Ocasio-Cortez pitches interns to work for her instead of McConnell

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) knocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Friday , pitching her internship program’s $15 per hour salary over the Republican senator’s $330 per week stipend for similar work.

“Why intern for Mitch McConnell, who runs the ball for this racist and incompetent administration, when I will pay you almost twice as much to help make the world a better place?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Friday. 

Why intern for Mitch McConnell, who runs the ball for this racist and incompetent administration, when I will pay you almost twice as much to help make the world a better place? https://t.co/gkOZuhMNBn

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 26, 2020

Last June, House Democrats pushed a bill urging lawmakers to pay interns a minimum wage of $15 per hour. The legislation would add another $2.7 million to the $11 million already set aside for House intern salaries annually.

“When we don’t pay our interns, the only folks that get access to becoming interns are people who already have access to privilege and opportunity,” Ocasio-Cortez said last June on NowThis. “If we’re going to democratize our government, we have to democratize our internship opportunities.”

According to both Ocasio-Cortez and McConnell’s internship application pages, the duties and responsibilities requested of interns are similar. Both jobs focus primarily on communications and legislative tasks. 

Members of “the squad” — Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Ohio) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) — have argued against both unpaid and minimum wage internships in Washington, D.C., and have echoed Ocasio-Cortez’s sentiments on the subject. 

The Hill has reached out to the offices of McConnell and Ocasio-Cortez for more information about their internship payment policies.