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Official portrait of Maxine Waters

Maxine Waters

D Democrat · Representative, California 43rd district
26
Moderate self-dealing
6/6 components have data
#68 of 193 scored

Maxine Waters (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, does not report trading individual stocks, and STOCK Act trackers list no personal or spousal securities transactions, keeping her stock-trading exposure low. Her disclosed net worth (roughly $1-3 million, heavily tied to a long-held Los Angeles residence) shows no clear evidence of growth beyond ordinary real-estate appreciation, and historic wealth predates much of her tenure. As a senior member of the "big money" Financial Services Committee, Waters has long received financial-sector contributions; this represents a money-influence correlation only, not proof of quid pro quo. The most documented concern is campaign spending: FEC records show her campaign, Citizens for Waters, paid her daughter Karen Waters well over $1 million since 2003 for slate-mailer and consulting work, and in 2025 the committee agreed to a $68,000 FEC fine for accepting excessive contributions, prohibited cash disbursements, and reporting failures. She also missed about 6.7% of roll-call votes over her career, above the chamber median, though no evidence ties absences to paid speaking or fundraising. No evidence of personal-use embezzlement of campaign funds or a family-lobbying revolving door was found beyond the daughter's campaign-vendor payments.

Public record

In Congress since
1991
Committees
Financial Services (Ranking Member)
Missed votes, 119th Congress
4.5% (30 of 674; median member 1.9%)
Campaign money, 2025–26 cycle
$864K raised · 46% from PACs & committees · $270K cash on hand FEC ↗

The stock-trading ban

H.R. 7008 passage, Jul 22, 2026
No
Cosponsored a ban bill
None

H.R. 7008 bans new stock purchases by members, spouses and dependents; it doesn't force sales of existing holdings. The Senate vote was on the version paired with the SAVE Act, which is why no Democrat voted yes. Full breakdown →

Disclosed stock trades

No periodic transaction reports on file since 2024. That's the norm: most members don't trade individual stocks, or hold them in blind trusts and diversified funds.

Amounts are the ranges members must report, not exact values. The STOCK Act requires a report within 45 days of a trade; "late" counts days past that deadline, measured to the filing date.

How the score breaks down

Stock self-tradinghousehold / spouse
25% weight
3
No individual stock trades disclosed for Waters or her spouse under the STOCK Act; trackers show zero trade activity. Her husband historically held OneUnited Bank stock (~$500k in 2007), but that is a static holding, not active trading.
MarketBeat's congressional stock-trade profile for Maxine Waters shows zero individual stock trades ('No trade activity').Data aggregatormarketbeat.com ↗Waters does not trade individual stocks and has not been accused of insider trading; her husband Sidney Williams held at least ~$500,000 in OneUnited Bank stock around 2007.Data aggregatorfinbold.com ↗
Net-worth enrichment in office
15% weight
12
Disclosed net worth is modest (~$0.8M in 2018 per OpenSecrets, roughly $1-3M in later estimates) and dominated by a long-held Los Angeles home that predates much of her tenure. No clear evidence of growth beyond salary and market/real-estate appreciation.
OpenSecrets estimated Waters' 2018 net worth at about $793,006, ranking 191st in the House, with real estate valued around $3 million.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗Her primary asset is a long-owned Windsor Square (Los Angeles) residence that has appreciated over decades; 2024 net-worth estimates range roughly $1.5M assets against $1.4M liabilities.Data aggregatorfinbold.com ↗
Money → action alignmentcorrelation, not proof of any quid-pro-quo
20% weight
45
CORRELATION, NOT PROOF. As senior Democrat / former chair of the Financial Services Committee, Waters has long received contributions from the finance, insurance, real estate, and securities sectors that her committee oversees. This is alignment of donor industries with jurisdiction, not evidence of quid pro quo.
Waters is the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, which has jurisdiction over banks, insurance, and securities firms long noted as generous donors to committee members.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗Waters received contributions from the finance/insurance/real estate sector (e.g., ~$60,000 in the 2010 cycle), and OneUnited Bank executives were among her campaign contributors.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗
Campaign-fund personal use
15% weight
55
FEC records show Citizens for Waters paid her daughter Karen Waters more than $1.2 million since 2003 for slate-mailer and consulting work, and the committee agreed to a $68,000 FEC fine in 2025 for excessive contributions, prohibited cash disbursements, and reporting failures. Payments to a family-member vendor are legal but a recurring personal-benefit concern; no evidence of outright personal-luxury spending.
Waters' campaign has paid her daughter Karen Waters more than $1.2 million since 2003 for slate-mailer operations and services such as fundraising and administrative work.News reportingwashingtonexaminer.com ↗A 2023 investigation found Waters' campaign paid daughter Karen $192,300 for a slate-mailer operation between January 2021 and December 2022.News reportingfoxbusiness.com ↗In 2025 Citizens for Waters agreed to a $68,000 FEC fine for accepting $19,000 in excessive contributions, making prohibited cash disbursements totaling $7,000, and inaccurate reporting.News reportingfoxnews.com ↗
Revolving door & family
15% weight
30
Main nexus is family financial entanglement: daughter Karen Waters is a long-standing paid campaign vendor (slate mailers), and her late husband held OneUnited Bank stock/board ties that prompted a 2010-2012 House ethics inquiry (Waters was ultimately cleared). No documented family lobbying firm or staff-to-lobbyist pipeline was found.
The Office of Congressional Ethics found 'substantial reason to believe' Waters may have violated ethics rules over a Treasury meeting benefiting OneUnited Bank, where her husband held stock and a former board seat; she was later exonerated by the ethics committee.Reference databasepropublica.org ↗Daughter Karen Waters has been a continuing paid campaign vendor, receiving over $1 million for slate-mailer and consulting work tied to the campaign.News reportingfoxbusiness.com ↗
Skips the job to fundraise
10% weight
20
Waters missed about 6.7% of roll-call votes over her career (1,472 of 21,865), well above the ~2.1% median, and missed roughly 37% of Financial Services hearings in a 2015-16 spot-check. No evidence links these absences to paid speeches or fundraising events; viral '90% of meetings missed' claims were debunked.
From January 1991 to June 2026 Waters missed 1,472 of 21,865 roll-call votes (6.7%), versus a 2.1% median for currently serving representatives.Reference databasegovtrack.us ↗PolitiFact and FactCheck debunked claims she skipped 90% of meetings, but noted she missed about 37% of Financial Services hearings in a 2015-16 spot-check.News reportingpolitifact.com ↗

Sources behind this score: 3 data aggregator · 5 reference database · 5 news reporting. Score = weighted average of the components that have data; the 0 without sourced evidence are excluded, never counted against the member. Methodology →

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