For example, Sen. John McCain would have his net worth percentage divided by eight (2004-2012), since those are the years for which data is available for his net worth. The first-term senator from North Carolina was an executive at PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM. By clicking Sign up, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider Here are the richest members. Using his fortune from his family business, Manhattan Construction Group, Rooney donated enough to the GOP to earn an ambassadorship during the George W. Bush administration. Republican Michael McCaul is one of only a handful of legislators on Capitol Hill with an estimated net worth of over $100 million. (January 2021) This list of members of the United States Congress by wealth includes the fifty richest members of Congress as of 2018. Beyer made his fortune running several car dealerships around Washington D.C. Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. Members of Congress are way wealthier than average Americans. Property (such as personal residences) and non-income producing investments are not required to be reported under ethics laws. This is the first part of the Personal Gain Index. Sen. Michael Bennet first became senator in 2009 to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Kenneth Salazar. Norman was elected to Congress in a special election in 2017 after President Donald Trump appointed his predecessor, Mick Mulvaney, to be the director of the Office of Management and Budget. She has amassed her wealth through the business activities of her husband, Paul Pelosi. U.S. House of Representatives, accessed March 9. In a post shared more than 14,000 times, a Facebook user claims that Ocasio-Cortez was broke when she was first elected to Congress in 2018 but now has anet worth of more than $1 million. For a complete list of members and their net worth changes, please click "show" below. Before serving in Congress, Mullin dropped out of college to manage the family's plumbing company, building it into a regional business. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has supported raising the minimum wage, forgiving student loan debt and increasing taxes for the wealthy. Eight-term Rep. Jeff Fortenberry represents Nebraska's 1st District, which is in the eastern part of the state. The former for-profit college executive's average net worth skyrocketed from $101 million to nearly $180 million. peak net worth: $594.2 million In office: 1789-1797 George Washington was America's first president and also its wealthiest for more than a century. Republican James Inhofe began his congressional career in the House of Representatives in 1987, serving Oklahoma's 1st District. The disclosures required on the PFD include: An "American Citizen" figure was calculated in order to allow us to compare the change in household net worth of a member of Congress to the changes in net worth over the same period experienced by the average citizen. Upton also reported having at least $1 million in Pepsi stock. Her family also owns farm equipment company Heartland Tractor. No one is qualifying for food stamps, but some lawmakers carry significant personal and/or business debt. Carter started a pharmacy chain Carter's Pharmacy, Inc. in the Savannah area he now represents. Upton's fortune mainly derives from an appliance company that his grandfather founded, Whirlpool, which the congressman reported holding at least $1 million of stock in. Kennedy's fortune comes from old family money specifically that of his great-grandfather, who was a businessman, and his great-great-grandfather, who was a co-founder of Standard Oil. (Note that elected officials and senior staff may only earn outside income up to $26,100 a year. The senator is the cofounder of two healthcare companies: Columbia Hospital Corporation (now HCA Healthcare) and Solantic. Rose also owned at least $500,000 worth of stock in Citizens Bank and more than $100,000 worth of Alphabet stock, and he reported 100% ownership of Rose Farm, worth between $5 million and $25 million. First elected to the Wisconsin State Senate in 1978, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is currently the second longest serving member of the House of Representatives. Each year, every member of Congress is required to file a detailed report disclosing their financial holdings. She is also a co-author of the book "This Is Not the Life I Ordered: 50 Ways to Keep Your Head Above Water When Life Keeps Dragging You Down.". Congressional net worth figures are a relatively small data set,[38] so Ballotpedia used average percentage changes throughout the study (adjusted as needed for outliers)[39] to best illustrate the average growth of wealth of members of Congress. [40] The median figure can be beneficial in circumstances, like this one, where the high net worth of the wealthiest Americans can skew the average. Let us know via politics@newsweek.com. During the 2020 election cycle, Ocasio-Cortezs reelection campaign spent $17.3 million after raking in $21.2 million. Her investments in the stock market have also earned her substantial capital gains. Prior to his election as representative for the 11th District outside of Chicago, Rep. Bill Foster was a physicist who made his wealth by starting, with his brother Fred, Electronic Theatre Controls, which provides lighting for entertainment locations. Senators and Representatives (Personal Gain Index), All data relating to the average net worth of individual members of congress from. One . Donald Beyer serves Virginia's 8th District, located west and south of Washington D.C. along the Potomac River. The Personal Gain Index is a two-part study that examines the extent to which members of the U.S. Congress have individually prospered during their tenure as public servants. Inside Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Unlikely Rise, 2018 financial disclosure for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, AOC makes