politician with an “authenticity problem.”
