It’s the year of the 2020 Census, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is on a crusade to make sure everyone is counted. Especially those who shouldn’t be.
As the New York Daily News reported: “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda teamed up with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to film a public service announcement urging New Yorkers to participate in the upcoming U.S. Census. The ad features AOC teaching a “Census 101” course to students with the Tony winner as a special guest. The ad, shot in both English and Spanish on Wednesday in the city, will be released in a few weeks and is expected to initially run on digital platforms. The PSA will also be translated to other languages.
This is all politically motivated, of course. The Census determines the apportionment of House seats, and federal funding, so a low response rate would hurt any State. Illegal aliens are counted as part of our population, and thus give the Blue States that disproportionately house them extra influence when they respond to the Census. An attempt at adding a citizenship question to the 2020 Census failed, despite one being part of the Census for most of America’s history. Even the United Nations advises that citizenship questions are included in a nation’s census, and such a question is commonplace in other countries.
As I noted elsewhere, AOC’s own district could be on the chopping block as a result of the Census because New York is expected to lose as many as two House seats. This is clearly on her radar, and factoring into her decision making here.
She’s been encouraging her constituents as early as last August she began encouraging her constituents to partake in the census – 25% of which are estimated to be non-citizens (which includes legal non-citizens and illegal aliens). While that quarter of the population can’t vote for AOC, they can help her boost her district’s numbers.