student loan payment during congressional hearing on student loans, 2019 financial disclosure for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 2020 election campaign finance report, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 2018 election campaign finance report, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez Launches Political Group To Boost Progressive Candidates, Courage to Change political action committee campaign finance report, AOC raises nearly $5 million in Texas relief efforts. Currently, the top industrial contributors to Williams's campaign are oil and gas and automotive. He is the great grandson of one of the key figures in the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, in which he once owned more than $2 million worth of stock. A medical doctor and military veteran, Rep. Ralph Abraham is serving in his third term as a congressman from Louisiana. Rep. Kenny Marchant of Texas is serving his eighth term in the House of Representatives. Disclaimer: All data relating to the average net worth of individual members of congress from OpenSecrets.org/ 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the estimated net worth of U.S. congressional representatives from Roll Call, a Capitol Hill news outlet, to identify the 76 richest members of Congress. :We're fact checking the news and sending it to your inbox. CNN . Obernolte, who joined Congress in 2019, also reported several investments worth millions in Vanguard tax-managed mutual funds. Sen. John Hoeven built his wealth by working in banking in North Dakota. Estimated wealth is at least $100 million in 2012 dollars, for all the people listed here. Much of his money is held in bonds and mutual funds, though he has real estate holdings worth about $1.4 million. 51. Mitchell won't seek reelection this November. Prior to his election to Congress, Shelby was an attorney. Marjorie Taylor Greene has an estimated net worth of around $700,000. Pence left Congress in 2012 to become the governor of Indiana. DelBene and her husband reported at least $1.1 million worth of shares in her former company. External Relations: Moira Delaney Hannah Nelson Caroline Presnell Biggest wealth increase in Congress, 2008-2018 Export to CSV Not all politicians come into office wealthy - but many leave that way. Feinstein herself reported over $1 million in a deposit account, while a considerable portion of her wealth at least $25 million was held in a blind trust. Before venturing into politics, the 3-term senator and former Virginia governor ran a venture-capital firm, Columbia Capital, and a telecom company, Capital Cellular Corporation. Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia. Members of Congress are required to disclose the value of their assets only in broad ranges, such as $15,000 to $50,000. In a Trumpian move, he rented out a cottage on his Wilmington property for $26,400 a year, reportedly leasing it to the U.S. Secret Service in charge of protecting him. This was set by the "Ethics in Government Act of 1978." Ro Khanna has served California's 17th District, which covers much of Silicon Valley, since 2017. In addition to serving his constituency, Cooper teaches part time at Vanderbilt. In a post shared more than 14,000 times, a Facebook user claims that Ocasio-Cortez "was broke" when she was first elected to Congress in 2018 but now has a net worth of more than $1 million.. Rep. Chellie Pingree is in her sixth term as congresswoman who represents Maine's 1st District, which is the southeastern section of the state. Though he is a Tennessee native, Trey Hollingsworth has served in Indiana's 9th District since taking office in 2017. This report compared average and median data, and in both cases the growth of congressional net worth significantly outpaced that of the American citizen. Gov. Filers must disclose the purchase, sale or exchange of any assets that amount to more than $1,000 in the calendar year in question. Insider removed him from the list when Mrvan acknowledged filing an incorrect personal financial disclosure that erroneously inflated the value of a retirement account by tens of millions of dollars. Help us provide information on American politics. Curtis was the former mayor of Provo, Utah, and a small business owner. The Washington Free Beacon also estimated then that Pelosi's net worth had risen by $140 million since 2008. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. The data goes from 2004 through 2012. Feinstein is married to Richard Blum, founder of Blum Capital, an equity investment firm that has stakes in multiple industries, including health care, media, retail, finance, and transportation. All other content, including data analysis of net worth change, is posted under Ballotpedia's standard content license. Each member of Congress' wealth was calculated by subtracting the sum of their minimum reported liabilities from the sum of their minimum asset values. Warner's wealth is divvied up among mutual funds, private-equity funds, and hedge funds. Allen & Associates, which operates in six states and is headquartered in Augusta, which is within the district Allen represents. Blumenthal's fortune is held almost entirely by his wife, Cynthia Malkin, with millions of dollars reported in various hedge funds, stocks, and real estate and property partnerships. Worth an estimated $70 million, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut is wealthier than all but a handful of other lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Ocasio-Cortez said she made a payment that had reduced her student loan debt to $19,000. