Tim Walz did not promise AOC House speakership if Democrats win election

Is U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., poised to become the next speaker of the U.S. House, leapfrogging over her fellow New Yorker and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, if Democrats win back the chamber in November’s election?

That’s what some social media users are saying, based on a short clip of a conversation on the streaming platform Twitch between Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

"Walz says that if Democrats win they’ll make AOC speaker of the House," said sticker text on an Oct. 27 Instagram post, using Ocasio-Cortez’s nickname. The post shared a short video clip of Walz speaking with Ocasio-Cortez, in which he said, "We’re going to win this election. We’re gonna make you, put a gavel in your hand in the House."

The post’s caption said, "Should AOC Be The Next Speaker Of The House?"

We found other social media posts sharing the same video or making the same claim. An article on Fox News’ website also said Walz told Ocasio-Cortez "he would make her the Speaker of the House."

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

Walz did not say Democrats would make Ocasio-Cortez speaker of the House, the full video of their conversation shows. The short clip shared on Instagram takes Walz’s words out of context. 

Walz and Ocasio-Cortez spoke while playing video games Oct. 27 on the streaming platform Twitch. 

Ocasio-Cortez said she is serving on a House artificial intelligence task force. Walz said he was glad and talked about the importance of engaging on the topic, then referenced the election.

Here’s what Walz said:

"We're in the middle of a pretty busy nine days here. As you know, we're going to win this election. We're going to make you … put a gavel in your hand in the House, maybe for that committee, so we can get something done…"

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Walz noted that the Congress had yet to pass a farm bill and a budget, and noted the importance of who controls the House.

"And I think for your listeners to understand, when you're in the House of Representatives, whoever has the gavel, that's pretty much everything, makes a decision," Walz said. "So, if you want folks who are actually … have a to-do list and want to get it done, stay engaged.

In the House, the head of every committee or subcommittee controls the gavel in their hearings, not just the House speaker. There are 20 standing House committees, plus select committees, commissions, panels and task forces, and 104 subcommittees, but those numbers change with each new Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez mocked Fox News on X after it shared an X post making the claim.

"He said we’d get gavels. There are over 100 gavels in the House," she wrote.

Walz did not say Democrats would make Ocasio-Cortez the next House speaker if Democrats win. He was speaking generally about giving her control of a committee’s or a subcommittee’s gavel, or perhaps on the task force she had referred to during their conversation. We rate the claim False.