Richest current Republican politicians in Congress
Richest current Republican politicians in Congress
Political corruption has been in the news for as long as politics have existed. In the U.S. people are often critical of the vast amounts of wealth that politicians, especially those at the federal level, are able to accrue. In 2005, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act was first introduced after an academic study was released that showed that the investments of members of Congress significantly outperformed other investment portfolios.
The STOCK Act was finally passed in 2012 and requires Congressional members and their staff to disclose any changes in investments that occur in their portfolios or the portfolios of their spouses or dependents within 45 days of the change occurring. It was intended to increase transparency and help prevent insider trading—though the legislation also provides a set of rules that are not overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Though the original legislation required that disclosures be posted online, that clause was amended in 2013, allowing online disclosures to occur on a more delayed basis—in theory, to prevent identity theft of elected officials. The legislation has been significantly ignored by many Congress members since, with an investigation by Insider revealing that 182 congressional officials were in violation of the STOCK Act as of December 2021. STOCK Act enforcement is notoriously secretive and difficult to manage, as it falls outside the jurisdiction of the SEC.
Using a database compiled by Insider from congressional disclosure reports, Stacker ranked current Republican politicians in Congress by their total estimated net worth. Estimated values were pulled from documents uploaded by each congressional member's office for 2020, sometimes handwritten, and reference the low end of the estimated range of value for each asset.
#20. Mark Green
- Representative from Tennessee
- Estimated net worth: $10.4 million
According to documentation from OpenSecrets, as of 2018, Mark Green was heavily involved in real estate ventures. Much of his net worth is comprised of real estate assets and nine of his 10 liabilities were related to his personal home or a rental property.
#19. Diana Harshbarger
- Representative from Tennessee
- Estimated net worth: $11.5 million
As of the 2020 Financial Disclosure Report from the House of Representatives, many of Diana Harshbarger's stocks were in various technology companies. These include Adobe, Alphabet, and Amazon.
#18. Marjorie Taylor Greene
- Representative from Georgia
- Estimated net worth: $11.5 million
In an email from the Federal Election Commission, the Save America Stop Socialism PAC associated with Marjorie Taylor Greene was notified that there were several financial discrepancies in their reports. These discrepancies make the PAC in violation of federal campaign finance regulations, and it has until Nov. 23, 2022 to respond.
#17. Daniel Meuser
- Representative from Pennsylvania
- Estimated net worth: $13.1 million
In addition to significant investments in real estate, Dan Meuser has a large share of investments in pharmaceuticals and health products. He sat on the House Committee on Education and Labor in 2019 and 2020, which has participated in creating new drug pricing legislation.
#16. James Baird
- Representative from Indiana
- Estimated net worth: $13.9 million
Though the vast majority of Jim Baird's campaign funding has been out-of-pocket, his third largest contribution sector is agriculture, according to OpenSecrets. Baird has been a member of the House Committee on Agriculture since taking office in 2019.
#15. Mitch McConnell
- Senator from Kentucky
- Estimated net worth: $14.4 million
Mitch McConnell's wealth skyrocketed in 2008 when he and his wife, Elaine Chao, received a substantial monetary gift from Chao's father after her mother died. Since then, McConnell and Chao's combined wealth has multiplied approximately tenfold, to about $30 million.
#14. Ron Johnson
- Senator from Wisconsin
- Estimated net worth: $17.0 million
During the 2022 midterm elections, some Democrat-aligned groups ran an advertisement against Ron Johnson, citing a report from The Guardian stating that he was profiting off of Chinese investments. Johnson narrowly won reelection in Wisconsin by approximately 27,000 votes.
#13. John Hoeven
- Senator from North Dakota
- Estimated net worth: $17.8 million
John Hoeven has had a number of conflict of interest issues throughout the last three years. These include investments in a health sciences fund after a briefing on COVID-19, ownership of a bank when working on a government lending program, and investments in oil and power companies while serving on two energy-related committees.
#12. James Risch
- Senator from Idaho
- Estimated net worth: $18.9 million
James Risch's top four largest assets, according to OpenSecrets, are all real estate investments totaling between $12 million and $60 million. The third-largest funding category for Risch's campaigns is finance, insurance, and real estate.
#11. William Hagerty
- Senator from Tennessee
- Estimated net worth: $19.8 million
Bill Hagerty allegedly violated the STOCK Act when he reported three individual stock trades after the federal disclosure deadline during the summer of 2022. In total, the sales of Signature Bank stock from the trusts he holds for his dependent children are worth between $5,000 and $150,000.
#10. Ralph Norman
- Representative from South Carolina
- Estimated net worth: $20.7 million
In 2018, Ralph Norman was more highly invested in the commercial banking industry than any other sector of the economy. During the summer of 2022, he was selected to serve on the House Financial Services Committee.
#9. John W. Rose
- Representative from Tennessee
- Estimated net worth: $23.4 million
While John Rose was a member of the House Financial Services Committee, he sold all of the stock he owned in three banks. At the time, the committee was conducting an investigation into misdeeds committed by Wells Fargo, one of the three banks that Rose had been invested in.
#8. Kevin Hern
- Representative from Oklahoma
- Estimated net worth: $26.8 million
Kevin Hern has demonstrated potential conflicts of interest with both the energy sector and the health care sector. He offloaded shares in 12 different oil and gas companies while on a related subcommittee and bought an estimated $300,000 to $615,000 in shares of UnitedHealth Group while sitting on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees Medicare issues.
#7. Jay Obernolte
- Representative from California
- Estimated net worth: $39.3 million
Jay Obernolte is a representative on the House Committee on Natural Resources and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. His top campaign donors during his last election season were Esri, a Chicago-based GIS software developer, and Karem Aircraft.
#6. Roger Williams
- Representative from Texas
- Estimated net worth: $67.4 million
Roger Williams holds approximately $18 million in real estate investments, according to OpenSecrets. His personal residence alone was valued at $15 million as of 2018.
#5. Mitt Romney
- Senator from Utah
- Estimated net worth: $89.3 million
With the reputation of being a wealthy Wall Street sellout, Mitt Romney did make much of his wealth while working in private equity for Bain & Company in the 1990s. Romney came under fire for this during his 2012 presidential run, but still remains heavily invested in Bain and receives significant retirement benefits.
#4. Vern Buchanan
- Representative from Florida
- Estimated net worth: $113.4 million
In 2012, during his third term as a representative, Vern Buchanan had four investigations against him in progress to reveal some potentially illegal or unethical business practices and campaign finances. Buchanan was not found guilty.
#3. Darrell Issa
- Representative from California
- Estimated net worth: $115.9 million
Earlier in his career as a representative in 2015, Darrell Issa was the richest member of Congress after earning a fortune working in the car alarm industry. Issa is now being investigated by the Department of Justice for potentially being involved with the Fortenberry scandal.
#2. Michael T. McCaul
- Representative from Texas
- Estimated net worth: $125.9 million
Though Michael McCaul reports that all of his trading is executed by his wife and children, he's demonstrated a range of potential conflicts of interest. These include trading IBM and Accenture stocks while sitting on the House Homeland Security Committee, trading UPS shares after a congressional hearing where a USP executive testified, and trading Meta investments during congressional investigations into the company's handling of misinformation.
#1. Rick Scott
- Senator from Florida
- Estimated net worth: $200.3 million
As the owner of at least 463 assets as of his 2018 disclosures, Rick Scott tops the list of richest Republicans. He is heavily invested in securities and real estate and was involved in a financial feud with Mitch McConnell during the 2022 midterm elections.
