List of richest American politicians

This list of richest American politicians includes current and former office-holders and political appointees, and is not necessarily adjusted for inflation. Estimated wealth is at least $100 million in 2012 dollars, for all the people listed here. The amounts listed here do not necessarily pertain to the politicians' time in office (i.e. some of them may have gotten much richer later on, or lost their money before they ran for office).

Presidents

Name	Party	Date(s)	Estimated wealth adjusted for inflation	Source of wealth
Donald Trump	Republican	2017–2021	$2.5 billion (2020)[1]	Inheritance, business, real estate
George Washington	Independent	1789–1797	$525 million (2010)[2]	Inheritance, business, marriage
Thomas Jefferson	Democratic-Republican	1801–1809	$212 million (2010)[2]	Inheritance, business
Theodore Roosevelt	Republican	1901–1909	$125 million (2010)[2]	Inheritance
John F. Kennedy	Democratic	1961–1963	$124 million (2007)[3]	Inheritance
Andrew Jackson	Democratic	1829–1837	$119 million (2010)[2]	Marriage, business, real estate
James Madison	Democratic-Republican	1809–1817	$101 million (2010)[2]	Inheritance, business

Unsuccessful presidential candidates

Name	Party	Position	Date(s)	Estimated wealth not adjusted for inflation	Notes
Michael Bloomberg	Democratic (before 2001, 2018–present) Independent (2007–2018) Republican (2001–2007)	Mayor of New York City	2002–2014 2020	$54.9 billion[4]	Founder and CEO of Bloomberg L.P.
Ross Perot	Independent (before 1995) Reform (1995–2000) Republican (2000–2019)	Member, President's Intelligence Advisory Board Member, Select Committee on Public Education Candidate for U.S. President	1981–1985 1983 1992 (nominee), 1996 (nominee)	$4.1 billion[5]	Founded Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems
Tom Steyer	Democratic		2020	$1.6 billion[6]	Founder of Farallon Capital
Nelson Rockefeller	Republican	Governor of New York Candidate for U.S. President Vice President	1959–1973 1960, 1964, 1968 1974–1977	$1 billion[7]	Inheritance, grandson of John D. Rockefeller
Steve Forbes	Republican	Member, Board for International Broadcasting Candidate for U.S. President	1985–1993 1996, 2000	$430 million[8]	Editor, publisher
John Delaney	Democrat	U.S. Representative from Maryland Candidate for U.S. President	2013-2019 2020	$230 million[9]	Entrepreneur, co-founder of Health Care Financial Partners and CapitolSource
John Kerry	Democratic	U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Candidate for U.S. President Secretary of State	1985–2013 2004 (nominee) 2013–2017	$200 million[10]	Marriage to Teresa Heinz, the widow of John Heinz, heir to the H. J. Heinz Company
Mitt Romney	Independent (before 1993) Republican (1993–present)	Candidate for U.S. Senate, Massachusetts Governor of Massachusetts Candidate for U.S. President U.S. Senator from Utah	1994 (nominee) 2003–2007 2008, 2012 (nominee) 2019–present	$190–250 million[11]	Former CEO of Bain Capital and Bain & Company, son of Michigan Governor George W. Romney
Ted Kennedy	Democratic	U.S. Senator from Massachusetts Candidate for U.S. President	1962–2009 1980	$163 million[12]	Inherited stake in the Chicago Merchandise Mart
John Hancock	Federalist	President of the Continental Congress Governor of Massachusetts Candidate for U.S. President	1775–1777, 1785–1786 1780–1785, 1787–1793 1789	$100 million[13]	Inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle
Al Gore	Democratic	U.S. Representative from Tennessee U.S. Senator from Tennessee Vice President Candidate for U.S. President	1977–1985 1985–1993 1993–2001 1988, 2000 (nominee)	$100 million[14]	Son of attorney and Tennessee U.S. Senator Albert Gore Sr., who owned a stake in Occidental Petroleum, book and film deals
Hillary Rodham Clinton	Democratic (1968–present)	First Lady U.S. Senator from New York Candidate for U.S. President Secretary of State	1993–2001 2001–2009 2008, 2016 (nominee) 2009–2013	$52–111 million[15]	Book deals and public speaking fees from foreign/domestic sources
James M. Cox	Democratic	U.S. Representative from Ohio Governor of Ohio Candidate for U.S. President	1909–1913 1913–1915, 1917–1921 1920 (nominee)	$40 million (D. 1950)[16]	Founded a chain of newspapers that continues today as Cox Enterprises
Samuel J. Tilden	Democratic	Chair of the New York Democratic Party Governor of New York Candidate for U.S. President	1866–1874 1875–1876 1876 (nominee)	$8.5 million (D. 1886)[17]	Law practice, investments, and inheritance of Tilden's Extract

