"Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's path to Congress representing an urban, diverse district in New York City began in a freezing-cold protest camp in North Dakota.

She spent several weeks in 2017 with indigenous activists fighting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The protests garnered national attention, even if she herself didn't.

"It was right after I left Standing Rock that I knew I had to do something," she said at a press conference last week."

Nick Bowlin reports for E&E Daily December 5, 2018. [2]