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Sen. Johnny Isakson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, and to the U.S. Senate in 2004. Before joining Congress, DelBene was an executive at Microsoft. Click here to contact our editorial staff, and click here to report an error. That also makes it difficult to pin down exactly how much Pelosi's net worth has grown since she first became speaker in 2007, but she has been reported to be one of the wealthier members of Congress. Allen's net worth of $11.7 million is largely self-made. This figure represents the total percentage growth from either 2004 (if the member entered office in 2004 or earlier) or his or her first year in office (as noted in the chart below). Mortgages reported on properties that were not listed as assets were excluded from the wealth calculations, but are displayed on our profiles of the corresponding officials. He made much of his wealth as a corporate executive, first at Chrysler in 1985 and then as CEO of Ross Education, a health industry training firm. This was an inflation-adjusted annual percentage change of 3.7 percent from 2004 to 2012. The tables and graphs on this page show some of the highlights of the study. The bulk of Romney's wealth derives from his success at Bain Capital, a private-equity investment firm where he rose to CEO. Insider's analysis does not include four members of Congress whose disclosures were uniquely complicated and lengthy, comprising hundreds of pages of handwritten or scanned documents: Reps. Ro Khanna of California, Vicente Gonzalez of Texas, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Harold Rogers of Kentucky. Now, in recent social media posts, Facebook users are raising questions about the New. With a total estimated net worth just shy of $11 million, Lowey is one of only a handful of women to rank among the 25 richest legislators. How much are your senators and representatives worth? All of Beyer's assets were jointly owned, in a combination of stocks, government securities, and real property. McCaul did not list any liabilities or debts in his financial disclosure. The trust contains government securities, mutual funds, and more than $6 million in stock of Qualcomm, a semiconductor company co-founded by her grandfather, Irwin M. Jacobs. For a direct comparison to each individual member's figures (as shown on his or her Ballotpedia profile), the yearly median change will correspond with each member's average yearly change. During a September 2019 hearing on student loan debt, Ocasio-Cortez said she made a payment that had reduced her student loan debt to $19,000. Rep. Collin Peterson. No ban has yet been put in place. 5. Net worth figures are rounded estimates derived from financial disclosure forms filed in 2018 and are not necessarily comprehensive or exact. In the private sector, Bennet was managing director at Anschutz Investment Co. Bennet is currently campaigning to be the Democratic nominee for President. When possible OpenSecrets tried to determine a more accurate figure. Rep. Denny Heck is in his fourth term serving the 10th District of Washington state, which includes the state capital of Olympia. He also had businesses in energy and real estate and had an early stake in the wireless service company Nextel, which was eventually bought by Sprint. Republican Earl Carter has represented Georgia's 1st District since taking office in 2015. However, all mortgages are required to be disclosed. It's not possible to know the precise net worth of members of Congress as they are only required to provide a range of values in their financial disclosures and not specific dollar amounts. In August 2019, Isakson announced he would resign from his senate seat at the end of the year due to health problems. It is no wonder, then, that when the average citizen has the means to take a peek at each members ability to handle his or her personal finance, intrigue abounds. Member of Congress: Liz Cheney Chamber: House Party: Republican Estimated net worth: $14,710,513 More From GOBankingRates. When she scored a surprise victory during the 2018 Democratic primary, Ocasio-Cortez spent about $1.8 million of the $2.2 million she raised. Apply for the Ballotpedia Fellows Program, Net worth of United States Senators and Representatives, Staff salaries of United States Senators and Representatives, Ballotpedia's profiles of the 535 congressional incumbents, Personal Gain Index: Household net worth (American citizen), http://www.census.gov/people/wealth/data/dtables.html, List of current members of the U.S. Congress, Information on financial disclosure forms from the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Older congressional financial disclosure forms available on, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License, http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/methodology.php, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, Net Worth of United States Senators and Representatives, Filing requirements for congressional candidates, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Cooperative of American Physicians IE Committee, Changes in Net Worth of U.S. Inhofe also worked as an independent businessman for three decades and was the president of Quaker Life Insurance Company. Percentage increase is not meaningful for this candidate as the initial average net worth is less than or equal to zero. However, our bipartisan reform coalition was then subjected to repeated delay tactics, hand-waving gestures, and blatant instances of Lucy pulling the football," Spanberger said in a statement. Much of his wealth is from investments he made with his earnings from years as a corporate tax attorney. 5 Kelly Loeffler, who served between 2020-2021 as a Republican. Any liability or loan where the filer, his or her spouse or his or her dependent children owed more than $10,000 at any time during the calendar year. In a statement, Mrvan said: "I am responsible for the actions of my office, and I take sole responsibility for the honest data entry error on my financial disclosure form. This is the first part of the Personal Gain Index. Lisa Blunt Rochester has represented the state of Delaware since going to Capitol Hill in 2017. Jackie Speier is in her sixth full term in Congress and now represents California's 14th District, which includes San Mateo County. However, she has other sources of income. Congressional disclosure forms don't provide a precise number, but the midpoint. Pelosi's net worth in 2021 was estimated to be as much as $171.4 million in an October report by The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news outlet that arrived at that figure "by taking into account the ranges of all the individual assets and liabilities" in Pelosi's financial disclosure statement. Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks at a National Review Institute event on March 29, 2019, in Washington, D.C. Data is not available for a limited number of congressional members. Or her she could be worth up to $12,000. The period studied is 2004-2012, or from the year the incumbent took office, if it was after 2004. Sign up to get that here. The ten current senators and representatives listed below experienced the highest overall net worth gains (by percentage) from 2004-2012. Neal Dunn represents the 2nd District in Florida, which covers most of that state's panhandle. Others, meanwhile, have married into or inherited vast fortunes. Pelosi, the speaker of the House, reported personal wealth spread out among property holdings, mutual funds, and stocks owned by her husband. Note: Report numbers may reflect incoming and outgoing members of congress. McKinley founded the architectural and engineering company McKinley & Associates. 72. If we use the average net worth category for the House and . How much are your senators and representatives worth? As stated above, this is the total change in the amount of assets the. Congressional millionaires had an average yearly percentage increase of 23.9 percent. Members of Congress earn a salary of $174,000. As illustrated in the "Top 100" chart above, the average yearly percentage gain was found by dividing each member's total net worth growth percentage by the number of years included in the calculation. Repiblican Roger Williams represents the 25th District in Texas a strip of land that extends from Fort Worth down to Austin. A median is the middle value of a list. Hern joined the House of Representatives in 2018. [37], The ten current senators and representatives listed here experienced the greatest declines in net worth (by percentage) from 2004-2012.[37]. An average value is calculated by adding all the observations and dividing by the number of observations. Brooks also worked as a criminal defense attorney for Indianapolis-based law firm of McClure, McClure and Kammen. Paul also has invested in Apple, Disney, Comcast, and Facebook. By then, she reported that the same three accounts held between $2,003 and $31,000 and that her student loan debt remained the same at between $15,001 and $50,000. Below are average net worth numbers for first year freshman members for each recent session of Congress. He got his start in banking as a bookkeeper at First Western Bank & Trust in Minot, which was bought by his father. The public employee retirement fund amount should have been in the thousands and not millions. This included members of Congress. The company, now called iHeartMedia, is a $6.3 billion company. Manning also reported an ownership interest in Stonefield Cellars Winery in North Carolina. When she took office in 2019, Ocasio-Cortez reported in her first financial disclosure that she had a checking account, a brokerage account and a 401(k)plan through the National Hispanic Institute that were worth between $3,003 and $45,000. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been paid $174,000 per year as a member of Congress since joining the House of Representatives in January 2019. These estimates assume no change in net worth between 2011 and 2012. Please email us if you would like to suggest a revision. Notable stocks held by Hern and his family included more than $250,000 worth of Amazon, at least $100,000 worth of Alphabet, and more than $530,000 worth of Microsoft. Travel and travel-related reimbursements from a single source, valued at more than $305 in aggregate for the year and connected to official business and the source, dates, and purpose of the travel and itinerary. Bennet would be elected one year later. When the members who lost money during this time period are removed from the calculation,[35] the growth in wealth among the "wealth gainers" stands out. From their 2009 required candidacy filing to 2012. The second-term congressman representing South Carolina's 5th District in the northern part of the state keeps most of his wealth in real estate holdings. Beyer reported at least $8.6 million in liabilities, almost all of which were mortgages on various properties he owned. Many of the wealthiest legislators first had successful and lucrative careers in the private sector. Manning's fortune is split among government securities, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, real property, and stocks. In September, Democratic Representative Abigail Spanberger slammed Pelosi for her apparent inaction on legislation that would require lawmakers' investment assets to be placed in a blind trust. Sen. Thom Tillis spent his 22-year private-sector career in technology and management consulting before he entered Congress in 2015. When this is the case, it is expressed with a negative percent. Much of Upton's wealth is old family money, as his paternal grandfather patented an early iteration of the modern electric washing machine and founded a company that is now home appliance giant Whirlpool. Norman and his wife also hold more than $100,000 in stock in Exxon Mobil. This percentage reflects the median annual percentage growth of all members of Congress. Hoeven eventually became president of Westbrand Inc. Bank Holding Co. and retains at least $5 million in company stock. DelBene's office denied that the congresswoman violated the law, citing an email from the Committee on House Ethics. D.C.