Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hopped on Twitch yesterday to livestream a game of Among Us, and casually raised $200,000 for people in need.
AOC made the announcement on Twitter yesterday that she would be streaming another game this time in an effort to raise money for charity. "Today I'm using the stream to fundraise for local food pantries, eviction defense legal aid, & community support organizations," she wrote, adding a link that directed people to a donor page. "So many people are having a hard time in this crisis."
Following the stream, AOC shared that she, together with some of the site's top players, had raised $200,000, revealing she had done it all "on a whim."
As the Representative for New York's 14th congressional district, AOC, has become a favorite among young progressives and has an affinity for leveraging her platform to talk directly to constituents about relevant issues. Her last Twitch livestream had an audience of almost 440,000 people who watched her play.
AOC casually streaming the popular game, while not only raising money for people in need but also simultaneously educating young voters about pandemic economics and the Senate's GOP majority, is the kind of outreach we rarely see organically from politicians. It's the kind of outreach political campaigns usually spend millions on trying to replicate, meanwhile, AOC does it on a whim.
If anything, AOC's Among Us effort shows the right way for politicians to use social media and connect with people. If you weren't already, it's time to pay attention to AOC.
