Last week, Hillary Clinton reported receiving $12 million in income from speeches in the past year, in addition to $5 million in royalties from her autobiography, "Hard Choices." The disclosure comes in the wake of a book on the Clintons' relationship with donors to the Clinton Foundation called “Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich.”
Given her reported income, it is likely Hillary Clinton is the richest candidate currently in the race for the presidency. But the other presidential candidates — current and likely — are not exactly poor. The latest financial disclosure figures show that Sen. Ted Cruz’s net worth is over $3 million, while Rand Paul’s is just over $1 million, as is Sen. Lindsey Graham’s. While serving in the Senate, former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia reported he had an estimated net worth of over $4 million.
In some cases, the public can only guess how rich other candidates are. That’s because they have not filed current or recent financial disclosure statements. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is one example of a candidate who has not yet disclosed his recent income. But he is clearly affluent. Earlier this year, Huckabee gave up his Fox News talk show, which paid him an estimated $500,000 a year for six years. Another example is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. He was a millionaire after he left the governor’s office in 2007, but he now makes over $1 million a year as an adviser to investment firms and charges $50,000 a pop for speeches. That doesn’t include his service on various boards. According to a New York Times story last year, Bush had earned at least $3.2 million for such service.
Of course, there is super-rich candidate Carly Fiorina. When she ran for U.S. Senate in California in 2010, she reported assets of between $25.6 and $115.9 million. But if Donald Trump enters the race, he will “trump” all the other candidates with his billionaire status. In a book published in 2011, Trump announced his net worth as over $7 billion.
Not all presidential candidates are millionaires, however. Vice President Joe Biden’s net worth is estimated at just over $500,000, while Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida each have assets valued at less than that. But they are dwarfed by the number of millionaire candidates and have slim chances of winning their respective party nominations.
This raises a question about whether it is necessary to be a millionaire to run for president — or even to serve in federal office. The average net worth of members of Congress is just over $1 million. Non-millionaires may run for the office, but apparently it is getting harder for them to win.
The days of Harry Truman are gone. Truman lived off his salary while a U.S. senator, vice president and then president. When he left the White House, he refused to serve on boards or lend his name to commercial enterprises that would have enriched him. He lived in a modest house in Independence, Missouri, on a quiet, tree-lined street like so many other middle-class Americans of his time, and even ours.
Why are the rich advantaged today? Federal campaign laws encourage the affluent to run and discourage those who aren’t. Under federal law, a candidate for federal office can give as much as he or she wishes to their own campaign. As a result, the wealthy have a distinct advantage in fundraising. Not only can they fund much, if not all, of their own campaigns, but they run around in the social circles of people who also can give significantly to campaigns or super PACs.
It is sad that the presidency now is the province of the wealthy. Apparently, whoever wins the presidency in 2016 will have long since lost (if they ever had) any connection with middle-class Americans who live month to month on wage and salary paychecks rather than board fees, stock dividends and speech or talk show income. That isn’t reassuring to Americans who would like to think their president understands people like them.
Richard Davis is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of BYU.