According to a viral post that has reemerged online recently, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has gained significant wealth since being elected to Congress in 2018. “A broke bartender elected to Congress, assumes office in 2019 with a salary of $155,000 is now worth $29 million and the DOJ is prosecuting Donald Trump,” the post reads. Similar claims circulated in 2021 asserting that the congresswoman’s net worth had risen to more than $1 million in the two years following her election to Congress.
The claim is false: Ocasio-Cortez’s financial disclosures show that the congresswoman’s net worth is significantly lower than $29 million.
Members of Congress are required by law to file financial disclosure reports (FDRs) for each year that they are in office and for the year preceding their election. Ocasio-Cortez’s new member filing, submitted in May 2019, reported that the congresswoman held between $3,001 and $45,000 across three personal bank accounts before taking office. The reports also show that she earned approximately $25,463 in income during the prior two years, most of which came from her 2018 congressional campaign.
Despite earning approximately $174,000 in pre-tax income per year as a member of Congress, Ocasio-Cortez’s wealth has not grown substantially during her five-and-a-half years in office. Ocasio-Cortez’s most recent FDR—filed in August 2024—show that, as of December 31, 2023, the congresswoman held between $3,002 and $46,000 in total funds across four bank accounts, as well as between $15,001 and $50,000 in debt from student loans.
Ocasio-Cortez won election to Congress in 2018 after defeating 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary for New York’s 14th Congressional District. She faced Republican Anthony Pappas in the 2018 general election, whom she defeated with more than 78 percent of the vote in the heavily Democratic district. Ocasio-Cortez famously worked as a bartender at a Manhattan taqueria while running for office, a working-class background that she leveraged as a talking point throughout her progressive campaign.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not return a request by The Dispatch Fact Check for additional details related to the congresswoman’s finances.
If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.
Please note that we at The Dispatch hold ourselves, our work, and our commenters to a higher standard than other places on the internet. We welcome comments that foster genuine debate or discussion—including comments critical of us or our work—but responses that include ad hominem attacks on fellow Dispatch members or are intended to stoke fear and anger may be moderated.