Ocasio-Cortez Tricks Constituents Into Funding Her Campaign With GND ‘Family Fun Run’

“We’re getting together for our own health, for our planet’s health … and to fight for the Green New Deal together.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Saturday held a “Family Fun Run” in Queens, New York, that she touted a promoting “our planet’s health.”

Adults paid $30, and children as young as 3 participated in a 1K for $20. More than $11,000 was raised in total.

Neither Ocasio-Cortez’s Facebook page or the event sign-up page made clear that the 5K in Astoria Park was a campaign fundraiser, with the registration fees going toward Ocasio-Cortez’s reelection.

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Rather, runners were promised that they would be “supporting U.S. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal on the Saturday following Earth Day.” Another webpage promoting the event conveyed the same message, only noting at the bottom: “Registration fees are contributions to AOC for Congress, and have the general contribution rules.”

Before the start of the run Saturday, Ocasio-Cortez declared: “We’re getting together for our own health, for our planet’s health … and to fight for the Green New Deal together.”

Unsurprisingly then, many of the 400 participants – who together paid more than $11,000 – were unaware that they were supporting the campaign, according to the New York Post.

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“I think it’s really for this particular New Green Deal,” said Brian Schwartz of Long Island. “No question.”

On learning the truth, some runners were upset to have been duped.

“The site says it’s to benefit her environmental plan,” said one supporter who would not give his name. “If it is going to go directly to her campaign they should have said so.”

But another anonymous woman said she was OK with unwittingly supporting Ocasio-Cortez because the congresswoman is the face of the Green New Deal, an ill-conceived proposal to solve social injustice in climate change with a massive expansion of government.

“Even if that’s so, it’s because it’s her plan and she is the one we need to push it,” she said.

According to the Post, Ocasio-Cortez – who has faced allegations of campaign violations in the past – maybe have gotten participants to inadvertently violate federal election laws: It’s illegal to make a contribution in a child’s name.

The fun run was a small part of her national fundraising efforts, which brought in $726,000 through online solicitations in the first quarter of this year. But it could serve to boost her paltry numbers amid constituents, who were responsible for just 4 percent of the total.

According to the Post, though, even at the event in her 14th congressional district, only half of the runners came from the Bronx and Queens.

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