But for some candidates, the mounting costs of running for office may be less of a financial hurdle. At least half of the major candidates vying for a seat in the U.S. Senate have a household net worth of at least $1 million, according to a New York Times review of candidates who have filed financial disclosure forms.

At least seven candidates have net worths exceeding $10 million, and two senators seeking reelection, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), have net worths soaring into nine figures, at about approximately $200 million each.

Their wealth stands in stark contrast to the financial reality facing many Americans, who are struggling with the rising cost of groceries, gasoline, and other necessities—let alone the increasingly elusive American Dream prospect of buying a home or building long-term wealth.

The median net worth of an American household was $215,900 in 2025, according to the Federal Reserve. That means a candidate with a $1 million household net worth is worth more than four times the typical American household.

For comparison, U.S. senators earn an annual salary of $174,000 in office, while the median net worth of the current class of senators is about $4 million.

Two of Congress’s wealthiest: A telecommunications venture capitalist and a brokerage firm heir

Two of the wealthiest members of Congress are on the ballot this cycle: Warner and Ricketts, both of whom have estimated net worths of approximately $200 million.

Warner built much of his fortune as the founder of Columbia Capital, a venture capital firm focused on the cellular communications market, and the cofounder of FleetCall, the telecommunications company that later became Nextel, which was acquired by Sprint in 2005 for $35 billion.

According to a 1996 Washington Post profile, Warner “used political connections to set himself up in business and took advantage of perhaps the biggest government giveaway in modern times, the billions of dollars worth of cellular telephone licenses handed out during the 1980s.”

In 2002, Warner won election to become governor of Virginia and later became senator in 2009.

Ricketts, who became Nebraska’s governor in 2015 before joining the Senate in 2023, comes from a wealthy business family. He is the son of Joe Ricketts, founder of the brokerage firm Ameritrade (now part of Charles Schwab). The family as a whole has an estimated net worth of $8.7 billion, according to Forbes.

Ricketts’ independent challenger, Dan Osborn, offers a starkly different financial profile. Osborn reported earning just over $108,000 last year from his job as a mechanic at a heating and air conditioning company.

Being rich doesn’t necessarily translate to victory at the ballot box

While wealth and politics have increasingly intertwined, having enough money to bankroll a campaign doesn’t necessarily mean a candidate can buy their way into office.

A Brookings Institute analysis spanning four election cycles, from 2018 to 2024, identified 183 candidates running for president or Congress who contributed more than $1 million of their own money to their campaigns. Just 33 of them, or 18%, ultimately won their races. Seven of those winners were incumbents.

“The fact is that most rich people who spend personal money on campaigns lose—some big time,” the Brookings authors wrote.

Take David Trone, the billionaire co-founder of specialty wine and spirits retailer Total Wine & More. He spent nearly $63 million of his personal fortune on his 2024 Democratic Senate primary campaign in Maryland, only to lose to now-Sen. Angela Alsobrooks by more than 10 percentage points.

Former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg went so far as to pour more than $1 billion into his 2020 presidential campaign, only to drop out after poor election performance.