Who Are the Richest U.S. Senators?

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Jim Justice of West Virginia is the richest U.S. senator, with an estimated net worth of about $664.37 million. Rick Scott of Florida ranks second at about $515.28 million, and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska is third at about $208.20 million. These figures are estimates as of Feb. 23, 2026, from a live tracker that values each senator’s reported holdings and trades. Every senator earns the same government salary of $174,000 a year, so the large fortunes at the top come almost entirely from outside the Senate: family businesses, company founding, finance and inheritance.

How Senators’ Wealth Is Measured

No official net worth figure exists for any senator. The numbers in rankings like this one are estimates built from mandatory disclosures, so it helps to know what those disclosures contain and what they leave out.

The disclosure rules

The Ethics in Government Act of 1978 requires many federal elected officials, senators included, to file an annual financial disclosure statement listing their assets, investments and business interests. Under the Senate’s rules, senators, Senate candidates and certain staff must report any asset or investment worth more than $1,000 at the end of each calendar year, along with any transaction worth more than $1,000.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 added a publication requirement: the disclosures are posted electronically on the Senate website, so anyone can read them without filing a records request.

Why the totals are estimates

Disclosures report values in ranges rather than exact dollar amounts. Mitch McConnell’s 2008 filing, for example, listed a family gift of between $5 million and $25 million. A tracker or researcher has to pick a point within each range, so two sources can reach different totals from the same filing.

The rankings below come from a live tracker that estimates portfolio values from senators’ reported trades. Those estimates rest largely on liquid securities such as stocks and bonds. Real estate, private companies, debts and other illiquid assets are not included. For a senator whose wealth sits mostly in a privately held business or a resort property, that omission can change the picture substantially. Jim Justice shows how much: press reports after the revelation of roughly $850 million in debt owed to the insolvent lender Greensill Capital concluded he was no longer a billionaire. A trade-based estimate does not capture liabilities like that.

The 10 Richest U.S. Senators

The ranking reflects the 119th Congress, with estimates as of Feb. 23, 2026.

1. Jim Justice (R-W.Va.): about $664.37 million

Justice served as governor of West Virginia from 2017 to 2025. He won that office as a Democrat, then switched to the Republican Party shortly after the election. He took his Senate seat in 2025.

His fortune traces to the family coal business he inherited from his father. He sold it in 2009 for a large sum and bought it back in 2015. He also owns the Greenbrier Resort, a luxury property in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. Neither the resort nor his coal holdings is fully reflected in the estimate.

2. Rick Scott (R-Fla.): about $515.28 million

Scott is a former governor of Florida who joined the Senate in 2019. He made most of his money in business before politics, building Columbia Hospital Corporation into one of the largest hospital networks in the country.

3. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.): about $208.20 million

Ricketts was appointed to the Senate in 2023 to fill the seat left open when Ben Sasse resigned. Before that he served two terms as Nebraska’s governor, from 2015 to 2023. Earlier in his career he worked for his family’s brokerage business, the company now known as Ameritrade.

4. Mark Warner (D-Va.): about $206.66 million

Warner is the only Democrat among the ten wealthiest senators, which also makes him the wealthiest Democrat in the Senate by this measure. Born in 1954, he grew up in a middle-class family.

His wealth comes mainly from Columbia Capital, the venture capital firm he founded shortly after law school. The firm made early investments in telecommunications companies, including Nextel Communications and XM Satellite Radio. Warner’s story differs from several others on the list: he did not inherit a family company but built his fortune through early-stage investing.

5. David McCormick (R-Pa.)

McCormick ranks fifth, placing his estimated net worth between Warner’s and Tim Sheehy’s. He served as an Army officer and paratrooper and deployed to the Middle East during the First Gulf War. After leaving active duty, he earned a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University.

He later became CEO of FreeMarkets. Starting in 2005, he served in the federal government as Under Secretary of the Treasury and as Deputy National Security Advisor. He then became CEO of Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, before running for the Senate in 2022.

6. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.): about $161.27 million

Sheehy is a former Navy SEAL who served in Afghanistan and received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. He left active duty after being wounded. In 2014 he founded Bridger Aerospace, an aerial firefighting company, and he co-founded Little Belt Cattle Company, a Montana ranch and beef business. He ran for the Senate in 2024.

7. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio): about $139.08 million

Moreno’s wealth comes largely from luxury car dealerships and from investments in blockchain technology. He also holds private equity and real estate investments, two asset types the tracker does not fully count.

8. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.): about $68.05 million

Johnson started in the late 1970s as an accountant at PACUR, a Wisconsin polyester and plastics manufacturer owned by his brother-in-law. He rose through the company and became its CEO by the mid-1980s.

9. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.): about $67.18 million

Mullin joined the Senate in 2023 after five terms in the House of Representatives. He built his initial wealth by expanding the family plumbing business over several decades and later founded several other companies.

10. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.): about $66.04 million

McConnell has served in the Senate since 1984, the longest tenure on this list.

Unlike most of the others, McConnell did not build a business. Much of his reported wealth is held in a Vanguard 500 index fund, a fund designed to track the S&P 500. The bulk of it came from family gifts: a gift from his father in 2008, and a gift of between $5 million and $25 million from the family of his wife, Elaine Chao, reported on the same 2008 disclosure. Chao is an economist who served as a cabinet secretary under Presidents George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump.

What the Ranking Shows

• Wealth came before office. Nearly every fortune on the list was built in business or finance, or received through inheritance or gifts, before or outside Senate service. Coal, hospitals, brokerage, venture capital, hedge funds, aerospace, car dealerships, manufacturing and plumbing account for most of it.
• Former governors cluster at the top. Justice, Scott and Ricketts, the three wealthiest, all served as governors before reaching the Senate.
• Party split. Nine of the ten are Republicans; Warner is the lone Democrat.
• A steep drop after the top two. Justice and Scott together hold more than the next three estimates combined, and the gap between second place (about $515.28 million) and third (about $208.20 million) is wider than the entire range from fourth through tenth.

How Much Does a U.S. Senator Make?

A U.S. senator’s salary is $174,000 a year as of 2026. Leadership positions carry higher pay, but the standard figure applies to most members.

Pay was far lower in the early republic: from 1789 to 1815, senators received $6 per day, with no annual salary.

The salary is a comfortable income by national standards, but at $174,000 a year it could not plausibly produce the nine-figure fortunes at the top of this list. Even the tenth-ranked estimate, about $66.04 million, equals roughly 380 years of a senator’s pay before taxes and living costs. That arithmetic is why outside sources, mainly businesses and investments built before office, explain senators’ wealth far better than their government income does.

Are Senators Rich?

Most are. Most U.S. senators are millionaires, according to their disclosures, and the wealthiest hold fortunes in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Running a Senate campaign takes money, connections and a public profile, which favors candidates who have already succeeded in business or finance.

Not every senator is wealthy, and the salary itself does not make anyone rich quickly. The fortunes on this list grew through ownership: founding or inheriting a business, investing early in growing companies, or holding diversified investments over decades and letting returns compound.

The Bottom Line

The ranking matters most to readers who want to know where senators' money comes from and how far to trust published net worth figures. The top fortunes were built through family businesses, company founding, finance and inheritance, well beyond what a $174,000 salary could produce. Disclosures report values in ranges, and the tracker skips real estate, private companies and debts, so each total is a rough estimate.