Net worth of 2020 presidential candidates

by Dr. Eowyn

Two days ago, before former New York mayor and rabid gun-controlist Michael Bloomberg tossed his hat in the Demonrat ring, Forbes published a list of the net worth of all the 2020 presidential candidates.

Below is the list. The commentary below each name is Forbes‘, as indicated by the quotation marks (“”). I added Bloomberg’s net worth, as well as the ages and current occupations of the members of the list. Needless to say, all except President Trump are Demonrats.

I was surprised by the net worths of some on this list, e.g., Bill de Blasio, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Elizabeth Warren.

24. Pete Buttigieg

Age & occupation: 37, mayor of South Bend, Indiana (D)
Net worth: $100,000
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $32 million

“Mayor Pete has enough money to live comfortably in the Midwest, but he’s still the poorest 2020 contender. Chalk that up to his age (at 37, he’s the youngest candidate), student loan debt and his decision to give up a lucrative McKinsey job to run for treasurer of his home state of Indiana in 2010. He lost but got a six-figure gig as mayor of South Bend two years later. Still, he and his husband, Chasten, a former teacher, disclosed between $100,000 and $230,000 in student loans.”

23. Tim Ryan

Age & occupation: 46, U.S. representative for Ohio’s 13th congressional district (D)
Net worth: $500,000
Financial transparency score: 3/5
Money raised: $900,000

“Elected to the House of Representatives at 29 years old, Ryan has been earning a congressional salary for years. After getting a law degree in 2000, he briefly served in the Ohio state senate, then won his House seat in 2002. In 2013, Ryan married a public school teacher, who is still paying off her student loans, according to his most recent financial disclosure report.”

22. Tulsi Gabbard

Age & occupation: 38, U.S. Representative for Hawaii’s 2nd congressional district (D)
Net worth: $500,000
Financial transparency score: 2/5
Money raised: $6 million

“Gabbard invested in the cryptocurrency craze in 2017, buying between $2,000 and $30,000 worth of Litecoin and Ethereum, according to documents she filed with the government. By the time she turned in her most recent financial disclosure report, in July 2019, she had gotten rid of those investments. It’s not clear if she made money on them. Most of her fortune is tied up in an $865,000 home in Washington, D.C., which has an estimated $560,000 in debt against it.”

21. Julian Castro

Age & occupation: 45, attorney. Former Obama administration Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (2014-2017); former mayor of San Antonio, Texas (2009-2014)
Net worth: $700,000
Financial transparency score: 2/5
Money raised: $4 million

“Barack Obama’s former secretary of housing and urban development has more than $100,000 in cash accounts, plus stock in a handful of mutual funds. After Obama left office, Castro joined the faculty of the University of Texas’ school of public affairs. His $40,000-per-year university pension is worth about $110,000. He also owns a modest, 2,000-square-foot home in San Antonio, where he served as mayor from 2009 to 2014.”

20. Andrew Yang

Age & occupation: 44, attorney & entrepreneur
Net worth: $1 million
Financial transparency score: 2/5
Money raised: $5 million

“The son of Taiwanese immigrants, Yang left a corporate law gig to go into the startup world. In 2000 he cofounded Stargiving.com, a website that gave charitable donors the chance to meet celebrities. After it folded he went to work for small mobile software and healthcare companies, then became CEO of test prep business Manhattan Prep in 2006. Yang helped grow the company to $11 million in revenues before industry giant Kaplan bought it in 2009 for tens of millions.”

19. Seth Moulton

Age & occupation: 41, U.S. Representative for Massachusetts’s 6th congressional district (D).
Net worth: $1 million
Financial transparency score: 2/5
Money raised: $2 million

“Moulton got a physics degree from Harvard, then joined the Marine Corps and served four tours in Iraq. Back Stateside, he used the G.I. Bill to get master’s degrees from Harvard’s public policy and business schools, before running for Congress. His $1 million fortune is largely spread among mutual funds, index funds and a 2,750-square-foot condo in Salem, Massachusetts.”

18. Kirsten Gillibrand

Age & occupation: 52, U.S. senator for New York (D).
Net worth: $1 million
Financial transparency score: 3/5
Money raised: $15 million

“Gillibrand owns a $350,000 home in Troy, New York, with her husband, Jonathan. She’s the breadwinner, earning $174,000 annually for serving in the senate. He made just $185,000 as a consultant and investor between 2007 and 2018, according to tax returns. Their most valuable asset appears to be Gillibrand’s federal pension, worth an estimated $450,000.”

