Tim Walz on JD Vance: ready for debate
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz campaigned with Kamala Harris on Tuesday – and said he was looking forward to the debate with JD Vance.
Fox – 2 Detroit
WASHINGTON — Tim Walz’s personal finances are an anomaly in presidential politics: He has no investments. No bonds. No stock holdings. No real estate. And he doesn’t currently own a home.
The limited financial portfolio of Walz, whom Vice President Kamala Harris named as her running mate on Tuesday, speaks to the blue-collar worker Harris attracted to the six-term Minnesota governor and former congressman.
Many presidents and vice presidents came from humble backgrounds, but Walz’s modest means as a candidate allow financial comparisons to President Harry S. Truman, who came from a working-class background and was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s running mate in 1944. That is perhaps the best comparison.
“He’s clearly stood out in recent years. If you look at the people who were chosen as running mates, they were relatively financially secure,” said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and president and CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.
“His background is far more prosaic than that of any other candidate in the last 75 years that I can think of, except Truman,” Updegrove said.
Mike Pence also had few investments and no significant mutual funds when he was elected Donald Trump’s vice president in 2016 and left office as governor of Indiana.
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Walz, 60, and his wife, Gwen Walz, reported earning $166,719 in 2022, according to a federal tax return for that year that the couple released in their most recent tax filing. The bulk of the income, $115,485, came from Walz’s salary as governor, while $51,234 came from Gwen Walz’s salary as an educator, which she reports as business income. The couple paid $24,062 in federal income taxes.
Otherwise, the tax return is mostly empty: Line items for IRA distributions, taxable interest, and capital gains, for example, are all empty.
In his 2023 annual statement of economic interests filed with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board, Walz did not list any real estate holdings, securities, business property, book royalties or other forms of income other than his service as governor.
In his 2019 declaration of economic interests, Walz disclosed that he owned his home in Mankota, Minnesota. However, 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 is living in the state-rented Eastcliff Mansion, the historic home of the University of Minnesota president, while the state-owned governor’s mansion is being renovated. The state is paying $4,400 a month for rent.
Walz’s wealth is limited to his state and federal pensions as a former teacher and former congressman, his life insurance and his college savings, according to his 2019 financial report as a congressman. He does not have a 401(k) account. His wealth was estimated at the time to be between $112,007 and $330,000. A Wall Street Journal analysis found that the pensions could increase his net worth by about $800,000.
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 election to the White House in 1984 to Ronald Reagan, and Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon in 1968.
If Harris and Walz are elected, Walz’s income would almost double, and the vice president’s annual salary would be $284,600.
Walz joined the Army National Guard at age 17 after graduating high school and served 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 runs through 2027.
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As a congressman, Walz co-sponsored the STOCK Act, which former President Barack Obama signed in 2012 to prevent lawmakers and congressional staff from trading on nonpublic information. “It’s about restoring trust,” Walz said in 2011 after introducing the bill.
Some on the right have targeted Walz’s finances, arguing that his lack of investments means he is not in charge of financial matters. “He is financially uneducated,” Brianna Lyman of the conservative online publication The Federal said on Fox Business this week.
The Harris campaign declined to comment on Walz’s finances. Under federal law, Walz has 30 days from the start of his candidacy for vice president to submit financial reports to the Federal Election Commission.
By comparison, U.S. Senator from Ohio JD Vance – Trump’s running mate and a former venture capitalist and author – owns shares in more than 100 companies, according to financial reports he filed as a U.S. senator.
Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” which details his humble Appalachian roots, reported book royalties of $121,376 in 2022. He also reported owning between $100,001 and $250,000 worth of cryptocurrency. Vance reported earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in rental income in 2022 by renting out a Washington DC townhouse.
Forbes Magazine estimated Vance’s fortune at up to $10 million and Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s fortune at $8 million. Trump’s fortune is estimated by Forbes to be $7.5 billion this year.
In their 2023 tax returns released this year, Harris and Emhoff reported gross pre-tax income of $450,380 and paid $88,570 in federal income taxes.
When Harris ran for president in the 2019 Democratic primary, Harris and Emhoff, a prominent entertainment lawyer, submitted 15 years of federal tax returns. The couple reported earning $3.2 million in 2019, with Harris’ income increasing sharply after she married Emhoff in 2014.
As a U.S. Senator for California, Harris disclosed more than 40 mutual fund accounts, securities, bonds and other investments in a 2019 disclosure statement to the federal government.
Reach Joey Garrison on X, formerly Twitter, @joeygarrison.
