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Official portrait of Mitch McConnell

Mitch McConnell

R Republican · Senator, Kentucky
31
Moderate self-dealing
5/6 components have data
#41 of 193 scored

Mitch McConnell's household investment portfolio is dominated by Vanguard index funds, ETFs, and money market funds, with only limited individual-stock activity disclosed under the STOCK Act (roughly $1.9M in lifetime individual trades, plus a Wells Fargo position valued $1M-$5M); the mix of small, scattered trades shows no clear pattern of committee-aligned or market-beating timing. The large increase in his reported net worth—from roughly $3 million before 2008 to tens of millions—is attributable primarily to a 2007 inheritance/gift to his wife Elaine Chao from her family following her mother's death, wealth that predates and is unrelated to tenure-based enrichment. Securities and finance interests rank among his top career campaign contributors, a correlation only and not evidence of any quid pro quo. The strongest accountability signals are revolving-door related: a Department of Transportation Inspector General referred ethics concerns about Chao (then DOT Secretary) using staff to assist her family's shipping firm, Foremost Group, to the DOJ, which declined to prosecute, and McConnell's office maintains dense ties to former-aide lobbyists. No FEC findings of personal use of campaign funds were located, and while McConnell has missed votes amid documented health absences, no reliable missed-vote percentage paired with fundraising was retrievable.

Public record

In Congress since
1985
Committees
Rules and Administration (Chairman)
Joint Committee on Printing (Chairman)
Joint Committee of Congress on the Library (Vice Chairman)
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
Appropriations
Missed votes, 119th Congress
15.0% (137 of 915; median member 1.9%)
Campaign money, 2025–26 cycle
$217K raised · 7% from PACs & committees · $7.3M cash on hand FEC ↗

The stock-trading ban

Senate cloture on H.R. 7008, Sep 30, 2026
Yes
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

9trades since Jan 2025
7buys
2sells
0filed past 45 days
$37K–$205Kdisclosed value range

Most-traded: WFC ×7 · LAZR ×2

TradedFiledOwnerAssetTypeAmount
Sep 1, 2026Sep 21, 2026SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & Company Common StockBuy$15,001 - $50,000filing ↗
Jun 1, 2026Jun 30, 2026SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & Company Common StockBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Mar 1, 2026Mar 19, 2026SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & Company Common StockBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Dec 24, 2025Jan 13, 2026SpouseLAZR Luminar Technologies IncPartial sell$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Dec 1, 2025Dec 19, 2025SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Sep 1, 2025Sep 12, 2025SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Jun 26, 2025Jul 7, 2025SpouseLAZR Luminar Technologies IncPartial sell$15,001 - $50,000filing ↗
Jun 1, 2025Jun 19, 2025SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Mar 3, 2025Mar 12, 2025SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Dec 2, 2024Jan 4, 2025SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Sep 1, 2024Sep 16, 2024SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Jun 4, 2024Jun 13, 2024SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗
Mar 5, 2024Mar 19, 2024SpouseWFC Wells Fargo & CompanyBuy$1,001 - $15,000filing ↗