17. Marianne Williamson

Age & occupation: 67, “spiritualist” and author.
Net worth: $1.5 million
Financial transparency score: 3/5
Money raised: $3 million

“Williamson made millions as a self-help guru and author (with books like the 1992 bestseller A Return To Love), but she hasn’t held onto most of the money. What she does have sits in mutual funds, money market accounts and cash accounts, along with a handful of publicly traded stocks like Apple, Home Depot and VF Corp. While Williamson is not likely to win the election, she’ll almost certainly make money off her campaign: In April, she released her latest book, A Politics of Love.”

16. Steve Bullock

Age & occupation: 53, Governor of Montana (D)
Net worth: $1.5 million
Financial transparency score: 3/5
Money raised: $2 million

“The governor of Montana is a small-time landlord. He owns 50% of a historic building in Helena, Montana, where he rents out two commercial spaces and one residential apartment. It’s in a convenient location for Bullock, just a mile down the road from his office at the state capitol. His stake is worth roughly $300,000 after debt. The rest of Bullock’s portfolio is mostly composed of retirement accounts.”

15. Cory Booker

Age & occupation: 50, U.S. senator for New Jersey (D)
Net worth: $1.5 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $12 million

“When the New Jersey senator arrived in Washington in 2013, he owned stock in companies like Netflix, Facebook and Amazon. He sold all of that within a year of taking office, putting the proceeds into checking and savings accounts. Today Booker’s portfolio includes a 2,800-square-foot house in Newark, where he served as mayor from 2006 to 2013, and a New Jersey state pension. His federal tax returns show average annual giving of 11%, higher than any of the other 14 candidates who have released their filings.”

14. Amy Klobuchar

Age & occupation: 59, U.S. senator for Minnesota (D)
Net worth: $2 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $13 million

“A prosecutor turned politician, Klobuchar holds a plain-vanilla portfolio. Her retirement holdings include a federal pension worth an estimated $560,000, the result of 12 years in the U.S. senate.”

13. Jay Inslee

Age & occupation: 68, governor of Washington (D)
Net worth: $2 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $5 million

“Since 1988, Inslee has bounced back and forth between the Washington state government (serving as a legislator and now governor) and the federal government (representing Washington’s 4th district, then its 1st district). That’s made him eligible for an estimated $68,000 per year for life in state and federal pensions, an income stream worth around $750,000 in all. He owns a five-bedroom, $1 million home outside Seattle.”

12. Bernie Sanders

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Age & occupation: 78, U.S. senator for Vermont (Democratic Socialist)
Net worth: $2.5 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $46 million

“Turns out, the socialist senator is a pretty successful capitalist. After running for president in 2016, Sanders inked three lucrative book deals that have brought him more than $2 million so far, catapulting him into the 1%. Since the 2016 election, he has shelled out $575,000 for a northern Vermont summer home and paid off a 30-year mortgage on his Burlington, Vermont, house—25 years early.”

See also:

11. Bill De Blasio

Age & occupation: 58, mayor of New York City (D)
Net worth: $2.5 million
Financial transparency score: 3/5
Money raised: $1 million

“Mayor Bill de Blasio has spent most of his life in public service, but like the Oval Office occupant he hopes to replace, he owes his fortune to timely investments in New York City real estate. In 2000 de Blasio, who held a handful of city and federal jobs before being elected mayor, and his wife bought a 1,200-square-foot row house on a quiet Brooklyn block. Four years later, they picked up a 1,600-square-footer just down the road. Since then, real estate values have skyrocketed. Last year de Blasio collected $108,450 by renting out the two properties while he and his family live in Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence.”

See also:

10. Beto O’Rourke

Age & occupation: 47, U.S. representative for Texas’s 16th congressional district (D) from 2013 to Jan. 3, 2019.
Net worth: $4 million
Financial transparency score: 3/5
Money raised: $14 million

“The former Texas congressman married into a rich family—his wife, Amy, is the daughter of an El Paso real estate tycoon—but only a small chunk of that wealth has trickled down to the couple. Their largest asset is a note held by Amy, worth $2.5 million, according to a campaign spokesperson. O’Rourke holds a minority interest in a $2.5 million El Paso strip mall, which he got from his mother.” He suspended his presidential campaign on November 1, 2019.

9. Joe Sestak

Age & occupation: 67, president of FIRST Global non-profit.
Net worth: $6 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $0

“Sestak graduated second in his class at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1974 and retired as a three-star admiral three decades later. For his service, he gets roughly $120,000 every year for the rest of his life. That pension is worth nearly $1.5 million. Sestak has funneled his salary into a diversified portfolio, which includes more than $15,000 of Apple stock and at least $100,000 in Amazon shares.”

