Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ordinarily known as AOC, became the center of media attention from the onset of her political career. Her origin story was defined by her Puerto Rican heritage, experience working with the community, and progressive ideals. Utilizing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's rise in American politics, this thesis demonstrates that political science literature fails to adequately account for the barriers, biases, and attacks women of color face in campaigns and once they have been elected. Even when it appears that political identification explains the attacks and biases they face, an intersectionality approach notes that the manifestation of the attacks is in particularly racialized and misogynous terms such that it considers women of color politicians as double trouble.

The study of women of color through an intersectional framework is specifically warranted because the literature on race or gender alone does not capture the challenges women of color face. Ocasio-Cortez's campaigns and post-election experience, categorized by racist and sexist episodes of attack, reveal that women of color face a drastically different political landscape than their white female and male counterparts in American politics. This thesis will shed light on the barriers and biases women of color face in the campaign process and once elected, through an intersectional analysis to understand the complexities of their challenges.