What happened between Riley Gaines and AOC? Online feud explained as activist calls motherhood "the most important & rewarding job in the world"

As an online feud between Riley Gaines and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez escalates, the former collegiate swimmer slammed AOC for asking her to get a real job by writing:

"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."

The heated exchange between Gaines AOC kicked off on Monday (October 27), with the former sharing a photo of AOC with Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders. The trio was at the New York Is Not For Sale rally, which was captioned by Riley as:

"We're being destroyed from within."

Cortez was quick to respond to Riley's tweet, bringing up her 2022 NCAA Championship, where Gaines shared the pool with Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer who beat her by bagging the first title in the race. 

Hinting that that tweet was coming from a place of anger, AOC suggested that if the former swimmer had channeled it into swimming in the race, she wouldn't have come fifth in it.

Riley Gaines' swift response came soon afterwards, where the mother-of-one wrote:

"It's *always* "we support women's rights!" until it's a woman who wants the right to compete & undress free from less than mediocre men Keep your mentally ill men out of our sports, locker rooms, prisons, etc."

In a subsequent tweet, Gaines also called AOC a "misogynistic dunce," writing:

"It’s always hilarious when they think they’ve landed a “gotcha” by pointing out I was the 5th-fastest woman *in the nation* yet they conveniently forget the mediocre man who ranked 462nd in the men’s division lol"

Gaines: I want to challenge AOC to a debate. pic.twitter.com/oh9mEkiZ8Q

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 27, 2025

Before AOC asked Riley to "get a real job," the activist was inviting her for a debate during her appearance on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle. In a video clip retweeted by AOC, Gaines said:

"I want to honestly challenge AOC to a debate. 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."

For the unversed, Riley Gaines, who is a conservative political activist, married swimmer Louis Barker in 2022. The couple welcomed their daughter earlier this month. 

Riley Gaines was appointed to Tennessee's Sumner County Library Board earlier this month

Riley Gaines' heated online exchange comes a week after she was appointed as a new board member for Tennessee's Sumner County Library Board. 

Gaines, who has been a vocal advocate against transgender participation in women's sports, was appointed after the Library passed a new policy banning all books that contain transgender topics. Speaking about her appointment, Commissioner Tim Jones said:

"The Library Board will return to a conservative board! he question at stake was the fate of our county libraries. Removing transgender ideological books was not technically on the agenda but reducing the board from nine to seven was."

Meanwhile, as she joined the board, Gaines issued a statement about stepping up and becoming the change that she wanted to see in the community around her.