AOC Headlines Progressive “Students v. Billionaires” Town Hall

On September 27, Cornell student leaders took the stage at the AOC-headlined “Students v. Billionaires” town hall. “Long live the student resistance. Long live the student intifada,” Zoe Reisman ‘29 chanted, before leading the audience to a chant of  “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” 

In addition to leading the chants, the two student leaders described Cornell as “run by CEO trustees who are profiting off genocide and war. “Thus far, Students not Bombs has…protested weapons manufacturers recruiting at Cornell Career Fair, we brought Hasan Piker to campus…We do not plan on stopping.” Hasan Piker had visited Cornell just a few days before this event.

Mina Petrova, president of Cornell YDSA, and Reisman, co-chair for Cornell YDSA and secretary of Students for Justice in Palestine, both made appearances before Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) appeared at her student-focused town hall titled “Students vs. Billionaires.” Her stop was a part of an upstate New York tour to “boost turnout” for the midterm elections in November, when Representative Josh Riley (D), the Congressman for Ithaca, is attempting to recapture the seat he won in 2024. Though the event was sponsored by Cornell organizations, students from surrounding colleges like Ithaca College and SUNY Binghamton were in attendance.

At the event, nearly 1,000 people packed into the largest room at the Downtown Ithaca Business Center, where Representative Ocasio-Cortez condemned the “culture of rape” across elite institutions and threats from AI. The event was hosted by More Perfect University, a left-leaning alternative to Turning Point USA, and four Cornell student organizations: Students for a Democratic Cornell, Cornell Young Democratic Socialists of America, and Cornell Graduate Students Union.

Other Cornell students, such as Spencer Krenk, president of Students for a Democratic Cornell, criticized Cornell’s administration for “completely crush[ing] free speech and eliminat[ing] due process,” where “over 45 students were arrested for simply peacefully protesting.” He also criticized Cornell for suspending students based on “false accusations” and “inaccurate evidence.” For Krenk, student movements have “always been on the right side of History.”

After the students spoke, AOC touched on topics such as ballooning college tuition, ICE, and local politics.

Phoebe Brown, a local organizer from Ithaca, pressed AOC on her opinions on midterm hopeful Josh Riley. Brown stated her concerns about upstate New York prisons and asked AOC how she was supposed to not acknowledge” that Josh Riley “supported the prison guards and “walked with them on the picket line.”

AOC described Riley as a “listener and torn about issues” like the one Ms. Brown described. She stated that “we do have to work with the reality” that the majority of the Congressional district had voted for Trump and to use disagreement with Riley as a “space for engagement rather than disengagement. The Review interviewed event attendees before and after the town hall. Before the event, a Cornell grad student stated that she attended the event to engage with the progressive community. While skeptical on AOC’s ability to win in this “political climate,” she hoped to see someone like AOC in office. She also voiced concerns on local politics. While she initially supported Josh Riley, she felt like she no longer could.

The Review interviewed event attendees before and after the town hall. Before the event, a Cornell graduate student stated that she attended the event to engage with the progressive community. While skeptical on AOC’s ability to win in this “political climate,” she hoped to see someone like AOC in office. She also voiced concerns on local politics. While she initially supported Josh Riley, she felt like she no longer could. 

Maggie, another graduate student at Cornell, has been a longtime follower of AOC. While she felt like AOC’s response to criticism of Josh Riley was vague, she thought it was reasonable given the political circumstances. A senior at Ithaca College called her response to Brown’s question a “real politician’s answer.”