The all-American working man demeanor of Tim Walz—Kamala Harris’s running mate—looks like it’s not just an act.Financial disclosures show Tim Walz barely has any assets to his name. No stocks, bonds, or even property to call his own. Together with his wife, Gwen, his net worth is $330,000, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal citing financial disclosures from 2019, the year after he became Minnesota governor.With that kind of meager nest egg, he would be more or less in line with the median figure for Americans his age (he’s 60), and even poorer than the average. One in 15 Americans is a millionaire, a recent UBS wealth report discovered.Read more: Tim Walz’s leadership resonates with my country’s Viking Code. Here’s why that mattersMeanwhile, the gross annual income of Walz and his wife, Gwen, amounted to $166,719 before tax in 2022, according to their joint return filed that same year. Walz is even entitled to earn more than the $127,629 salary he receives as state governor, but he has elected not to receive the roughly $22,000 difference.“Walz represents the stable middle class,” tax lawyer Megan Gorman, who authored a book on the personal finances of U.S. presidents, told the paper.The governor’s office could not be immediately reached by Fortune for further comment. Walz’s personal net worth is a far cry from the estimated $8 million in net assets owned by Kamala Harris. This is in large part to her husband, who was a successful lawyer in California’s entertainment industry prior to their move to Washington, D.C., in 2021.The contrast is even more stark compared with their opponents. Donald Trump’s net worth is estimated to be $4.8 billion, according to Forbes. Trump has fought hard against releasing any of his tax returns. Walz’s direct competitor, former venture capitalist JD Vance, is also wealthy. He and his wife have a joint net worth of up to $10.4 million, plus real estate, the WSJ found. Vance’s campaign team did not confirm that figure. A chunk of the value comes from owning stakes in dozens of companies through his Narya Capital Management firm.Politicians’ assets have become a hot-button subject, especially as high-ranking officials like Nancy Pelosi became just as famous for her uncanny knack when it comes to stock picking as she is for her politics.Walz’s salt-of-the-earth backgroundA dark horse barely known to the public just months ago, the affable Walz emerged as a last-second winner of the Veepstakes this summer, edging out the popular governor of key battleground state Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro.A key reason Harris picked Walz, apart from their reported chemistry, was his salt-of-the-earth background growing up in the country’s heartland. Enlisting in the Army National Guard in 1981 and retiring at the rank of master sergeant, he became a high school teacher and football coach in Mankato, Minn., before joining public service as a member of Congress in 2006. Later as state governor he promoted policies popular with the Democratic Party base, including universal school lunches and legalized marijuana consumption. Since Harris made her career as a public prosecutor in the tech metropolis of San Francisco, Walz’s job is to bring balance to the ticket by embodying small-town America as convincingly as he can.The Harris-Walz ticket will need it as the past two presidential elections have been determined by purple battleground states around the industrial Midwest and Great Lakes region. There in the Rust Belt, practical, bread-and-butter policies that help put food on the table tend to matter more than the identity politics and culture wars over which the two parties frequently bicker.Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 precisely because his promise to bring back manufacturing jobs through punitive import tariffs flipped Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania from blue to red. Four years later, however, he went on to lose all three states to Biden after failing to protect communities like Youngstown, Ohio, from factory closures.Walz’s humble finances could appeal to lower-income voters in white working-class towns, but he’ll be competing for their vote with JD Vance. The senator hails from Ohio and captured the sense of hopelessness many feel there in his bestseller, Hillbilly Elegy.Upcoming event: Join business's brightest minds and boldest leaders at the Fortune Global Forum, convening November 11 and 12 in New York City. Thought-provoking sessions and off-the-record discussions feature Fortune 500 CEOs, former Cabinet members and global Ambassadors, and 7x world champion Tom Brady–among many others.
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