Nancy Pelosi: Wealth And Leadership Transition In The Democratic Party

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will leave her role in the Democratic leadership when the new Congress meets on January 3—and she will depart considerably wealthier than when she began. Pelosi became speaker for the first time in 2007 and served until 2011. She then resumed the speakership in 2019 and will hold that position until the end of the present Congress.

Her estimated net worth has increased significantly since 2008 thanks in large part to the success of her husband, Paul Pelosi, who is a venture capitalist and property investor. It's not possible to know the precise net worth of members of Congress as they are only required to provide a range of values in their financial disclosures and not specific dollar amounts. This ambiguity makes it challenging to track exactly how much Pelosi's wealth has grown since she first took office.

Reports indicate that she is one of the wealthier members of Congress. In fact, her net worth in 2021 was estimated to be as much as $171.4 million according to an October report by The Washington Free Beacon. This figure was derived by considering the ranges of all her individual assets and liabilities from her financial disclosure statement.

Furthermore, The Washington Free Beacon estimated that Pelosi's net worth increased by $140 million since 2008. Meanwhile, the nonprofit organization OpenSecrets.org calculated her net worth at $115 million in 2020, which marked a rise of $41 million since 2004, the first year that the organization began tracking the personal finances of lawmakers.

Paul Pelosi’s company, Financial Leasing Services, has thrived in recent years, investing in major firms such as Disney, Amazon, and Google. Reports from The New York Post suggest that the Pelosis made between $5.6 million and $30.4 million from capital gains and dividends of investments in tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft from 2007 to 2020. However, Pelosi's deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, stated that the Speaker does not own any stocks, emphasizing that any transactions noted in disclosures are marked as being linked to her spouse.

In light of her leadership transition, Pelosi has faced criticism from certain members of her party regarding her stance on stock trading prohibitions for Congress members. Initially opposed to such a ban, she later expressed support, but no such ban has yet been implemented. In September, Representative Abigail Spanberger criticized Pelosi for her perceived inaction on legislation requiring lawmakers' investments to be placed in a blind trust, stating that the Democratic Party needs new leadership in Congress.

Do you have a tip on a politics story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about Nancy Pelosi? Let us know via politics@newsweek.com.