Ocasio-Cortez raises $1 million for Texas relief in 4 hours

NEW YORK — New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez raised over $1 million for relief efforts in Texas in about four hours, the congresswoman announced Thursday.

The representative announced an attempt to raise money for five separate Texas organizations Thursday evening. The money will be split, according to Ocasio-Cortez, among The Bridge Homeless Recovery Center, Ending Community Homeless Coalition (ECHO), Family Eldercare, Houston Food Bank, and Feeding Texas are working around the clock to assist houseless, hungry and senior Texans in Travis and Dallas County, and beyond.

Team AOC is launching relief efforts for Texas starting today.

Our first effort is a partnership w/ 5 Texas orgs getting on-the-ground relief to Texans ASAP.

If you’re able, please donate here - it’ll split your contribution to all 5.

💯% goes to them.https://t.co/TTIiNimja7 — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 18, 2021

Within a couple of hours, Ocasio-Cortez announced they'd amassed $325,000 and announced a goal of $1 million by midnight.

Our Texas relief mobilization has already raised $325k for food, housing, elder care & direct relief straight to vulnerable Texans.

This might be a little crazy... but can we raise $1M by midnight?

💯% goes to Feeding Texas, ECHO & more: https://t.co/TTIiNimja7 https://t.co/OO57AoLmR9 — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 19, 2021

She announced that they'd hit that target just before 10 p.m.

We officially raised $1 million for Texas relief at 9:17pm.

Thank you all so much. 🙏🏽 I’m at a loss for words. Always in awe of movement work.

💯% of this relief is going straight to Texan food assistance, homelessness relief, elder care, and more. https://t.co/DSkTSqfbkZ — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 19, 2021

Ocasio-Cortez, a second-term Democrat, said the money will go to help charities that "food, housing, elder care & direct relief straight to vulnerable Texans."

Power was restored to more homes and businesses Thursday in states hit by a deadly blast of winter that overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold this week. But the crisis was far from over in parts of the South, where many people still lacked safe drinking water.

In Texas on Thursday, about 325,000 homes and businesses remained without power, down from about 3 million a day earlier, though utility officials said limited rolling blackouts were still possible.

The extreme weather was blamed for the deaths of more than four dozen people, some while trying to keep warm. In the Houston area, one family died from carbon monoxide as their car idled in their garage. A woman and her three grandchildren were killed in a fire that authorities said might have been caused by a fireplace they were using.