Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to speak at Democratic convention

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) will deliver a virtual address to the Democratic National Convention next week. Initially it was unclear whether the young progressive leader would be given a slot.

Ocasio-Cortez will appear on Tuesday, one day after two-time former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich, and others deliver addresses on Monday. 

The first-term congresswoman co-chaired a climate task force that was developed as part of the Biden-Sanders unity commission. The task force's recommendations became most of the basis of the Democratic Party's national 2020 environmental platform.

Also set to speak at the convention are prominent members of the party's Latino coaltion, including former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, who briefly ran for president this cycle. Others in the coalition include New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Mastro. 

The convention, set to occur on Aug. 17-20, will focus on the theme of "Uniting America." The party is touting intra-and-inter-party support for Joe Biden, with both moderate and progressive wings of the party represented, in addition to Kasich, a GOP presidential candidate in 2016, showing his support for the former vice president.

Reports last week indicated that Democrats were torn on how prominent a convention role to offer Ocasio-Cortez. Former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell told Politico last week that his feeling was that the progressive wing of the party was already well-represented at the convention, given the speaking roles of Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).