Late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham spent more than three decades in Congress, but public financial disclosures show his estate was far smaller than that of many of his longtime colleagues on Capitol Hill.
Lindsey Graham’s final net worth was estimated at roughly $1.4 million when he died, based on financial disclosure forms he filed in May. Those records placed the low end of his estimated wealth at just over $600,000 and the high end at slightly more than $2.2 million.
Despite serving 31 years in Congress, Graham ranked just 294th in wealth among the 535 voting members of Congress, according to data compiled by Quiver Quantitative.
The South Carolina Republican died at 71, leaving behind a net worth that was relatively modest for someone his age. Fidelity estimates that Americans between 65 and 74 have an average net worth of about $1.79 million, while the median is roughly $409,900.
Unlike many lawmakers who have faced scrutiny over trading individual stocks, Graham’s financial disclosures showed that nearly all of his investments were held in mutual funds and U.S. government bonds, avoiding one of Washington’s most common ethics controversies.
As a U.S. senator, Graham earned an annual salary of $174,000.
Although his finances were modest by Washington standards, Graham’s story began far from the halls of Congress.
He grew up in Central, South Carolina, where he lived with his parents and younger sister in a small room attached to the family’s restaurant before they later moved into a mobile home.
“It’s not a log cabin like Abe Lincoln, but he grew up in a mobile home, which is South Carolina’s equivalent of it, I guess,” Warren Mowry, Graham’s law school roommate, said in 2015.
Tragedy struck early in Graham’s adult life. Shortly after leaving home for college, both of his parents died within a short period, leaving the then-22-year-old responsible for raising his 13-year-old sister. An Air Force veteran, Graham also became the first member of his family to attend college.
Graham died Saturday night following what his office described as a “brief and sudden illness” after returning from a trip to Ukraine. The District of Columbia medical examiner’s office said preliminary findings showed he died from an aortic dissection caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The cause of death remains pending final toxicology and microscopic testing.
“I can’t die now. I still need to do the Russia sanctions, get Iran sorted out and do Israeli-Saudi normalization,” Graham joked shortly before his death, according to a source close to the lawmaker.
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