Other U.S. politicians

Name	Party	Position	Date(s)	Net worth	Notes
J. B. Pritzker	Democratic	Governor of Illinois	2019–present	$3.5 billion[18]	Inheritance, family owns the Hyatt hotel chain
Penny Pritzker	Democratic	Secretary of Commerce	2013–2017	$2.5 billion[19]	Inheritance, family owns the Hyatt hotel chain
Bill Haslam	Republican	Mayor of Knoxville Governor of Tennessee	2003–2011 2011–2019	$2 billion[20]	Son of Jim Haslam, founder of Pilot Corporation, and former CEO of the e-commerce and catalog division of Saks Fifth Avenue
Mark Dayton	Democratic	Auditor of Minnesota U.S. Senator from Minnesota Governor of Minnesota	1991–1995 2001–2007 2011–2019	$1.6 billion	Great grandson of George Dayton, the founder of Target[21]
Betsy DeVos	Republican	Chair of the Michigan Republican Party Secretary of Education	1996–2000 2003–2005 2017–2021	$1.25 billion[22]	Daughter of Edgar Prince, founder of Prince Corporation; daughter-in-law of Richard DeVos, co-founder of Amway; sister of Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater
Jim Justice	Republican (before 2015, 2017–present) Democratic (2015–2017)	Governor of West Virginia	2017–present	$1.2 billion[23]	Founder of Bluestone Farms. Owner of 70 active mines in 5 states as of 2014
Linda McMahon	Republican	Candidate for U.S. Senate, Connecticut Administrator of the Small Business Administration	2010 (nominee), 2012 (nominee) 2017–2019	$938 million-1.1 billion[24]	Married to Vince McMahon, who inherited the professional wrestling business founded by his grandfather, Jess McMahon, now known as WWE
Herb Kohl	Democrat	U.S. Senator from Wisconsin	1989-2012	$630 million-1.5 billion[25]	Inheritance, son of Max Kohl, founder of Kohl's; former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA
Wilbur Ross	Republican	Secretary of Commerce	2017-2021	$600 million[26]	Founder of WL Ross & Co
Kelly Loeffler	Republican	U.S. Senator from Georgia	2020-2021	$500 million+[27]	Married to Jeffrey Sprecher, founder and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange
Bruce Rauner	Republican	Governor of Illinois	2015–2019	$500 million+	Chairman of GTCR
Amo Houghton	Republican	U.S. Representative from New York	1987–2005	$475 million[28]	Former CEO and descendant of the founder of Corning Glass Works
Jared Polis	Democratic	U.S. Representative from Colorado Governor of Colorado	2009–2019 2019–present	$388 million[29]	Founder of ProFlowers
Rex Tillerson	Republican	Secretary of State	2017–2018	$325 million[22]	Former CEO of ExxonMobil
Greg Gianforte	Republican	Governor-elect of Montana U.S. Representative from Montana	2016 (nominee), 2020 2017–present	$315 million[30]	Founder of RightNow Technologies
Jon Corzine	Democratic	U.S. Senator from New Jersey Governor of New Jersey	2001–2006 2006–2010	$300 million[28]	Former CEO of Goldman Sachs
Steven Mnuchin	Republican	Secretary of the Treasury	2017–2021	$300 million[22]	Former executive of Goldman Sachs
Michael McCaul	Republican	U.S. Representative from Texas	2005–present	$294 million[10]	Son-in-law of Lowry Mays, founder of Clear Channel Communications
Rick Scott	Republican	Governor of Florida U.S. Senator from Florida	2011–2019 2019–present	$255 million[31]	Founder of Columbia Hospital Corporation
Mark Warner	Democratic	Chair of the Virginia Democratic Party Candidate for U.S. Senate, Virginia Governor of Virginia U.S. Senator from Virginia	1993–1995 1996 (nominee) 2002–2006 2009–present	$243 million[32]	Co-founder of Nextel Communications
Darrell Issa	Republican	Candidate for U.S. Senate, California U.S. Representative from California Nominee for Director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency	1998 2001–2019 2019	$220 million[10]	Founder of Directed Electronics
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.	Democratic	Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission Chair of the Maritime Commission U.S. Ambassador to the UK	1934–1935 1937–1938 1938–1940	$200–400 million[33]	Investor, banker, filmmaker
Carl Paladino	Democratic (before 2005) Republican (2005–present)	Candidate for Governor of New York	2010 (nominee)	$150 million[34]	Retail real estate developer
Arnold Schwarzenegger	Republican	Governor of California	2003–2011	$100–$200 million[35]	Real estate, acting

