Former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines publicly challenged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to a debate after the two exchanged barbs on social media on Monday.
Gaines appeared on Fox News Channel’s The Ingraham Angle and said she wanted to face Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, on several key issues.
“So, here is what I will say. I want to honestly challenge AOC to a debate,” Gaines said, according to Fox News. “She can defend socialism. I will defend capitalism. She can defend removing God. I defend embracing a biblical worldview. She can defend child sacrifice. I will defend the sanctity of life. Any of the radical, insane Democratic policies that they stand for, I will debate the opposite, and I am challenging AOC to it here.”
Ocasio-Cortez did not respond directly to the debate invitation but continued the exchange online. “And I would like to challenge this person to get a real job,” she posted on X.
Gaines replied, “This is comical given it’s coming from someone whose own party shut down the government and left you technically… jobless. And I guess I’ll take that as a no (which is to be expected when your positions are indefensible on virtually every issue).”
She added, “I have a real job. I’m a mom. It’s the most important & rewarding job in the world. I think if you had a baby girl like I do, you’d understand my positions a little better.”
In another post, Gaines shared a photo of Ocasio-Cortez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, writing, “We’re being destroyed from within.”
Maybe if you channeled all this anger into swimming faster you wouldn’t have come in fifth. https://t.co/gkiEyZ8JGX
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 27, 2025
Gaines countered by defending her record. “For clarity, yes, I finished fifth in the nation at the Division I national championships, tying with a 6-foot-4 man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division in the year prior,” she said. “They cannot help themselves but be on the wrong side of every 80/20 issue, whether it’s border, whether it’s crime, whether it’s castrating children, whether it’s parental rights, whether it’s men in women’s sports.”