Researchers used data provided by OpenSecrets.org to calculate the change in net worth of each congressional incumbent from either 2004 or the year he or she was first elected, if that year was after 2004.[6]. However, she has other sources of income. Republican Rick Allen has represented Georgia's 12th District since taking office in 2015. subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. In 1997 Gianforte founded RightNow Technologies, a cloud-based customer service program, which was bought for over $1 billion by Oracle Corp in 2012. Congress saw a total increase of $316.5 million in assets held by all members in the study. He also edits and owns Kentucky Golfer. Norman also reported four liabilities worth a total of at least $2 million, each in connection to his property investments. You cansubscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Approximately half of McConnell's estimated wealth comes from a $5 million gift from his father-in-law in 2008. Members of Congress earn a salary of $174,000. Matsui's husband, Roger Sant, is the founder of the AES Corporation, a Fortune 500 holding company specializing in electricity generation and distribution. Carter started a pharmacy chain Carter's Pharmacy, Inc. in the Savannah area he now represents. This is the first part of the Personal Gain Index. D.C.-based nonprofit OpenSecrets.org estimated Pelosi's net worth at $115 million in 2020, a rise of $41 million since 2004 - the first year OpenSecrets began tracking members' personal finances. In 1982, after serving for five years as a U.S. Attorney for Connecticut, Blumenthal married Cynthia Malkin, daughter of Manhattan real estate mogul Peter Malkin. Buchanan earned much of his fortune through car dealerships and through his involvement in charter jet and yacht leasing. McCaul did not list any liabilities or debts in his financial disclosure. Insider's calculations are conservative estimates based on the minimum values disclosed by members. That left her with about $4.3 million in her campaign coffers, according to the FEC. Coming from a long line of Tennessee politicians, Jim Cooper served Tennessee's 4th District from 1983 through 1995 and District 5 since 2003. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Source: Alex Wong / Getty Images News via Getty Images Alabama: Sen. Richard C Shelby (R) > Est. Currently, the top industrial contributors to Williams's campaign are oil and gas and automotive. Williams recently violated the STOCK Act by failing to properly file three stock transactions by his wife. List of richest American politicians - Wikipedia Perdue was also chief executive officer of Dollar General and set up its sale to investors. Rep. Ann Wagner held management posts at Hallmark Cards and Ralston Purina before she was elected to the first of her four terms as a congresswoman from Missouri. To ensure consistency among data sets, home equity was withheld in a similar fashion to primary residences not being counted as assets for congressional data. Here are the richest members. PolitiFact | No, Nancy Pelosi's net worth is not $196 million The Washington Free Beacon also estimated then that Pelosi's net worth had risen by $140 million since 2008. Today, though all congressional representatives earn salaries, not much else has changed. That $600 million decline led Trump to drop from the 275th richest person in America in 2019 to the 352nd richest in 2020 - a drop of . For the purpose of our comparison to the median American citizen data below, the median congressional increase was 1.55 percent per year. He joined Congress in 2021. Apply for the Ballotpedia Fellows Program. Congressional financial disclosure forms use value ranges, rather than precise amounts, when reporting assets and liabilities. Earning an annual salary of roughly $174,000 certainly contributes toward their wealth, but many of these lawmakers were rich to being with. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will leave her role in the Democratic leadership when the new Congress meets on January 3and she will depart considerably wealthier than when she began. 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.. When possible OpenSecrets tried to determine a more accurate figure. spent about $1.8 million of the $2.2 million she raised. Some incumbents experienced a net loss in net worth. In the earliest days of American independence, members of the federal government were not paid a salary as most of them were wealthy to begin with. Members disclose the value of their assets in broad ranges. Phillips held more than $250,000 worth of Apple stock, at least $50,000 worth of Facebook stock, and over $1 million in the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF. Obernolte did not report any liabilities or debts. Member of Congress: Liz Cheney Chamber: House Party: Republican Estimated net worth: $14,710,513 More From GOBankingRates. He. The Center for Responsive Politics is posted under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. During the 2020 election cycle, Ocasio-Cortezs reelection campaign spent $17.3 million after raking in $21.2 million. The latest batch of numbers shows that the 113th Congress had a median net worth of $1,008,767. In August 2019, Isakson announced he would resign from his senate seat at the end of the year due to health problems. No, Nancy Pelosi's net