-based nonprofit OpenSecrets.org estimated Pelosi's net worth at $115. "It's yet another example of why I believe that the Democratic Party needs new leaders in the halls of Capitol Hill," she said. He has been a senator since 1994. "The embarrassment is just going to keep growing over this," Laura Harth, the campaign director at Safeguard Defenders, told Newsweek. Phillips, who joined Congress in 2019, reported at least $2 million in liabilities in the form of mortgages. For the first time in history, the majority of America's elected officials in Washington, D.C. are millionaires. Before his election to Congress, Hill was a commercial banker and investment manager. Maloney is the widow of Clifton Maloney, who founded and ran the successful investment firm C.H.W. Prior to his election, Fortenberry worked as a publishing industry executive in Lincoln. This study includes figures for the 113th Congress' freshman members because despite their terms beginning in 2012 they were required to filed the PFD during their candidacy in 2011. Three newer members of Congress Reps. Filers for the 2020 fiscal year were allotted an extra three months to submit their disclosures because of the pandemic. Apply for the Ballotpedia Fellows Program. 618 members are included in the congressional data, compared to the millions sampled in the census data. Dingell worked at General Motors for more than 30 years where she was president of the GM Foundation as well as a senior executive responsible for public affairs. Pingree sold the business in 1993 and now co-owns a bed & breakfast and restaurant in North Haven. In the private sector, she practiced law at the Indianapolis firm of Ice Miller. His largest investment is an interest in Lebanon House Inc., which owns the Golden Lamb Inn, the oldest continuously operating company in Ohio. Rose submitted information for one liability: a monthly balance on his credit card amounting to at least $15,001. Trone's wealth is divvied up among mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, and ownership of several shops across the country specializing in wine, beer, and spirits: Total Wine & More. Senators and Representatives (Personal Gain Index). The salary of a typical member of Congress is $174,000. But this year Trump's net worth dropped to $2.5 billion. OpenSecrets combines all assets and liability to form a total potential range of values, and then provides an average value as the best guess of each individual's net worth.[5]. For someone like Sen. Ted Cruz, however, his total net worth increase would be the same as his average yearly net worth increase, since the only available data is the increase between 2011 and 2012. From 2011 to 2012, the average net worth change of a freshman member of the 113th Congress in one year was: The following 15 freshman senators and representatives of the 113th Congress saw their net worth increase the most out of their incoming class of new members: From 2009 to 2012, the average net worth change of a freshman member of the 112th Congress in three years[55] was: The following 15 freshman representatives of the 112th Congress (no senators made the top 15 list) saw their net worth increase the most out of their incoming class of new members: The amount of assets held by individual members increased by a total of $316.5 million between 2004 (or later, depending on when the member joined Congress) and 2012.[56]. subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Rep. Brad Schneider served Illinois' 10th District from 2013 through 2015 and began serving once again in 2017. After representing Oregon's 3rd District for 15 years, Ron Wyden has represented Oregon as a senator since 1996. He is serving his fifth term as congressman. lived paycheck to paycheck, according to Time. They occasionally also report the combined value of the account, in which case the combined value is omitted from calculations. Much of Issa's fortune comes from a car-alarm system called Steal Stopper and his time as the CEO of Directed Electronics. The average yearly percentage increase for those members who increased their net worth was 43.6 percent. ", The citizen net worth data was calculated from figures from the United States Census Bureau. 24/7 Wall Street is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. He. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in her second term as senator from Massachusetts, is seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for president. Both the average and median for congressional and American citizen net worth growth are provided below. [1][2] At the same time, 50 percent of Americans cannot afford to spend $5,000 in an emergency. Her income is estimated to be around $174,000 annually. For the purpose of our comparison to the median American citizen data below, the median congressional increase was 1.55 percent per year. The main source of Kelly's wealth comes from the eponymous Mike Kelly Chevrolet Cadillac dealership, which he bought from his father and eventually expanded to include a Kia and Hyundai dealership. It displays the net worth (the difference between assets and liabilities) for the member and their immediate family, such as a spouse or dependent children. The Center for Responsive Politics, the organization that runs OpenSecrets.org, calculated each net worth by adding all disclosed assets (corporate bonds, stocks, etc.) A limitation to the data set is that the whole picture of wealth growth while in Congress is unavailable for those members who entered office prior to 2004. The typical congressional representative including both senators and House members has an estimated net worth of over $500,000, or roughly five times the median U.S. household net worth. The Courage to Change political action committee the congresswoman launched last year to back progressive candidates challenging incumbent Democratsspent about $335,000 out of the $842,000 it raised, according to the FEC. Khanna's wife, Ritu Khanna, also has millions of dollars thanks largely to her father's work as an executive at investment firm Mura Holdings.