Despite these challenges, Ocasio-Cortez has remained calm, focused and powerful. Her performance on 6 November met expectations: she won her district with 78% of the vote. But the rest of the party was not so lucky: while the Democrats did succeed in taking over the majority of the House of Representatives, several other highly-touted Democrats, including three history-making black candidates, did not. Ocasio-Cortez was not disheartened – or, at least, she didn’t show it.

“What I hope we learn, and what I hope we adopt moving forward,” she told The Intercept on election night, “is to not be afraid of our values – to not be afraid of differentiating ourselves from the Republican Party, and really committing and doubling down to our vision.”

Celebration had to be brief. By the day after the election, Donald Trump had already started an attempt to plunge the country into a constitutional crisis before Ocasio-Cortez and her cohort take office in January. But once she does? If she can keep up the momentum, it seems clear that change is going to come.

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How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the new poster girl of American politics