Ryan Grim Livres

We've Got People: From Jesse Jackson to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the End of Big Money and the Rise of a Movement is the first book-length treatment of the roots and rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, tracing the movement that propelled her back to the 1988 presidential campaign of Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition -- a year before she was born. That campaign stunned the Democratic Party by coming within inches of winning the nomination. One of the few white progressives to endorse the campaign early was Burlington Mayor Bernie Sanders; Ocasio-Cortez, in 2016, would volunteer for his presidential campaign. Veterans of the Sanders campaign then formed the organization that recruited Ocasio-Cortez to run for Congress, and backed her and her squad to the hilt. At every step, the movement was in conflict with the centrist wing of the party, and the book, jam-packed with new revelations, explores how each shaped each other, and how that 30-year war shapes the fight playing out today.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may seem like she came from nowhere, but the movement that propelled her to office - and to global political stardom - has been building for 30 years. We've Got People is the story of that movement, which first exploded into public view with the largely forgotten presidential run of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a campaign that came dangerously close to winning. With the party and the nation at a crossroads, this timely and original book offers new insight into how we've gotten where we are - and where we're headed.