Today, U. Net worth figures are rounded estimates derived from financial disclosure forms fil ed in and are not necessarily comprehensive or exact. While being wealthy is not a precondition to running for national office, it certainly does not hurt. Campaigning comes with a number of practical burd ens related to time and money that working-class Americans have more trouble shouldering than wealthier ones.
Wealthy Americans are also more likely to be w ell conne cted, acquainted with powerful business leaders and other affluent individuals — and those connections can prove critical for campaign fundraising. Exactly how the wealthiest senators amassed their fortune varies. Many launched their political careers after a lucrative stint in the private sector.
Others married into wealthy families. They obtained the data from personal financial disclosure data that each senator and representative is required to provide for public record. Below are average net worth numbers for first year freshman members for each recent session of Congress. Every year members of congress are required by law to disclose certain financial information regarding personal assets and liabilities.
That data, currently available for the years to , is listed in part below in the section Individual data. Congressional financial disclosure forms use value ranges, rather than precise amounts, when reporting assets and liabilities. OpenSecrets gathers this information to build a range of potential values.
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. Ballotpedia staff took OpenSecrets predicted net worth averages for all reported members of congress and using statistical software calculated yearly averages and changes for various congressional subsets.
OpenSecrets notes some important limitations to the data: [5]. Disclaimer: All data relating to the average net worth of individual members of congress from OpenSecrets. All other content, including data analysis of net worth change, is posted under Ballotpedia's standard content license. Ballotpedia features , encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers.
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Voter information What's on my ballot? The data reveal that the lawmakers, who just passed a massive tax cut , are a very rich bunch. That is more than 12 times greater than the net wealth of the median US household. These are conservative estimates. Congress members are not required to report on the value of their residence, though many do. US household wealth estimates, which come from a survey conducted by the US Federal Reserve, include all real estate wealth.
The chart below shows the median net worth of congress members from to , based on a Quartz analysis of data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-profit that tracks the impact of money on US politics.
Financial disclosures are filed on May 15 every year, so the data represent incumbent lawmakers in election years. Not only are congress members unusually wealthy, but unlike the typical US household lawmakers were relatively unscathed by the most recent recession. Since , while the median congress person continued to get richer, the typical American household saw their wealth decline, dented by the financial crisis.
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