8. Kamala Harris

Age & occupation: 55, U.S. senator for California (D)
Net worth: $6 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $25 million

“Senator Harris married lawyer Douglas Emhoff in 2014, creating a California power couple. She brought the clout, and he brought the money. Since then, they have raked in $8.2 million—most of it from Emhoff’s work at law firms Venable and DLA Piper. The couple owns homes in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, worth a combined $5.8 million before debt.”

See also:

7. Joe Biden

Age & occupation: 77, U. of Pennsylvania professor of “presidential politics”
Net worth: $9 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $22 million

“‘Middle-class Joe’ is now solidly upper class. The former vice president and his wife, Jill, earned more than $15 million in the two years after they left the White House, cashing in on a multi-book deal with publisher Flatiron. In 2017, they dropped $2.7 million on a 4,800-square-foot pad in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The next year, they paid off a mortgage on their other home, in Wilmington, Delaware.”

See also:

6. Elizabeth Warren

Age & occupation: 70, U.S. senator for Massachusetts (D)
Net worth: $12 million
Financial transparency score: 4/5
Money raised: $36 million

“Teachers aren’t paid so poorly after all—at least not Harvard professors. Warren and her husband, Bruce Mann, both longtime instructors at the university, have built up a small fortune through years of teaching, writing and consulting. Their largest holdings include TIAA and CREF accounts—available to educators and nonprofit employees—worth more than $4 million. One of their best investments has been their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, purchased in 1995 for $447,000. It’s now worth an estimated $3 million.”

See also:

5. Michael Bennet

Age & occupation: 54, U.S. senator for Colorado (D)
Net worth: $15 million
Financial transparency score: 2/5
Money raised: $4 million

“The Democratic senator got millions working for Republican megadonor Philip Anschutz. After serving in the Justice Department during the Clinton administration, Bennet left Washington in 1997 to join the Anschutz Investment Company. There, he worked on a deal to merge three movie theater chains into Regal Entertainment Group and ultimately joined its board of directors. Today his assets include hedge fund holdings and Colorado real estate.”

4. John Delaney

Age & occupation: 56, attorney & businessman; former U.S. representative for Maryland’s 6th congressional district (D) from 2013 to 2019.
Net worth: $200 million
Financial transparency score: 2/5
Money raised: $26 million

“Delaney made a fortune in the business world before serving three terms in Congress. The son of a union electrician, he launched HealthCare Financial Partners, a lender to health care businesses, in 1993. One of his major backers: Tom Steyer, whose hedge fund invested $25 million. Delaney took HealthCare Financial Partners public in 1996 and pocketed $30 million when he sold it three years later to Heller Financial (later rolled into GE Capital). He quickly founded a second company, commercial lender CapitalSource, raising $542 million to launch it—$190 million of it from Steyer’s firm.”

3. Tom Steyer

Age & occupation: 62, hedge fund manager; partner and member of the executive committee at Hellman & Friedman, a San Francisco–based $8 billion private equity firm.
Net worth: $1.6 billion
Financial transparency score: 1/5
Money raised: $0

“After years of backing other Democrats, the hedge funder is trying his own luck as a candidate. Money won’t be an issue. Steyer founded Farallon Capital in 1986 and turned it into one of the largest hedge fund firms in the country. He stepped back in 2012 to focus on politics and philanthropy, concentrating his early efforts on protecting the environment. That struck some people as odd, given that he had previously invested in the fossil-fuel industry. Oil tycoon Harold Hamm, a prominent Trump supporter, once called Steyer “the world’s biggest hypocrite.” For his part, Steyer said he had a change of heart and divested his old fossil-fuel holdings.”

See also:

2. Donald Trump

Age & occupation: 73, President of the U.S.A.
Net worth: $3.1 billion
Financial transparency score: 0/5
Money raised (as of June 2019): $124 million

“The billionaire-in-chief is rich enough to fund his entire presidential campaign by himself. Not that he will. While donors around the country have been pitching in to support his reelection effort, the richest president in American history has donated exactly $0 of his own, according to the latest filings.” Donald Trump funded his 2016 presidential campaign.

1. Michael Bloomberg

Age & occupation: 77, businessman
Net worth: $58 billion, making him the 9th richest person in the United States and the 14th richest person in the world.

“He is the co-founder, CEO, and owner of Bloomberg L.P., a global financial services, software and mass media company that bears his name. A lifelong Democrat, Bloomberg switched his party registration in 2001 to run for mayor of New York City as a Republican. He won a second term in 2005, and left the Republican Party two years later. He then campaigned to change the city’s term limits law, and was elected to his third term in 2009 as an independent on the Republican ballot line. In October 2018, Bloomberg changed his political party affiliation back to the Democrats. He announced on November 24, 2019, that he was seeking that party’s nomination in the 2020 presidential election.”

~Eowyn

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