Tim Walz owns no stocks, bonds and doesn’t own a home

WASHINGTON — In the decades-long history of U.S. presidential campaigns, Tim Walz’s personal finances are an anomaly: He has no investments. No bonds. No stock holdings. No real estate. And he currently doesn’t own a home.

The limited financial resources of Walz, whose running mate Kamala Harris announced Tuesday as her running mate, are a testament to the blue-collar background that drew Harris to the Minnesota governor and former six-term congressman.

Many presidents and vice presidents have started modestly. Yet Walz’s modest means as a candidate have been compared financially to President Harry S. Truman, the working-class vice presidential nominee of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, perhaps the best recent comparison.

“He’s been a standout in recent years. If you look at the people who have been elected vice president, they’ve been relatively financially secure,” said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and president and CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.

“He has a much more prosaic background than any other candidate I’ve seen in the last 75 years, with the exception of Truman,” Updegrove said.

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Walz, 60, and his wife, Gwen Walz, reported earning $166,719 in 2022, according to their federal tax return from that year, the couple’s most recent tax return to be released. Most 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.

In other respects, the tax return is virtually blank: for example, the lines for IRA distributions, taxable interest, and capital gains are blank.

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, businesses, book royalties or other forms of income outside his role as governor.

In his 2019 Statement 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-owned Eastcliff Mansion, the historic home of the University of Minnesota president, while the state-owned governor’s mansion is being renovated. The state pays $4,400 a month for rent.

Walz’s assets are limited to his state and federal pensions as a former teacher and former congressman, life insurance and college savings, according to his 2019 financial disclosure report as a member of Congress. He does not have a 401(k) account. Those assets were valued at $112,007 to $330,000 at the time. A Wall Street Journal analysis found that the pensions could add about $800,000 to his net worth.

Like Walz, Minnesota’s other two Democrats — former Vice President Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey — had limited wealth compared with most vice presidential and presidential candidates. Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan in 1984, and Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon in 1968.

If Harris and Walz are elected, Walz’s earnings would nearly double the vice president’s annual salary of $284,600.

Walz joined the Army National Guard at age 17 after graduating from high school, serving 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 into law in 2012 to prevent lawmakers and congressional staff from trading on nonpublic information. “This is about restoring faith,” Walz said of the bill in 2011 after it was introduced.

Some on the right have criticized Walz’s finances, saying his lack of investments means he has no control over fiscal matters. “He’s financially illiterate,” Brianna Lyman of the conservative online publication The Federal told Fox Business this week.

Harris’ campaign declined to comment on Walz’s finances. Under federal law, Walz has 30 days from the time his vice presidential candidacy begins filing financial disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission.

By comparison, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance — former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential candidate who is a former venture capitalist and author — has stakes in more than 100 companies, according to financial disclosures he filed as a U.S. senator.

Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” which chronicles his humble Appalachian roots, reported royalties of $121,376 in 2022. He also reported the cryptocurrency was valued at between $100,001 and $250,000. Vance reported earning between $15,001 and $50,000 in 2022 from renting a rowhouse in Washington.

Forbes magazine has estimated Vance’s net worth at up to $10 million and estimated the net worth of Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff at $8 million. Trump’s net worth is $7.5 billion, Forbes estimated this year.

On their 2023 tax returns, made public this year, Harris and Emhoff reported gross income of $450,380 before taxes 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, released 15 years of federal tax returns. The couple reported income of $3.2 million in 2019, and Harris’s income increased significantly after she married Emhoff in 2014.

Harris, while a California senator, disclosed more than 40 mutual fund accounts, securities, bonds and other investments in a federal filing in 2019.

Contact Joey Garrison at X, formerly on Twitter, @joeygarrison.