AOC is top fundraising freshman lawmaker — but has almost zero known donors from her district

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is undoubtedly the most recognizable freshman lawmaker. Her social media prowess and hardline progressive politics have indeed proved to be a fundraising boon — she has raised more money for her reelection than her 87 freshman colleagues.

However, almost none of the contributors for her reelection campaign reported to the Federal Election Commission live in her congressional district, an investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed.

In fact, less than one half of 1 percent — 0.46 percent, to be exact — of the nearly $2 million Ocasio-Cortez raised for her reelection campaign in the first half of 2019 come from reported contributors inside her district.

That translates to only 10 constituents.

What are the details?

The FEC requires campaigns to disclose the names and addresses of campaign donors who contribute $200 or more, which the FEC classifies as "itemized contributions." The investigation showed that Ocasio-Cortez's reelection campaign had only 10 such donors through the first half of 2019.

In total, Ocasio-Cortez's campaign reported $334,401.45 in itemized contributions, but only $1,525.50 of which came from constituents living in her district.

Only one freshman lawmaker — Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) — had a worse itemized-contributor-to-constituent percentage: 0 percent.

It's not clear how many donations under $200 that Ocasio-Cortez's campaign has received. But the investigation showed Ocasio-Cortez received the highest percentage of small donors among her freshman class — 82.78 percent — during the first half of 2019.

Anything else?

Ocasio-Cortez's closest allies — Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — did not fair much better among their constituents.

According to the Daily Caller News Foundation, only 1.67 percent of Tlaib's fundraising and 4.23 percent of Omar's were from itemized contributors living in their respective districts, which translates to $7,865 for Tlaib and $30,361.50 for Omar.