Who Are the Richest U.S. Senators?
With that in mind, motivated by the concept of transparency and in order to avoid conflicts of interest, the Ethics in Government Act demands many federal elected officials to submit an annual financial disclosure statement that specifies their assets, investments and business interests. Senators belong to a cohort of people subject to this paperwork. Their statements are released into the public domain and yield a nice sketch of their fillers’ finances. Here are some examples:
Here’s a list of the ten wealthiest senators of the 118th congress in 2024.
Key Takeaways
U.S. Senators are required to disclose their financial assets each year.
The salary for a U.S. senator as of 2024 is $174,000 per year.
Today almost all US senators are millionaires, and most of them became wealthy before entering politics.
Three mega-millionaires (Mitt Romney of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida, Mark Warner of Virginia) sit in the US Senate.
Here we look at the top 10 wealthiest U.S. senators.
Sourc: OpenSecrets.org.
Understanding Congressional Wealth
All senators also have a salary, paid by the public government, of $174,000 a year. Most, however, earn far more than that, and many have high net worth. They began their careers often in business, accruing most of their fortunes before they entered the world of politics.
Further, senators are bigshots with immense clout and reach; via that avenue, they can gain access to all sorts of business opportunities and other significant individuals and, via those new avenues, extend their capital accumulation.
According to the Senate code of conduct, senators, their candidates and staffers must list their assets and investments exceeding $1,000 at the end of every calendar year, as well as any transactions going over $1,000. The disclosure of this information is published on the Senate site in accordance with the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.
These revelations give some basis for estimating each senator’s portfolio; the rankings that follow draw on the live portfolio tracker produced by Quiver Quantitative, a hedge fund, based on senators’ reported trades. (The notes explain the estimates’ caveats.) The figures in the tables reflect trading mostly in liquid securities (stocks and bonds). But real estate, unpublished securities, debts and other illiquid assets, which could easily make up a quarter or more of a given senator’s portfolio (if not more), are not included.
1. Rick Scott (R – Florida)
The former governor of Florida was elected to the Senate in 2019.
Sen. Rick Scott of Florida had a corporate career first, where he became very wealthy, creating one of the largest hospital networks, the Columbia Hospital Corporation.
Scott has an estimated net worth of more than $327 million as of 2024.
2. Mitt Romney (R – Utah)
Senator Romney hardly needs an introduction. A multimillionaire businessman and failed Republican presidential candidate in 2012, he is the second-richest senator, with an estimated net worth of $246 million.
He is, like most of the riche self-made millionaire: he founded and ran the private equity firm Bain Capital before he entered politics.
3. Mark Warner (D – Virginia)
A good example is Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, who is the wealthiest member of the US Senate (in fact, of all of Congress), and who by his annual financial disclosures is worth (only) $195 million.
Warner was born in 1954 to a middle-class family. He began thinking of a political career almost from the first moments of his college years. At some point in his studies of political science, he told his parents that he was planning on ‘running for president’.
Most of Warner’s fortune came from his venture capital firm, Columbia Capital, which he established shortly after law school and that made numerous successful early investments in telecommunication startups such as XM Satellite Radio and Nextel Communications.
4. Pete Ricketts (R – Nebraska)
Nebraska’s senator after Ben Sasse resigned in 2023 is Pete Ricketts, who served as Nebraska’s governor from 2015 to 2023, and his time as governor just ended. He should serve until the end of Sasse’s term in 2025.
Ricketts started out in the family business, what is now known as Ameritrade — he is worth an estimated $161 million, according to Quiver Quantitative — and subsequently went into politics.
5. Markwayne Mullin (R – Oklahoma)
He arrived in the senate in 2023 after five terms in the House of Representatives; his estimated net worth is about $63 million.
The family plumbing business, which Mullin had built up over decades, was his first real source of wealth (he’d also go on to found, with his brother, at least a half-dozen companies).
From 1789-1815, U.S. senators were paid $6 per day.
6. John Hoeven (R – North Dakota)
Sen. John Hoeven has been North Dakota’s senior US senator for nearly a decade, since 2011. Before being elected to the Senate, he was governor of the state for a 10-year run. Hoeven’s personal fortune is estimated to be roughly $59 million.
Sen. Hoeven was a banker before entering politics, and was CEO of First Western Bank and the Bank of North Dakota. He continues to hold ownership and a directorship at First Western Bank.
7. Bill Hagerty (R – Tennessee)
William Hagerty represented Tennessee as a senator in Washington, DC in 2020. Prior to his race, Hagerty served as an economic adviser to a number of administrations and politicians and on President Trump’s transition team. During the Trump era, Hagerty became ambassador to Japan in 2017 and held that position for two years.
Hagerty made his fortune in industry. After a stint at the Boston Consulting Group, he became a venture capitalist investing in new firms who today are worth millions. He is worth an estimated $55 million in 2024.
8. Ron Johnson (R – Wisconsin)
But that was how an accountant at PACUR, the polyester and plastics manufacturing company in Wisconsin, started his career in the late ’70s: Ron Johnson, the current Republican senator from the Badger State who once headed the giant consumer electronics retailer Apple. Johnson landed at the company, which was owned by his brother-in-law, and rose to head its accounting department and eventually the company as a whole, becoming CEO by the middle of the ’80s.
Sen. Johnson has an estimated net worth of $54.13 million.
9. James E. Risch (R – Idaho)
The junior senator from the state of Idaho since 2009 is James Risch. He previously served as governor of the state.
He’s worth an estimated $55.11 million, much of it in Idaho farm and ranch land.
Hence it is often said that many members of Congress have become out of touch with the average citizen, because of their enormous wealth.
10. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R – Kentucky)
As of 2024, Sen Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the US Senate minority leader, is estimated to be worth $48 million.
McConnell, a senator since 1984, has received most of his wealth through a gift his father bestowed upon him, disclosed in 2008. In his 2008 disclosure, he and his wife, the economist Elaine Chao, who served as both a cabinet secretary in the Bush and Trump administrations and is a gift recipient herself, listed a gift between $5 million and $25 million from her family.
In fact, much of McConnell’s wealth is in a Vanguard 500 Index fund.
Who Is the Richest U.S. Senator?
Among candidates in the 118th Congress, Florida’s Rick Scott led with an estimated net worth of around half-a-billion dollars.
In the 117th Congress, Kelly Loeffler was a Republican senator from Georgia. She was the 14th richest member of Congress, and at the time was worth $500 million.
What Is a U.S. Senator’s Salary?
The salary of a U.S. senator is $174,000 per year as of 2024.
Who Is the Poorest U.S. Senator?
According to the most recent figures, the poorest member of the US senate is Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan, whose personal net worth comes in just under $175,000.
Do U.S. Senators Make a Lot of Money?
At $174,000 a year, the salary of a US senator is a decent one. But many senators make more money on investments, using their high profile to make connections and through other business dealings.
The Bottom Line
It is a democracy, after all, and getting elected to the senate takes time, money, connections and clout. So it should come as no surprise that the gruff males populating Washington today are not common folk but millionaires, almost universally former businessmen, financiers and entrepreneurs.