worth is not $196 million If Your Time is short The $196 million figure is likely too high. Democrat Rosa DeLauro has represented Connecticut's 3rd District which covers the central part of the state along the coast since 1991. The high net worth of American lawmakers is partially attributable to their annual salaries of $174,000, which is more than triple the average wage across all American workers of $51,960 and higher than the median earnings of even the highest paying jobs in America. First-term Sen. David Perdue of Georgia earned his wealth as a financial turnaround specialist for struggling companies. The average change in net worth for the members in this study was 72.6 percent. Sign up to get that here. Between 2004-2012, the median American household[41] saw an inflation-adjusted decrease of assets from $18,990 in 2004[42] to $17,557 in 2012. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. These five members' negative estimated wealth stemmed from high-priced mortgages: Editor's note: Rep. Frank Mrvan, a Democrat from Indiana, originally appeared among the 25 wealthiest members of Congress. Fact check:Viral posts make false claims about Friday the 13th, the next full moon. Every year members of congress are required by law to disclose certain financial information regarding personal assets and liabilities. While financial disclosures show that Ocasio-Cortezs personal wealth has not skyrocketed during her time in Congress, her political fundraising has taken off alongside her national profile, according to Federal Elections Commission filings. iHeartMedia is a leading contributor to McCaul's reelection campaign. A newcomer to Congress in 2021, nearly all of Jacobs' wealth is stored in a trust that was created in 2009. Members of Congress come from a wide range of backgrounds from local politics to business and entrepreneurship to professional sports and their fortunes vary greatly. Buchanan listed several liabilities in his financial filings worth at least $14 million, including loans for a plane and a yacht connected with the LLC. Comenity Direct Savings and CDs: Safe Places To Make the Most of . know the precise net worth of members of Congress, SCOTUS Now Just Another Congressional Committee, Secret Chinese Police Stations in Europe Are 'Tip of the Iceberg', Trump's Attorney Just Blew Carroll Rape Case, King Charles Says Royals Require 'Acting Ability', Ukraine Will Regain 'Significant Territory' From Russia, Florida GOP Paves the Way to Help Ron DeSantis Challenge Trump. Before he was a senator, Risch used his income from his private attorney practice to buy large swaths of farming and ranching land in the southwestern part of the state. 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. And much of Romney's fortune is in Goldman Sachs mutual funds. DeLauro is married to political strategist and best selling author Stanley Greenberg. Based on the $19,000 in student loan debt Ocasio-Cortez said she had in September 2019, she could be in the hole to the tune of nearly $17,000. Now married to another Microsoft executive, she is worth an estimated $28.4 million. Take Our Poll: What Do You Plan To Use Your Tax Refund For? See the sources for this fact-check. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. Issa did not report owning any individual stocks his wealth is largely held in diversified stock funds and his ownership of properties in California and Ohio. Roll Call published its Wealth of Congress report, which ranks the net worth of the 115th Congress.. [3], The median American citizen[4] saw his or her household net worth decrease from 2004 to 2012 by an annual rate of -0.94 percent, while members of Congress experienced a median annual increase of 1.55 percent. OpenSecrets notes some important limitations to the data:[5]. This Ballotpedia article is in need of updates. Blumenauer has a law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School, and before becoming a legislator, he worked as the assistant to the president of Portland State University for seven years. Conditions for re-employment, severance payments, buyout agreements, profit-sharing plans. He also was the founding chairman of Summit Bank, based in Panama City. 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. He reported one liability in his financial filings: a business loan worth at least $5 million from PNC Bank. Fred Upton has been in Congress since 1987 and has served Michigan's 6th District located in the southwest corner of the state since 1993. In keeping with the method of calculating congressional net worth, home equity was withheld from the figure. (Note that elected officials and senior staff may only earn outside income up to $26,100 a year. Kennedy has served Massachusetts' 4th District since 2013. Fact or fiction? The STOCK Act requires that the terms of all mortgages, including those on non-income producing personal residences, be disclosed. Prior to his election, Fortenberry worked as a publishing industry executive in Lincoln. Warner made much of his wealth as a venture capitalist. During his initial campaign and subsequent re-election campaigns, Johnson has touted his entrepreneurial credentials, highlighting the fact that he is the only manufacturer in the Senate. The 2004 figure was adjusted for inflation to 2012 dollars. 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.