A financial tale of two potential US vice-presidents

NEW YORK - After JD Vance was elected to the Senate from Ohio in 2022, he and his wife bought a five-bedroom house – their third home – for US$1.6 million (S$2.1 million) in Alexandria, Virginia, not far from the Capitol. Their real estate agent told a local magazine that the buyers paid in cash.

When Tim Walz was elected governor of Minnesota four years earlier, his family was living in a heavily mortgaged Cape Cod-style house, with one room rented out, about 145km from Minneapolis. After moving into the governor’s mansion, they sold the house for US$304,000 – less than the asking price.

These real estate transactions are just one example of the vast gulf in wealth between the two vice-presidential candidates. On their tax return for 2023, the Walzes reported US$299,000 in income, more than they had declared in years. Mr Vance, a multi-millionaire, had more than that in just his cheque book account the year before, according to his most recent financial disclosure form.

That distinction could come into play in battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where both campaigns are hoping the vice-presidential candidates can present an everyman appeal to Midwestern and rural voters.

But one running mate is rich and the other far from it – and Mr Walz, a former teacher, is emphasising the difference. Appearing with Vice-President Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on Aug 6, he said Mr Vance “had his career funded by Silicon Valley millionaires,” adding: “Come on, that’s not what Middle America is.”

Mr Vance, former president Donald Trump’s running mate, has been campaigning this week in the same states as Ms Harris and Mr Walz. Mr Luke Schroeder, a spokesperson for Mr Vance, said the senator “earned his own success”. He continued: “Tim Walz knows better. His insult of Sen. Vance is an insult to every American who has worked hard to overcome adversity.”

Mr Walz has released his tax returns virtually every year since he was first elected to public office in 2006 as a member of Congress representing a rural district in Minnesota. The Walzes’ income has remained fairly consistent, averaging about US$211,000 annually over the past decade, according to their returns.

In his final disclosure as a member of Congress, filed in 2019, he listed assets ranging from US$113,000 to US$330,000 in value, almost all in retirement, pension or life insurance accounts. He also listed a college-savings account, but as of 2019, it held at most US$15,000. His daughter finished college last year, and his son is in high school, a spokesperson said.

The Walzes’ savings might not be as meager as the form suggests. Mr Walz, 60, should be eligible for a federal pension, with a potentially generous annual benefit, and he might also have money in a federal savings plan – neither of which he would be required to disclose. He and his wife reported only US$167,000 in income in 2022, but their income rose significantly last year, mainly due to US$135,000 in payments from pensions and annuities.

Mr Vance, 39, and his wife, Usha, 38, who was a corporate litigator at a prestigious law firm based in San Francisco before resigning last month, listed about US$4.4 million to US$11.5 million in assets in 2022. That included holdings Mr Vance reported in recent days, but not the value of the couple’s homes.

In addition to the house in northern Virginia, the Vances bought a town house – that they now rent out – in Washington, D.C., for US$590,000 in 2014, the year they married. Four years later, they bought a 6,400-square-foot home overlooking the Ohio River in Cincinnati for about US$1.4 million.

Mr Vance reported more than 160 different investments, accounts and assets, but Mr Schroeder, his spokesperson, said Mr Vance did not hold individual stocks.

“The value of Vance’s assets appears above average compared with the many other millionaires in the Senate,” said Mr Kedric Payne, vice-president of the non-profit Campaign Legal Center. He has studied the financial disclosure forms of federal officials for years.

“He’s not the wealthiest, but his pages and pages of assets show that he’s far from the poorest,” he said of Mr Vance.

By comparison, Mr Walz is “definitely on the low end in terms of wealth compared to recent vice-presidential candidates,” said Ms Virginia Canter, an expert in financial disclosure by federal officials, who works for the non-profit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

She said the Walzes’ assets reflected the years they spent teaching in public schools with modest salaries. “You are not accumulating wealth,” she said. “You are at most paying off your mortgage, and hopefully you have a pension to see you through retirement.”

Both hail from modest backgrounds

Mr Walz and Mr Vance come from modest backgrounds. Mr Vance, who grew up in Middletown, Ohio, joined the Marine Corps after high school. He went to Ohio State University on the GI Bill and then attended Yale Law School with a financial aid package that was “nearly the full ride,” he wrote in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

Mr Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire, later helped Mr Vance build a lucrative career as a venture capitalist, and he helped bankroll Mr Vance’s Senate run, contributing US$15 million.

Mr Vance’s memoir was a bestseller and made into a movie, another source of income.

Mr Walz grew up in rural Nebraska as the son of a school administrator and a homemaker. He has said his family sat around the kitchen table worrying about how to make ends meet.

He enlisted in the National Guard at 17, and, like Mr Vance, attended college on the GI Bill. Friends have said Mr Walz maxed out his credit cards to run for Congress in 2006.

He now earns about US$128,000 as governor. He was entitled to a salary of US$139,000 in 2023 and US$149,000 in 2024, but he turned down the increases.

A spokesperson for Mr Walz said he did so because he had appointed the members of the council who had recommended higher salaries for state officials, including himself. NYTIMES