WASHINGTON — Tim Walz’s personal finances are something of an anomaly in presidential politics: He has no investments. No bonds. No stock holdings. No real estate. And he does not currently own a home.
The limited financial portfolio of Walz, who Vice President Kamala Harris named Tuesday as her running-mate, speaks to the blue-collar pedigree that attracted Harris to the Minnesota governor and former six-term congressman.
Many presidents and vice presidents came from humble beginnings. Yet Walz’s modest means as a candidate are drawing financial comparisons to President Harry S Truman, the working-class running-mate of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, as perhaps the best comparison.
“In recent years, he stands out considerably. If you look at the folks who have been chosen as running-mates, they’ve been relatively financial secure,” said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and president and CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.
“He has a far more prosaic background than any of the other candidates I can think of, with the exception of Truman, in the last 75 years,” Updegrove said.
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Walz, 60, and his wife Gwen Walz reported earning $166,719 in 2022, according to a federal tax return that year, the couple’s most recent tax filing made public. Most of the income, $115,485, came from Walz’s salary as governor, while $51,234 was earned by Gwen Walz’s salary as an educator, which she lists as business income. The couple paid $24,062 in federal income taxes.
The tax return is otherwise mostly bare: Line-items for IRA distributions, taxable interest and capital gains, for example, are all blank.
Walz listed no property ownership, securities, business ownership, book royalties or other forms of income besides his job as governor in his 2023 annual statement of economic interest filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board.
In his 2019 economic interest statement, Walz disclosed ownership of his home in Mankota, Minnesota. But the Walz family sold the 3,223 square-foot home on one acre in 2019 for $304,000 after Walz was elected governor.
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The Walz family resides in the state-rented Eastcliff Mansion, the historic home of the University of Minnesota’s president, while the state-owned governor’s mansion undergoes renovations. The state is paying $4,400 a month for the rental.
Walz’s assets are limited to his state and federal pensions as a former teacher and former congressman, life insurance and college savings, according to his 2019 financial disclosure report as a member of Congress. He does not have a 401(k) account. These assets were valued then between $112,007 and $330,000. An analysis from the Wall Street Journal found the pensions could add about $800,000 to their net worth.
Like Walz, two other Minnesota Democrats − former vice presidents Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey − had limited wealth compared to most vice presidential and presidential candidates. Mondale lost his White House bid to Ronald Reagan in 1984 and Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon in 1968
Similarly, Mike Pence had few investments and no significant mutual funds when he was elected in 2016 as Donald Trump’s vice president and left his job as Indiana governor.
If Harris and Walz are elected, Walz’s earnings would nearly double with the vice president’s annual salary of $284,600.
Walz joined the Army National Guard at age 17 after graduating high school, serving in the Minnesota National Guard from 1981 to 2005 before retiring to run for Congress. Walz also worked as a high school social studies teacher and football coach. He served in Congress from 2007 to 2019 and is serving his second term as governor in a term that lasts until 2027.
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As a congressman, Walz co-sponsored the STOCK Act, which former President Barack Obama signed into law in 2012 to prevent lawmakers and congressional staffers from trading on non-public information. “This is about restoring faith,” Walz said of the bill in 2011 after introducing it.
Some on the right have taken aim at Walz’s finances, arguing his lack of investments means he doesn’t have command on fiscal issues. “He’s financially illiterate,” Brianna Lyman, of the conservative online publication The Federal, said this week on Fox Business.
The Harris campaign declined to comment on Walz’s finances. Under federal law, Walz has 30 days from the time his candidacy for vice president began to submit financial disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission.
In comparison, Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance − Trump’s running mate and a former venture-capitalist investor and author − has stock in more than 100 companies, according to financial disclosures submitted as U.S. senator.
Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” which chronicles his humble roots in Appalachia, reported book royalties of $121,376 in 2022. He also reported having cryptocurrency valued between $100,001 and $250,000. Vance reported earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in rental income in 2022 from renting out a Washington D.C. rowhouse.
Forbes Magazine valued Vance’s net worth at up to $10 million and estimated the net worth of Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff to be $8 million. Trump’s net worth is $7.5 billion, Forbes estimated this year.
In their 2023 tax returns made public this year, Harris and Emhoff reported gross income of $450,380 before taxes and paid $88,570 in federal income taxes.
When Harris ran in 2019 for president in the Democratic primary, Harris and Emhoff, a prominent entertainment attorney, released 15 years of federal tax returns. The couple reported earning $3.2 million income in 2019, with Harris’ income jumping heavily after she married Emhoff in 2014.
Harris disclosed more than 40 mutual fund accounts, securities, bonds and other investments in a 2019 federal disclosure as U.S. senator of California.
Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.
