By Canadian Press

AOC Among Us: progressive firebrand to join NDP leader for online gaming sesh Friday

Nov 26, 2020 | 3:47 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The leader of the New Democrats has thrown down the gauntlet to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Canada-U. S. relations may never be the same. 

Jagmeet Singh challenged the firebrand member of Congress to a round of “Among Us,” a popular online multiplayer game, and she accepted. 

AOC, as she’s known, livestreamed her debut on the game last month in an effort to lure younger voters to the polls for the Nov. 3 election, attracting a staggering 439,000 viewers.

Friday’s matchup, which will stream on the online gaming site Twitch, begins at 7 p.m. eastern time. 

A controversial standard-bearer for left-wing progressive politics, the 31-year-old Ocasio-Cortez was first elected to represent her New York district in the House of Representatives in 2018.

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Since then, she has become one of the most familiar faces on Capitol Hill, part of a progressive wing of the Democrats that includes former presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. 

“Among Us” pits a team of tiny astronauts trying to return to Earth against one of their own, an anonymous saboteur whose objective is to kill off other crew members before they can repair their ship and identify the impostor. 

“Canadian members of Parliament and U.S. members of Congress venting each other into space. What could go wrong?” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted in response to Singh’s invitation. 

“See you tomorrow.” 

Ocasio-Cortez’s Oct. 20 livestream, which included fellow progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar, was one of the most-viewed events in the nine-year history of Twitch, which has become a popular way for politicians to attract young supporters. 

The record still belongs to a professional gamer who played the popular game “Fortnite” with Canadian superstar Drake, rapper Travis Scott and NFL wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, with 628,000 viewers watching at the same time. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 26, 2020.

The Canadian Press