With his Midwestern twang and strong feelings on home gutters, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has been figured much like the guy (or football coach) next door. It’s only fitting then, like most Americans, he’s no millionaire.
Walz, alongside his wife Gwen Walz, is worth from $112,003 to $330,000, according to his financial disclosures from 2019. Tim made $127,629 annually as a governor, and declined a raise in 2023, according to Minnesota’s Legislative Reference Library. As an educator, Gwen made a little over $51,000 yearly, per the Wall Street Journal. His other assets include a 529 college plan and life insurance policies, financial disclosures said.
By comparison, current vice president and Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, is worth about $8 million (alongside her husband Doug Emhoff), according to Forbes. Former President Donald Trump’s finances are a little bit murkier, but Forbes estimates that he’s worth $6.5 billion. The other potential veep, JD Vance, is estimated to be worth $10 million, the outlet said.
And Walz is starkly different from many in political office, as he’s not investing. The Minnesota governor has not invested in any stocks, according to the 2019 financial disclosure, which was also confirmed by a spokesperson to Axios.
He also does not own his home. After moving into the governor’s mansion, Walz sold his home for $315,000 in 2019, reports CNBC. He initially bought the property for $145,000 in 1997.
“I’m not easily surprised by political information. But to see that he owns no stock?” Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, told Time. “I think there are a whole lot of people out there saying, ‘Hey, yeah, that’s kind of who I am. I’ve got a little pension, if I’m lucky,’” she added.
Meanwhile, Walz’s federal pension plans from working as a teacher and for the state could add about $800,000 to his wealth, according to estimates from The Wall Street Journal.
Despite their popularity as a pathway to a comfortable retirement, pensions have become an increasingly rare benefit. The number of people actively participating in private-sector pension plans dropped from 27 million to fewer than 13 million between 1975 and 2019, according to a congressional report.
It’s partly attributable to the decline in unions. As of March 2022, only 7% of the private industry’s nonunion workers were participants of a defined benefit plan, CNN says of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But most workers in a union were active participants in said benefit, the outlet adds.
