Congress Ocasio-Cortez invites woman who confronted Jeff Flake over Kavanaugh to State of the Union

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced on Monday that she had invited the woman behind the viral confrontation with then-Sen. Jeff Flake over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination to be her State of the Union guest on Tuesday.

“This @AnaMariaArchil2, the NY-14 shero that will be accompanying me to the State of the Union tomorrow,” the New York Democrat wrote on Twitter , quoting a tweet with the video of Ana Maria Archila’s encounter in September. “She wasn’t planning on leaping into that elevator ahead of the Kavanaugh vote, but after hearing the stories of survivors across the country, she went in.”


Members of Congress often try to send a message about a particular policy with whom they invite as their guest to the State of the Union. Presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan in 1982, often invite guests to sit with the first lady and reference them during their speech.

Archila’s confrontation with Flake, an Arizona Republican who at the time was viewed as a potential swing vote on Kavanaugh’s nomination, went viral as she emotionally urged the senator to reconsider his initial support for Kavanaugh. Archila, an activist who is co-director of the Center for Popular Democracy, stepped in the door path of the elevator holding Flake, who was trying to depart, and with another activist, pleaded with the senator for more than two minutes.

Asking Flake to consider her own children, Archila said she saw her story as a sexual assault survivor in Christine Blasey Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party decades earlier.

Flake, who repeatedly looked down during the confrontation and muttered a few words, later brokered a deal with Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) to allow for a limited FBI investigation into allegations by Blasey Ford and others against Kavanaugh, which he has repeatedly denied.

After that short investigation, Flake again voted in favor of Kavanaugh, this time on a final confirmation vote. After a 50-48 vote, Kavanaugh was confirmed to replace retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Flake, who had already announced his retirement from the Senate at the time of the video, left Congress at the beginning of January.

“A defining moment,” Ocasio-Cortez said of Archila’s actions.