Fake Facebook conspiracy claims AOC pocketed millions in congress while she’s actually one of DC’s poorest lawmakers

AOC recently raised nearly $5 million for Texas relief

File image: Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez still has a student loan debt worth thousands of dollars (Reuters)

A viral conspiracy claim on Facebook states that within three years of being a congresswoman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has gone from nearly broke to being worth over a million dollars even as her most recent financial disclosures suggest otherwise.

The post, which was shared more than 14,000 times, has raised doubts over Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s personal wealth by claiming that the Democrat leader was “broke” when she was elected to the Congress for the first time in 2018 but now her net worth is more than one million dollars (£720,000), reported USA Today.

But that is not the case with the bartender-turned-politician, popularly known as AOC, who now represents New York in the US’s House of Representatives.

According to an analysis of the financial disclosures by the Center for Responsive Politics in 2020, Ms Ocasio-Cortez was among the poorest members of the US Congress – whose majority of the members have a net worth of at least a million dollars.

In fact, AOC, who is now among the most high-profile progressive Democrat leaders, declared financial assets between $2,000 (£1,440) and $31,000 (£22,300) along with a student loan debt between $15,000 (£10,800) and $50,000 (£36,000), according to disclosures made in September 2020.

Several local media report since she came to public life have revealed that AOC used to live paycheque-to-paycheque on some occasions.

But even though AOC’s personal wealth has not skyrocketed, her fundraising capabilities certainly has. In February 2021, during the power outage in Texas, she raised about $5mn (£3.6mn) for relief.

According to the filings with the Federal ElectionsCommission, during the 2020 elections AOC’s reelection campaign spent $17.3mn (£12.4mn) million from the $21.2mn (£15.2mn) they raised. In the 2018 elections, she had raised about $2.2mn (£1.58mn) and, of that, spent about $1.8mn (£1.3mn).

In 2020, she had also launched the “Courage to Change” political action committee for supporting progressive candidates, raised about $842,000 (£606,000) and spent $335,000 (£241,000) from it.