SENATE MIDTERMS 2022: What is Mark Kelly's net worth? Here's how he's funding race
As we previously covered, Senator Mark Kelly is facing a rather uphill battle to keep Arizona blue in the face of a large red wave. Retaining his seat is not going to be easy, especially since he has inspired several challengers in the Republican party. With just months to go for the primaries, the race in Arizona has already barreled into a multimillion-dollar one, and could possibly become the most expensive in the state to date.
Leading the fundraising race is Kelly, who has been described as a "fundraising machine". In fact, in the first six months of 2021, he reportedly raised over half his net worth, with over $7 million in hand. In contrast, his closest Republican challenger raised only $2.2 million, so it seems like Kelly may have the race in the bag. But, it's not how much he raises but spends that may determine if he retains his seat in 2022.
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With all eyes on the money, we thought now would be a good time to actually look at Kelly's cash flow, and more specifically his net worth. Here's everything we know about his assets, trades, and where else he made his millions.
Mark Kelly's net worth
As with all public officials, Kelly is bound to disclose his finances each year as is the law. His latest available disclosure is from August 2020, which is accessible via the Securities and Exchange Commission website. In 2019, Celebrity Net Worth estimated he was worth around $20 million, a figure that seems to mirrored in his 2020 disclosures. We know Kelly draws a salary of $174,000 for his role as a Senator, so he's clearly making his millions from a large number of other sources.
One of those key sources of income is Kelly Aerospace Consulting, the firm Kelly set up to receive payments for his speeches. In 2022, Kelly reported around $290,000 in income from the firm, down by over $1.5 million from previous years. He also reported around $10,000 in royalties from Simon and Schuster, which are linked to the eight books he has authored and co-authored, including 'Enough' with his wife Gabrielle Giffords. In April 2020, he also signed an agreement "to receive payment based on usual and customary terms for option to produce motion picture." It's not clear if he received any money that year, but he's still listed it in his disclosure.
Other than that, Kelly also holds numerous positions with multiple third parties, but he hasn't disclosed how much he is being paid for those roles. He is a board member of three Arizona-based firms, as well as an advisory member of the University of Arizona Math Department. Outside of Arizona, Kelly also has roles at California-based SpaceX, Colorado-based Boom Aerospace, and Texas-based El Campo Center.
Kelly also makes significant money from securities, corporate bonds, and mutual funds. Amongst his key sources include $15,001 - $50,000 from SV Angel V Investment Fund, and around the same amount from a corporate securities stock with The Mexico Fund Inc. A large number of these assets are held jointly with his wife, but Kelly also holds several of them on his own. For example, he disclosed between $1-5 million from Pinterest stock. Kelly also reported rent of around $15,000 from a residential property in Tucson, owned by his wife. It's unclear what the property is worth, but it appears to be the only one the couple owns.
Finances for 2022 race
In the last three months of 2021, Kelly reportedly raised a whopping $9 million, with a large amount of that reportedly coming from individuals. In a statement, his campaign said a third of "the roughly 117,000 individuals who have contributed to the campaign in 2021 so far had never contributed to the campaign before." As of January 2022, he has a total of $27.5 million, with more than $18.5 million in the bank.
In contrast, his closest challenger is solar power company executive Jim Lamon, who raised around $3.2 million in the final quarter of 2021. Another challenger, Blake Masters could only muster $1.28 million while Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich was all but out of the running having raised only $800,000 in the same timeframe. It means that if the GOP is to put up a stiff challenge, they'll have to do so via Lamon.
So far, Trump hasn't weighed in on the race, which both Democrats and Republicans see as vital to taking control of the Senate. With Biden carrying Arizona by a tiny margin in the 2020 Presidential Elections, the GOP is confident they can flip the seat. To do that though, they are going to have to try much harder as Kelly's clearly outdoing them in fundraising. Whether that translates to votes remains to be seen, but given that he managed to do so in 2020, it's possible he could keep his seat in 2022.
The 2022 midterms are scheduled for November 8, 2022, with the primaries in Arizona scheduled for August 2, 2022.