Most Vulnerable Senators, Ranked by Their Wealth

By Steven T. Dennis

Posted October 24, 2014 at 5:00am

The most vulnerable senators who face the voters in less than two weeks run the gamut from multimillionaires to one of the poorest on Capitol Hill, based on Roll Call’s Wealth of Congress ranking of the minimum net worth of every single lawmaker.

Two senators in tough spots on Nov. 4 are members of the 50 Richest list. One of the vulnerable senators has a negative minimum net worth.

Ironically, given the market for ex-senators on K Street and elsewhere, most could see a substantial improvement in their personal finances should they lose. (See Cantor, Eric ).

Here’s a breakdown from our most recent 10 Most Vulnerable Senators list, appearing in order of their minimum net worth:

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., $11.97 million (Ranked No. 32)
Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., $9.12 million (Ranked No. 41)
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., $2.9 million (Ranked No. 90)
Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., $2.3 million (Ranked No. 110)

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., $1.7 million (Ranked No. 135)

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., $1.53 million (Ranked No. 149)

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., $1.19 million (Ranked No. 169)

Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, $500,000 (Ranked No. 264)

Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., $380,000 (Ranked No. 286)

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., -$100,000 (Ranked No. 435)

Given that half of the Senate has a minimum net worth of $1 million or more , just Begich, Udall and Pryor fall below the median. Pryor, in fact, is one of the poorer members of Congress, hailing from the poorest delegation .

But the “poorest” distinction belongs to Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., the only senator on this year’s 10 “Poorest” Members of Congress list. The richest senator running for re-election is Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., with a minimum net worth of more than $95 million.

As always, there are caveats due to the imprecise nature of financial disclosure rules. This ranking uses minimum net worth, calculated by subtracting minimum liabilities from minimum assets. That means an asset listed as worth between $1 million and $5 million, would count as $1,000,001 in our minimum net worth calculation.

Many assets do not have to be disclosed, including homes, personal bank accounts that do not bear interest and home furnishings. Mortgages and other loans are required on the forms.

As a result, in most cases, the actual net worth is presumably substantially higher than the minimums reported here.

You can see the minimum net worth of each and every member in our Wealth of Congress interactive .

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