The 1% and the Midwest

MILWAUKEE, WI — An interesting tool updated recently by USA Today shows 57 members of Congress are in the top 1% of income earners in America.  A little more digging finds ten of them are Midwestern congressmen and women.  However, the most interesting thing is, among those ten…four of them represent the State of Wisconsin.

An analysis of the data set organized by USA Today finds ten congressmen from the Midwest earning more than $9 million (considered the cut-off in terms of estimated net worth).  From there, another 38 congressmen from the Midwest are worth at least $1 million.

The richest in the Midwest is Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) with a net worth of $173.5M, whose earnings largely come from Kohl’s Corporation (which he served as president from 1970-1972, and remained an executive of until 1979) and from his other holdings, Kohl Investments and the Milwaukee Bucks. For perspective, the richest overall congressman is Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) with an estimated net worth of $448M.

Oddly, the most fiscally “humble” congressman also comes from Wisconsin, in Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wisconsin), with an estimated net worth of -$167k.  That may put his statements from earlier this year about struggling to make ends meet on his $174k/year congressional salary.

Of the ten 1%ers in the Midwest, four are Democrats, and six are Republicans.  Of the total 48 millionaire congressmen in the Midwest, 14 are Democrats, and 34 are Republicans.  Michigan has the most millionaires with eight, while Minnesota has the least at three.

Click below the jump for more statistics on who’s worth what, and where.

Millionaire Congressmen by State

Who They Are

*=Top 1%

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