More than half of Congress may be millionaires, but in the Kansas delegation, it is a senators-only club.
Republican Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran are the only Kansas lawmakers on Capitol Hill with an estimated net worth of more than $1 million, according to an analysis of 2014 personal financial disclosures by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks Washington influence.
Roberts, first elected to the Senate in 1996, had an estimated net worth of $3.1 million, which places him at No. 159 among the combined 535 members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Moran, elected to the Senate in 2010, had an estimated net worth of $1.2 million, placing him at No. 252.
It’s a long way down the list to Rep. Tim Huelskamp, the state’s least wealthy lawmaker in Washington. The Kansas Republican ranks at No. 485, with an average net worth of $56,000. Huelskamp, a farmer and former Kansas state senator, was elected in 2010.
Huelskamp is in better shape financially than his colleague Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., who has a negative net worth of $25.1 million, making him the least wealthy member of Congress. Valadao has taken out several lines of credit to support his dairy farm in California’s Central Valley.
$51,000 Median household income in Kansas in 2013.
Overall, members of Congress had a median wealth of $1.1 million in 2014, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The remaining three members of Congress from Kansas – Reps. Lynn Jenkins, Mike Pompeo and Kevin Yoder, all Republicans – each had an estimated net worth below that: $709,000; $345,000 and $184,500, respectively.
Roberts and Moran had previously served in the House. But even their wealth is quite modest compared with some of their colleagues from other states.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., is No. 1 in all of Congress, with a net worth of $436.5 million. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., ranks second, with a net worth of $387.8 million.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., ranks third in Congress and first in the Senate with $242.9 million.
Every state had at least one millionaire in Congress in 2014. The three-member delegations in Alaska and Wyoming were all millionaires, as were all seven members from Oregon. In Kentucky, seven out of eight members were millionaires.
Members of Congress and the Senate earn a base salary of $174,000 a year. The median household income in Kansas in 2013 was $51,000.
Curtis Tate: 202-383-6018, @tatecurtis
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