More than half of the lawmakers representing California have a median net worth of at least $1 million, according to a NOTUS analysis of their most recent financial disclosures.<\/p>\n
One major factor driving their wealth: the stock market.<\/p>\n
Rep. Darrell Issa<\/a>, who has represented California since 2001 (with a break between 2019 and 2021), has among the highest median net worths in the delegation, at $282.4 million. The Republican, who announced he is retiring<\/a> this year, made his fortune in the car alarm business and has remained a multimillionaire throughout his time in Congress, holding multimillion-dollar investment accounts and income generated by roughly a dozen rental properties.<\/p>\n Rep. Ro Khanna<\/a>\u2019s family made 4,284 stock\u00a0trades<\/a>\u00a0at a volume of over $59 million in 2025, according to an OpenSecrets analysis of data from\u00a0Capitol Trades<\/a>. Those include investments in everything from health care companies like Humana and Eli Lilly to retail companies like Lululemon \u2014 though most of the family\u2019s assets are in trusts.<\/p>\n Khanna has a median net worth of $232.7 million.<\/p>\n Rep. Gilbert Cisneros<\/a>\u00a0is another one of Congress\u2019 most active stock traders.<\/p>\n Cisneros, who won a Mega Millions jackpot worth $266 million in 2010, is heavily invested in defense manufacturers like Boeing and sits on the House Armed Services Committee, which\u00a0some have cited<\/a>\u00a0as a potential conflict of interest. A spokesperson from Cisneros\u2019 office said day-to-day trading is managed by a financial adviser, not the congressman nor his wife.<\/p>\n His median net worth is $65.9 million.<\/p>\n Former House Speaker\u00a0Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, who is retiring this year,<\/a> also stands out, with a median net worth of $187.7 million, much of which comes from assets belonging to her venture capitalist husband, Paul Pelosi.<\/p>\n Per reporting requirements, Pelosi must list her husband\u2019s shares on her final disclosure. According to the latest disclosure, he holds individual shares in a variety of companies, including tech giants like Alphabet, Apple, PayPal, Dropbox and Roblox.<\/p>\n In a statement to NOTUS, Pelosi\u2019s spokesperson, Ian Krager, said that she \u201cdoes not own any stocks, and she has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Pelosi was previously against a ban on stock trading, saying, \u201cWe are a free-market economy<\/a>,\u201d she has since come around to supporting a ban on trading individual stocks.<\/p>\n Neither Issa nor Cisneros have publicly supported a ban on stock trading or signed on to legislation that would do so. Khanna has for years advocated for a ban on lawmakers trading individual stocks and\u00a0has introduced legislation<\/a>\u00a0advocating for such rules.<\/p>\n Every year, members of Congress are required to report the values of each of their assets and liabilities in broad ranges, from $15,001 to $50,000. The ranges get bigger the larger the assets or liabilities get. The biggest value range they can report is open-ended \u2014 $50 million or more. There are also assets a lawmaker doesn\u2019t have to report, such as their primary residence.<\/p>\n Still, disclosures offer a window into how California\u2019s lawmakers are making their money. As Congress debates whether lawmakers should be allowed to own stocks, the financial disclosures of the California lawmakers with the highest median net worths show just how big a role the stock market plays in these politicians\u2019 wealth.<\/p>\n NOTUS calculated the median net worth of each lawmaker<\/a> by first finding each member\u2019s minimum net worth \u2014 the sum of the minimum value of all assets minus the sum of the maximum value of all their liabilities \u2014 and their maximum net worth \u2014 maximum asset value minus minimum liabilities. NOTUS then calculated the median between the minimum and maximum net worths.<\/p>\n Lawmakers filed their most recent financial disclosures in 2025, and they detail the lawmakers\u2019 finances in 2024.<\/p>\n The growing movement to ban lawmakers from owning stocks altogether has received support from Democrats and Republicans in Congress, as well as from the White House. There are currently no rules dictating that lawmakers cannot trade stocks in industries under their oversight.<\/p>\n Raihan Alam is among a group of doctoral students at UC San Diego who published\u00a0a report<\/a>\u00a0that found that congressional stock trading not only erodes public trust but also undermines the legitimacy of congressional authority in the eyes of constituents.<\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. for a long time has been seen as a poster child. Why is American democracy functioning so well? It\u2019s because people believe in their institutions,\u201d he told NOTUS. \u201cWhat practices like stock trading show is that there are cracks in these institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n A handful of California representatives also earn income from rental properties, like\u00a0Rep. Judy Chu<\/a>, who reported earning between $15,000 and $50,000 from each of three Santa Clara rental properties last year and between $50,000 and $100,000 from a fourth.<\/p>\n Some, particularly Republicans who represent districts with agrarian economies, own or are invested in farming businesses. Reps.\u00a0Jim Costa<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Vince Fong<\/a>\u00a0both generate income from family farming businesses.<\/p>\n Sen. Alex Padilla\u2019s liabilities exceed his assets, according to his financial disclosure reports. Sen. Adam Schiff has a median net worth of $1.3 million, holding only individual stocks of Apple; the rest of his investments are in mutual funds and ETFs.<\/p>\n In the 119th Congress, California\u2019s delegation welcomed nine new members \u2014 four of them were millionaires already. This includes Rep. George Whitesides, former CEO of Virgin Galactic, a multi-millionaire. After being sworn in, Whitesides\u00a0sold millions of dollars worth of individual stock holdings<\/a>, \u201cto avoid any possible conflicts of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs of March 28, neither I nor my wife hold any single company publicly-traded stocks,\u201d he\u00a0told NOTUS last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n By and large, these lawmakers are wealthier than the average Californian: According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the state\u2019s median household net worth is $288,000.<\/p>\n This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS <\/a>\u2014 a publication from the nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute \u2014 and NEWSWELL<\/a>, home of Times of San Diego<\/a>, Santa Barbara News-Press<\/a> and Stocktonia<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than half of the lawmakers representing California have a median net worth of at least $1 million,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9984,6361,7,9,8,1752,8669,8406],"class_list":["post-234092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-adam-schiff","tag-alex-padilla","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-congress","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-notus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}