Vance and Walz are both worth less than their respective would-be bosses, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

Vice presidents are usually tapped to consolidate the party, carry the presidential candidate’s message or appeal to some key constituency. In other words, they’re not usually selected for the money they bring to the campaign (RFK Jr’s pick of Nicole Shanahan notwithstanding). Still, there’s a lot to learn about a candidate from how they much money they’ve made and how they’ve made it.

Both Vance and Walz grew up in working class families in the Midwest, joined the military as teenagers and later went on to get social science degrees from state schools. But their career choices afterwards caused their paths to diverge. Vance went to Yale Law School, wrote a bestselling book—“Hillbilly Elegy”—about his rough-and-tumble upbringing and became a venture capital investor, which helped him rake in millions. Then he won a Senate seat in 2022 and, at age 39, was picked as Donald Trump’s running mate. Walz, on the other hand, became a public school teacher, retired from the military and ran for Congress in the wake of the Iraq War that Vance had fought in. He next became governor of Minnesota, winning a second term before Kamala Harris tapped him as her second. Today, he’s virtually swimming in pensions—but not much else in the way of assets.

There is no doubt that Vance is vastly richer than Walz. But as the duo get ready for their debate tonight in Manhattan, here’s a head-to-head comparison of how the two vice presidential candidates stack up financially, based on Forbes estimates and reporting.

JD Vance:........

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