They don’t call them public servants for nothing.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was seen Tuesday coming to the rescue of a congressional staffer who needed help jump-starting his car’s battery after it died outside the U.S. Capitol.
In a now-viral photo shared by her chief of staff, Ocasio-Cortez can be seen applying a portable charger to the car’s battery as two Capitol Police officers and the staffer, identified as Evan Hollander, look on.
“Only a couple moments after I started working on it is when she came over,” Hollander, a staff assistant and driver for Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), told HuffPost. “She just sort of jumped right in and got it started.”
Hollander said he hadn’t been there for very long, and that he was initially thrown off because his battery jumper was a portable charger and not a more traditional one that hooks up to another car’s battery.
“I think I would have gotten it eventually, but it was helpful to have a second set of eyes,” he said. “It was a great moment to meet her, and she was really helpful and nice.”
Larson was with Hollander, waiting to leave after finishing some votes at the Capitol, according to a newsletter sent by NOTUS, a Washington publication from the Allbritton Journalism Institute.
Larson later expressed his own gratitude to Ocasio-Cortez on social media, writing: “Congress is a hands-on job!”
The New York Democrat suggested she was merely paying it forward.
“We’ve all needed a jump at some point!” she wrote back. “Happy to lend a hand.”