Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) net worth ballooned from an estimated $7 million when she first took office in 2017 to possibly more than $44 million in 2020, according to analysis from the Center for Responsive Politics and her most recent financial disclosure forms.
Depending on where she falls in the ranges in her latest financial disclosure forms, that could represent as much as a 600 percent increase in her net worth in just a few short years in Congress–a massive boom for an already-independently wealthy political scion of the powerful Cheney family which counts among its most powerful her father, former Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney.
During Cheney’s first term in office, from 2017 to 2018, her net worth grew from the 71st ($7,036,013) to the 24th ($14,710,513) wealthiest member in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows.
Since then, Cheney’s net worth has continued to grow–perhaps significantly. According to her 2020 Personal Financial Disclosure former, Cheney declared her net worth was estimated between $10,422,023 and $44,140,000 stemming from assets valued between $10,432,024 and $44,155,000. Cheney reported no earned income, gifts, or transactions. Yet Cheney declared she held three posts, which include a trustee position at the University of Wyoming, a member of a holding company, and what appears to be her family’s trust.
The documents are reported in ranges, so it is unclear at this time exactly how close she falls to the top of the broader range, but even if her worth is the lower end, she still significantly increased her net worth while in office.
Cheney’s boosted net worth comes amid political controversy about how some congressional members have enriched themselves while American workers do not have the same access or connections. The median American household net worth is $121,700, NerdWallet estimated.
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 28: Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) walks to a meeting in the office of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Capitol Hill on Thursday, July 28, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Notably, in 2018, Cheney’s top listed assets were Citibank ($3,000,000) and Latham & Watkins ($3,000,000). Latham & Watkins is Liz Cheney’s husband’s law firm, where Philip Perry, Cheney’s husband, has been a partner since 2017. According to Cheney’s 2020 Personal Financial Disclosure, Perry has an “equity ownership” in the firm worth between $1,000,001 and $5,000,000.
Perry’s firm has advised a Chinese Communist Party-linked technology company named TME and Exelon Corporation. The State Department in 2019 dubbed TME a tool of the Chinese government. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2011, Exelon Corporation agreed to provide consulting and training services to an arm of the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). The state-owned CNNC’s president and vice president are appointed by the highest administrative position in the Government of China, the Premier of the People’s Republic of China. The CNNC supervises all facets of China’s nuclear programs.
While Perry’s law firm has serviced Chinese clients, Cheney has sat on the Armed Services Committee with many powerful subcommittees dedicated to national security. Cheney worked with House Republicans’ on producing a 2020 report on Communist China entitled the “China Task Force Report.” The report states, “[T]he greatest generational challenge we face today is the threat of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).”
Cheney’s GOP primary opponent, Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman, has slammed Cheney and her husband for his connections to the CCP-liked companies. Hageman believes the Perry family is “personally” and “financially benefiting from working for China,” Hageman told Just the News.
Concerning Perry’s partnership at Latham & Watkins, Cheney’s spokesman Jeremy Adler previously told Breitbart News that Perry has not financially gained from the “Chinese Government” during his partnership tenure. “Harriet is telling you an outright lie. Liz’s husband, Phil Perry, receives no financial benefit at all from any Chinese Government entity,” Adler wrote in an emailed statement. “This is pure defamation, and Harriet should be accountable for it.”
FILE – Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair of the January 6 Committee, gives a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, June 29, 2022, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Breitbart News reached out to Cheney’s office to ask how she explains her net worth grown from an estimated from $7 million in 2017 to possibly more than $44 million in 2020 depending on where she falls in the reported ranges on her 2020 Personal Financial Disclosure document. Cheney’s office did not return a request for comment on this front.
Questions surrounding Cheney’s wealth come has she is trailing in the polls to opponent Harriet Hageman by about 30 points and predicted to lose the GOP primary on August 16. Cheney’s political approval is on a downward trend due to her fixation on fighting against former President Donald Trump on the partisan January 6 Committee. Fifty-four percent of voters were less likely to support Cheney’s reelection “because she’s part of the panel investigating the attack on the Capitol,” Casper Star-Tribune/Mason-Dixon found.
Cheney’s opposition to Trump has won her favor with many in the establishment uniparty. In recent weeks, Cheney has won endorsements from Hollywood elites and donations from Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama donors. She has also solicited votes from Democrats, though Joseph Barbuto, the chairman of the Wyoming Democrat Party, believes the tactic will not be effective.
Cheney has also received large amount of money from outside state donors looking to save Cheney from defeat. The incumbent has out-raised Hageman by nearly three to one. Yet Hageman has done very well with Wyoming voters, who have donated more than $1.2 million — more than four times as much as Wyoming voters have donated to Cheney, FEC data shows.
“Liz Cheney has lost Wyoming. Liz Cheney doesn’t live in Wyoming. She doesn’t represent us,” Hageman told Breitbart News. “She doesn’t represent our values.”
According to PredictIt odds, Cheney has only a three-cent chance on the dollar of winning. Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman is favored by 97 cents on the dollar.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
