The Standing Rock trip was “transformational” for Ocasio-Cortez. She had visited a city poisoned by lead on her way to help a community fight the construction of a massive government-backed oil pipeline. The trip helped her “connect a lot of different dots” about how environmental degradation affects everybody, no matter where you live. “I think the me that walked out of that,” she says, “was more galvanized and more open to taking risks.” Then, as she was driving back to New York, she got a call she never expected. Someone wanted her to run for Congress.

http://time.com/longform/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-profile/