Brief Bio of the Six

A Brief Bio of Each of the Six Remaining Democratic Candidates by Dr. Jim Denison

How the candidates started and their net worth today

Mike Bloomberg was born to a dairy company bookkeeper and his wife; his father never earned more than $6,000 a year. He worked his way through Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School. In 1981, he and a team built a machine that provides real-time market data and other financial analytics to Wall Street firms. His company earned $10 billion in 2018; his net worth is now estimated at $61.8 billion.

Bernie Sanders was born in Brooklyn to a paint salesman and his wife. After serving as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and a US congressman and then senator, his net worth is estimated at $2 million, much of his earnings coming from books. He and his wife own three homes.

Elizabeth Warren was born to a US Army flight instructor who became a salesman and then a maintenance man for an apartment building. She started waiting tables at the age of thirteen. According to Forbes, she and her husband now have a net worth of $12 million resulting from their legal work, publishing, and real estate holdings.

Joe Biden’s father suffered financial setbacks before he was born; for several years, their family lived with his maternal grandparents. His father eventually became a successful used car salesman. Joe graduated from college and then attended law school with financial assistance. He became an attorney and then senator before being elected vice president in 2008. Forbes estimates that he and his wife have a net worth of $9 million, including two homes, financial investments, and a federal pension.

Amy Klobuchar’s father was a sportswriter and columnist; her mother taught second grade until she retired at the age of seventy. Her father struggled with alcoholism for years. She graduated from Yale and the University of Chicago, then worked as a prosecutor and a lawyer before she was elected to the US Senate. She and her husband now have an estimated net worth of $2 million, including their Minneapolis home, retirement accounts and mutual funds, and a federal pension.

Pete Buttigieg’s mother and father were both Notre Dame professors. He graduated from Harvard and Oxford, then worked for several political campaigns and as a consultant for McKinsey & Company before being elected mayor of South Bend, Indiana, in 2011. According to Forbes, he has a net worth of about $100,000.