It was a match made on Twitter, where the two sparred as recently as April over the price of a croissant and the minimum wage.
ADVERTISEMENTPolitics doesn't make much stranger bedfellows than this — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ted Cruz struck a deal on Twitter on Thursday to work together on an anti-lobbying bill to stop the infamous revolving door.
Ocasio-Cortez, the self-described democratic socialist from New York, and Cruz, the staunch conservative Republican from Texas, found common ground after the Democrat tweeted out aPublic Citizen article on the large number of recently retired Congress people who've taken lobbying or policy-influencing jobs.
"If you are a member of Congress leave, you shouldn't be allowed to turn right around&leverage your service for a lobbyist check," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "At minimum there should be a long wait period."
A short time later, former Republican presidential candidate Cruz tweeted, "Here's something I don't say often: on this point, I AGREE with @AOC Indeed, I have long called for a LIFETIME BAN on former Members of Congress becoming lobbyists. The Swamp would hate it, but perhaps a chance for some bipartisan cooperation?"
The freshman Democrat replied "if you're serious about a clean bill, then I'm down. Let's make a deal."
She said if they can agree to legislation "with no partisan snuck-in clauses" then "I'll co-lead the bill with you."
"You're on," Cruz replied.
Cruz has worked across the aisle before — he co-sponsored a bill with another New York Democrat, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, aimed at reforming how the military handles sexual assault — but is also one of many Republicans who've mocked Ocasio-Cortez.
The pair sparred on Twitter in April, after she tweeted about having to pay $7 for a croissant at the airport while workers are being paid less than $15 an hour.
"Oh the humanity! Here's the answer: government-mandated FREE CROISSANTS FOR ALL. And we'll just force the bakers to give all of their time for free. #SocialistLogic #AprilFools,"Cruz wrote.
Ocasio-Cortez responded with a tweet that didn't mention Cruz directly: "It's not an argument against the price of a croissant — it's about the value of human worth. But I guess that idea is foreign to them since their policies treat people as disposable anyway."