Ocasio-Cortez to headline Green New Deal rally in Washington, DC

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will headline a rally later this month in Washington, D.C., promoting the Green New Deal, a progressive proposal that calls for sweeping reforms to combat climate change.

The Sunrise Movement, a youth climate organization, is closing out its nationwide “Road to a Green New Deal Tour” with a rally at Howard University on May 13. The group announced on Monday that Ocasio-Cortez would headline the demonstration, which about 1,500 people are expected to attend.

“All over the country, I’ve been amazed by the enthusiasm for the Green New Deal,” Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash, who has spent the last month on the road with the tour, said in a statement.

“Thousands of new people are joining the movement. From fire-scarred California to the flooded heartland, Americans are hungry for an economic transformation at the scale of what science and justice demand,” she continued.

“I’m thrilled to be joining Ocasio-Cortez to close out tour and lay out what’s next in the Green New Deal campaign,” she added.

The Sunrise Movement said that the event will launch a nationwide campaign to make the 2020 presidential election a referendum on the Green New Deal. 

Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) introduced the Green New Deal earlier this year. The nonbinding legislation calls for the federal government to make sweeping reforms in order to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and produce “good, high-wage jobs.”

While Progressives have hailed the measure, Republicans and some moderates have criticized it, pointing to its high costs. 

Corbin Trent, a spokesman for Ocasio-Cortez, told The New York Times that the “Democratic Party needs to lay out a clear and bold vision for America.” 

“And that’s not only the best path for our planet — but it’s the best path strategically and electorally to take the Senate and White House,” he said.

Ocasio-Cortez has been outspoken about issues related to the economy and climate change since being elected to Congress last year. In November, she joined more than 100 members of the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats in a sit-in at then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office. The demonstration called for legislators to take action against climate change.