Fact Check: No, AOC Is Not a Multimillionaire After Serving in Congress for 5 Years

Claim:

Evidence exists showing U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., is a multimillionaire after spending just over five years in Congress.

Rating:

False ( About this rating? )

On July 27, 2024, X user @its_The_Dr reposted ( archived ) a screenshot of another post claiming U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. – better known as AOC – became a multimillionaire after serving in Congress for just over five years.

The screenshot displayed a Truth Social post created by the popular user @WallStreetApes on Sept. 18, 2022. That post read , "#AOC was $8k in debt in 2019. She got elected to #Congress with a salary of $174k per year. Her net worth is now estimated to be $29,000,000. Welcome to politics in the United States of Corruption. #CongressCriminals."

Other users also reposted the same rumor on Facebook and X .

For example, on July 29, 2024, one X user responded to a post from Ocasio-Cortez, writing, "What's weird is that when you were elected you were $8k in debt. Now you are worth $29 million. Pretty weird considering you get paid $150k and only been in office for less than 5 years." Other users also referenced the purported $29 million number in replies to Ocasio-Cortez, also on July 29. We've received past reader mail about this subject, as well.

However, according to Ocasio-Cortez's own financial disclosures posted to the U.S. House website, this rumor was false. As we see every day, too many online users failed to spend a few seconds searching online to confirm the truth before sharing false information.

Reviewing Ocasio-Cortez's Financial Disclosures

As Reuters previously reported in August 2022, Ocasio-Cortez's financial disclosures showed that she was far from being a millionaire, much less a multimillionaire. (Her campaign website ocasiocortez.com also mentioned this same article.)

We reviewed Ocasio-Cortez's financial disclosures from 2019 , 2020 , 2021 , 2022 and 2023 . The disclosures displayed some data in ranges rather than exact dollar figures.

According to the most recent disclosure from 2023, Ocasio-Cortez documented she had no more than between $1,001 and $15,000 in each of three different bank accounts. The total for these three accounts lands somewhere between $3,003 and $45,000.

She also recorded in the disclosure between $1,001 and $15,000 in additional funds in a fourth account for a 401(k) plan.

Further, she noted in the disclosure her ongoing student loan payments, with an "amount of liability" landing somewhere between $15,001 and $50,000.

In other words, just in terms of cash, Ocasio-Cortez was at least $940,000 short of being a millionaire, with the maximum possible amount of the four accounts totaling $60,000, and that's before even factoring in her student loan debt.

In 2023, we presented the Reuters article and the financial disclosures to Ocasio-Cortez's press office, asking if they had any further comment or resources. At the time, they replied, "Nothing to add."

For further reading, we previously reported on a similar false rumor claiming Ocasio-Cortez owned one of the world's most expensive houses.

Sources:

Clarke, Kaiyah. "Fact Check: AOC Does NOT Have A $29 Million Net Worth | Lead Stories." Lead Stories , 8 Nov. 2022, https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2022/11/fact-check-aoc-does-not-have-a-29-million-dollar-net-worth.html .

"Fact Check: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Does NOT Have a Net Worth of $29 Million." OcasioCortez.com , https://www.ocasiocortez.com/fact-checks/fact-check-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-does-not-have-a-net-worth-of-29-million .

"Fact Check-Financial Disclosures Do Not Show Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Is a Millionaire." Reuters , March 11, 2021, https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-aoc-millionaire-idUSL1N2L91VJ .

"Fact Check-No Evidence Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Has a Net Worth of $29 Million." Reuters , Aug. 9, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-aoc-net-worth-idUSL1N2ZL1O2 .

"Financial Disclosure Reports." Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives , https://disclosures-clerk.house.gov/FinancialDisclosure .

Putterman, Samantha. "No, Netflix Did Not Pay Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez $10 Million for Documentary." PolitiFact , Feb. 15, 2019, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/feb/15/facebook-posts/no-netflix-did-not-pay-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-10/ .