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-trading
25% weight
25
Household portfolio is overwhelmingly Vanguard index funds/ETFs and money market funds, but McConnell has disclosed a modest number of individual-stock trades (~$1.9M lifetime) and holds a Wells Fargo position valued $1M-$5M. Trades are small, infrequent, and show no clear committee-aligned or suspicious-timing pattern, though some individual-stock exposure exists.
McConnell's disclosed assets are heavily weighted to Vanguard index funds/ETFs (VOO up to $25M, VXUS up to $5M, VFIAX up to $5M) plus a Wells Fargo corporate stock holding valued $1M-$5M.Data aggregatorquiverquant.com ↗McConnell engaged in select individual-stock transactions totaling ~$1.9M, including sales of Ingersoll Rand and Valvoline (2019), a Lazr/Luminar sale (2025), and small purchases of Wells Fargo (2020) and Kroger (2022).Data aggregatorquiverquant.com ↗McConnell's 2022 disclosure lists total assets between roughly $19.8M and $96M, with top holdings being Vanguard ETFs/funds and a single Wells Fargo corporate stock.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗
Net-worth enrichment in office
15% weight
10
McConnell's net worth rose from about $3 million before 2008 to tens of millions, but this jump is overwhelmingly attributable to a 2007 inheritance/gift to his wife from her family (a money market fund valued $5M-$25M), which predates the scoring window. There is little evidence of enrichment beyond salary and broad-market returns from office itself.
McConnell's net worth was about $3.1 million before 2008, then jumped after a 2008 disclosure listing a Vanguard money market fund valued $5M-$25M described as a gift from a relative.Reference databaseen.wikipedia.org ↗A McConnell spokesman confirmed the money market fund was an inheritance for Elaine Chao following the 2007 death of her mother, not income from office.News reportingwashingtonpost.com ↗Elaine Chao's father gave the couple gifts reported in the millions, boosting McConnell's personal worth and largely deriving from the Chao family's Foremost Group shipping fortune.Reference databaseen.wikipedia.org ↗
Money → action alignmentcorrelation, not proof of any quid-pro-quo
20% weight
45
Correlation, not proof. Securities/investment and broader finance interests rank among McConnell's top career campaign contributors, and as a longtime Republican leader he shaped finance-relevant legislation and campaign-finance law. This reflects concentration of industry money alongside aligned policy positions; no quid pro quo is asserted.
Securities & Investment was the top industry contributor to McConnell's Majority Leader joint fundraising committee in 2014 ($114,600), reflecting finance-sector concentration in his fundraising.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗OpenSecrets tracks McConnell's career top contributing industries and organizations, with finance and lawyers/lobbyists among leading sources.Reference databaseopensecrets.org ↗The McConnell-aligned Senate Leadership Fund super PAC raised over $67M and drove $211M in outside spending in the 2024 cycle, concentrating large donor money around his political network.News reportingfactcheck.org ↗
Campaign-fund personal useno data
15% weight
—
No FEC findings or credible reporting of McConnell using campaign or leadership-PAC funds for personal-benefit categories were located. Searches surfaced only the unrelated McConnell v. FEC Supreme Court case and general FEC personal-use guidance. Absence of data is not penalized.
Searches for FEC personal-use investigations of McConnell returned only the 2003 McConnell v. FEC campaign-finance case and general FEC personal-use rules, with no findings of personal-use violations.Official recordfec.gov ↗
Revolving door & family
15% weight
55
Strong revolving-door signals exist. A DOT Inspector General referred ethics concerns about Elaine Chao (then DOT Secretary, McConnell's wife) using government staff to assist her family's shipping firm to the DOJ, which declined to prosecute; the couple has received over $1M in campaign contributions from the Chao family. McConnell's office also has a dense staff-to-lobbyist pipeline.
The DOT Inspector General found evidence of potential ethics violations by Elaine Chao for using government employees on private tasks aiding her father's Foremost Group and referred the matter to DOJ, which declined to investigate.News reportingwashingtonpost.com ↗McConnell's re-election campaigns received more than $1 million from Chao's extended family, including her father and her sister Angela, Foremost's CEO.News reportingwbur.org ↗Former McConnell chief speechwriter Brian McGuire works at lobbying firm Brownstein, and McConnell's office sits within a dense network (~591 links) of firms whose lobbyists have privileged access.News reportingineteconomics.org ↗DOT IG investigated whether Chao improperly steered resources to McConnell's Kentucky but did not find evidence of that specific allegation.News reportingaxios.com ↗
Skips the job to fundraise
10% weight
15
McConnell has missed votes during multiple documented health absences (2023 concussion/six-week absence, 2025-2026 hospitalizations), but these appear health-driven rather than fundraising-driven. His personal reelection committee's fundraising fell to multi-year lows in 2024 as he stepped down as leader, weakening any missed-votes-for-fundraising pattern. No reliable missed-vote percentage paired with paid speeches was retrievable.
McConnell was hospitalized for five days in March 2023 after a fall (concussion and rib fracture) and did not return to the Senate for almost six weeks, and had further hospitalizations in 2025-2026.Reference databaseen.wikipedia.org ↗McConnell's reelection committee raised only about $341,000 in the first nine months of 2024, his lowest in years, as he prepared to step down as Senate Republican leader.News reportingkentuckylantern.com ↗

Sources behind this score: 2 data aggregator · 6 reference database · 7 news reporting · 1 official record. Score = weighted average of the components that have data; the 1 without sourced evidence are excluded, never counted against the member. Methodology →

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