Tim Walz’s and JD Vance’s Personal Finances Couldn’t Be More Different
How the rival running mates manage their money and investments
The two candidates for vice president have little in common politically or financially.
Tim Walz doesn’t own a home or many investments outside of pensions and a college-savings plan, according to past financial disclosures and tax returns. Getting elected vice president as Kamala Harris’s Democratic running mate—a job that pays $235,000—would mean a more than 50% pay bump.
JD Vance, his Republican rival for the No. 2 job, by contrast is a multimillionaire who owns several homes and invests in a range of assets including gold and crypto, according to his most recent financial disclosures.
The financial lives of the two candidates are both versions of the American dream and demonstrate different approaches to money and risk, said Megan Gorman, a tax lawyer and wealth manager who analyzed the personal finances of American presidents—though not vice presidents—for a new book. Though many candidates for national office have had rags-to-riches stories like Vance, few since Harry Truman have come into the spotlight with less wealth than Walz, she said.
“Walz represents the stable, middle-class version, which isn’t as sexy,” she said. “Though the path Vance took to wealth is not one that’s really repeatable for most Americans.”
Net worth
The Minnesota governor has far less wealth than candidates on most recent presidential tickets. The former teacher and congressman’s assets are mostly limited to pensions, whole life insurance and college savings.
He and his wife, Gwen Walz, have a net worth between $112,003 to $330,000, as of his 2019 financial disclosure. The value of his federal pension benefit could add roughly $800,000 to their net worth, based on The Wall Street Journal’s analysis. The couple didn’t report any dividend or capital gains income on their 2022 tax return, the most recent one released to the public.
Vance holds stakes in more than 100 companies as a former venture-capital investor, as well as over $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency, according to a 2022 disclosure he filed as a senator.
He earns royalties from his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about his rise from dirt-poor beginnings. He and his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, have a net worth of around $4 million to $10.4 million, plus real estate, an analysis by the Journal found. Vance’s team declined to comment on his finances.
Financial information on the two candidates is limited. Vance asked for an extension on his 2023 federal disclosure, so the most recent public information is from his 2022 form. As governor, Walz hasn’t had to disclose as much information as when he was in Congress, and it is unclear how much changed since his last federal filing in 2019. Walz’s team declined to comment on his finances.
Vice presidential candidates are required to file financial disclosures with the Federal Election Commission within 30 days of becoming a candidate, but can request extensions, according to the Office of Government Ethics.
Tim Walz’s wealth
Tim and Gwen Walz together earned $166,719 before taxes in 2022, according to a tax return that year. About $116,000 of that came from Tim’s salary as governor. The governor’s salary has since increased to $149,550, according to the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library.
A little over $51,000 of the couple’s income came from Gwen’s work as an educator, which she reported as a self-owned business. She has worked at Augsburg University since 2019, where she has taught education and served as a special assistant to the president.
The couple, who have two children, had a 529 plan, worth between $1,001 and $15,000 in 2019, according to a financial disclosure Walz filed for his final year as a House representative. They also held two life insurance policies totaling $30,002 to $100,000.
The couple is largely relying on pensions to fund their retirement, based on his disclosures. They have four pensions with an estimated lump sum value of between $81,000 and $215,000, as of the 2019 filing.
Walz also is likely eligible for retirement benefits sponsored by the federal government. Using the federal pension formula the U.S. Office of Personnel Management publishes, the annual benefit for someone with around 12 years of service in Congress would be roughly $55,000.
He also may have chosen to save money from his paycheck in the federal government’s 401(k)-like Thrift Savings Plan, which features a matching contribution of up to 5% of pay. Federal Lawmakers aren’t required to disclose retirement benefits from the federal government, according to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics.
The family sold their Minnesota home in 2019 for about $300,000. They are currently living in a rental paid for by the state while the governor’s mansion is renovated.
JD Vance’s wealth
Vance earned between $1.2 million and $1.3 million in 2022, according to his financial disclosure form.
Most of his income came from Narya Capital Management, an Ohio-based firm he co-founded in 2019 and left after winning his Ohio Senate seat in 2022, the form showed. Narya provided him $945,000 in management-company profits and $110,146 in salary in 2022.
He also earned $121,376 that year in book royalties from HarperCollins, which like The Wall Street Journal is owned by News Corp.
He made $15,001 and $50,000 in rental income from a townhouse in Washington, D.C., and $34,411 to $102,000 from stock dividends and bank-account interest.
His wife’s salary as a lawyer at Munger Tolles & Olson was unspecified beyond being over $1,000. She resigned from that position after her husband was chosen to run for vice president.
Vance’s stakes in dozens of companies, mostly privately held through venture-capital funds, are cumulatively valued at between $790,000 and $3.4 million, according to his disclosure.
Narya’s first fund generated an internal rate of return of 24.35% after fees as of March 2023, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Vance retains a limited partner interest, worth $100,001 to $250,000, in Narya’s second venture-capital fund, despite selling his ownership position in August 2023.
Brokerage accounts comprise $2 million to $4.2 million of the Vances’ worth, and include investments in oil and gold, disclosures show. He holds an additional $100,001 to $250,000 in bitcoin. The couple also has between $853,010 and $1.8 million in bank accounts.
Chilukuri Vance holds several retirement funds, three college savings accounts and a checking account cumulatively worth $165,010 to $525,000, according to a financial disclosure amendment shared with the Journal, which the Vance team plans to file this week.
They bought a 1,100-square-foot townhouse in Washington, D.C., in 2014 for $590,000, a five-bedroom home in Cincinnati in 2018 for about $1.39 million and a 2,500-square-foot home in Alexandria, Va., for around $1.6 million last year.
The Virginia home is held in a separate limited liability company from the Ohio home, according to property records. Wealthy people may transfer properties to LLCs so their ownership stays anonymous, to shield the home from lawsuits and for estate-tax benefits, said Avi Kestenbaum, a partner at Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone.
Laura Kusisto contributed to this article.
Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com, Veronica Dagher at Veronica.Dagher@wsj.com and Anne Tergesen at anne.tergesen@wsj.com