References

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5. "Henry Ross Perot profile". Forbes.com. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
6. "Thomas Steyer". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2019-07-09.
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8. "Mitt Romney to Report Financial Assets of at Least $190 Million". Associated Press. May 11, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2012.
9. "John Delaney". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2020-10-09.
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12. "Ted Kennedy, RIP". Slate. August 26, 2009. Retrieved May 17, 2012.
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14. "Bill Clinton, Al Gore Get Rich After White House", ABC News (June 15, 2007).
15. Hillary Clinton net worth, moneynation.com; accessed September 16, 2016.
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17. Rossiter Johnson and John Howard Brown. The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans (Biographical Society 1904).
18. "Jay Robert (J.B.) Pritzker". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2018-07-21.
19. "Penny Pritzker". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2017-06-21.
20. "The richest politician in America is the governor of Tennessee". Retrieved October 31, 2015.
21. "America's Richest Families". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved August 19, 2015. #157 Dayton Family 1.6 B
22. Peterson-Withorn, Chase (2016-12-22). "Here's What Each Member Of Trump's $4.5 Billion Cabinet Is Worth". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
23. "Jim Justice". Forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 2018-07-21.
24. http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Linda-and-Vince-McMahon-disclose-billion-in-assets-11050232.php
25. Barton, ByMerrilee. "Herb Kohl". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
26. Alexander, Dan. "Why Forbes Is Dropping Wilbur Ross' Net Worth—Again". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-11-27.
27. Fandos, Nicholas (2020-04-01). "Loeffler's Wealth Becomes a Risk as Rivals Charge She Profited on the Coronavirus". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-06.
28. A Look at America's Richest Politicians, ABC News; accessed November 11, 2016.
29. "Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO)". members-of-congress.insidegov.com. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
30. "What you need to know about House candidate Greg Gianforte and Montana's special election". Retrieved 2017-06-21.
31. Rick Scott reveals highest-ever family assets of at least $255 million, tampabay.com (July 2018).
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33. Smith, Richard Austin (November 1, 1957). "The Fifty-Million-Dollar Man, (sidebar: "America's Biggest Fortunes")". Fortune.
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35. Williams, Lance (August 17, 2003). "Schwarzenegger worth $100 million, experts say". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 28, 2008. Retrieved April 18, 2008.

See also

• List of current members of the United States Congress by wealth
• List of Presidents of the United States by net worth