Book deals, real estate, stocks: SC’s members of Congress report their finances

WASHINGTON — South Carolina’s congressional delegation is flush with personal assets, including one member who reported tens of millions in cash savings and investments in 2022.

Members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives are required to annually disclose finances, including stock holdings, properties, transactions, mortgages, personal loans and financial ties to companies.

While exact amounts are impossible to calculate because members are only required to report a range of how much their assets and liabilities are worth, the reports reveal a snapshot of each lawmaker’s yearly financial status.

Here’s what 2022, the most recent year reflected in the reports, looked like for the lawmakers sent by South Carolinians to Washington:

Sen. Tim Scott, Republican

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, who until Sunday was vying for the 2024 Republican presidential primary nomination, pulled in nearly $400,000 in book sales in 2022, according to financial disclosures.

The three-term conservative senator and recent presidential hopeful has published three books, including his most recent, “America, A Redemption Story,” in August 2022 under seller HarperCollins Christian Publishing.

Scott reported $370,033 in royalties under his agreement with the publisher, according to his financial disclosure reflecting activities in 2022.

On top of his earned book income, Scott, who sits on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, reported between roughly $350,000 and nearly $1.2 million in assets, largely in mutual funds and stocks.

The businessman who owns a 50% stake in Rivertown Investments LLC, a residential real estate company, reported income from three residential properties, with two pulling in between $5,001 and $15,000 and the third between $201 and $1,000. The properties are in South Carolina’s Goose Creek, Summerville and Hanahan communities.

Scott invested in numerous corporate stocks last year and reported income between $201 and $1,000 for his interests in ExxonMobil. He did not report income above $201 for the rest of his corporate holdings, which include AT&T, Google’s parent company Alphabet, American Airlines Group, Apple, Boeing, Citigroup, Delta Air Lines, Palantir Technologies, Proctor & Gamble, Target and The Coca-Cola Company.

Members of Congress can legally, and commonly do, hold individual stocks, though the practice is perennially scrutinized by ethics experts who point to conflict-of-interest concerns and by other members of Congress who want to ban it.

The senator has a retirement account through the South Carolina system from his former position as a state legislator. The account is valued between $15,001 and $50,000.

Scott’s liabilities include five mortgages: three that are between $100,001 and $250,000, and the other two worth between $50,001 and $100,000, and $15,001 to $50,000.

The South Carolinian has two additional book royalty agreements with two publishing houses — Hachette Book Group based in New York and Tyndale House Publishers based in Illinois — but reported no income.

Scott did not report any gifts or travel.

Scott also sits on the Senate committees on Aging, Finance, Foreign Relations and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican

Graham, a U.S. senator from South Carolina since 2003, reported between $502,026 and $1.35 million in assets, largely mutual funds, in 2022.

Graham ended the year with a personal savings and a separate money market account both ranging between $50,000 and $100,000. His two checking account balances totaled between $1,001 and $15,000, and $15,001 up to $50,000.

Graham, also the ranking member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, gained between $11,212 and $36,500 in interest, dividends and capital gains.

He reported nine investment transactions in December 2022, including purchasing and selling stocks and U.S. Treasury bills at varying worths up to $50,000. In June 2022 he reported three transactions.

The South Carolina lawmaker owns one piece of undeveloped land in Seneca, South Carolina, worth $15,001 to $50,000.

Graham’s only liability is a mortgage incurred in 2012 and valued between $100,001 and $250,000.

He did not list any earned or non-investment income, gifts or travel in 2022. Senators are only required to list their salaries on the initial financial disclosure they complete after taking office.

In addition to the Judiciary Committee, Graham sits on the Senate’s Appropriations, Budget and Environment and Public Works committees.

Nancy Mace, Republican, 1st Congressional District

Mace made headlines this year for being one of the eight U.S. House members to vote with all Democrats to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, sparking weeks-long turmoil in the lower chamber.

Mace, who earns a salary of $174,000 as a member of Congress, reported assets ranging anywhere from $1.29 million to $5.8 million in 2022, the bulk of it in short-term rental income properties in Charleston and Mt. Pleasant followed by investments in mutual funds.

At year’s end her checking account balance totaled between $100,000 and $250,000

Mace represents her state’s Southern coastline, a congressional seat Scott once held.

She purchased a property in Isle of Palms for between $1 million and $5 million and sold another one in Charleston in the same price range.

Mace reported between $100,001 and $1 million in short-term rental income.

Mace had two mortgages at the end of 2022, one incurred during the previous year for between $100,000 and $250,000 on an investment property. Her personal home mortgage is between $1 million and $5 million.

Mace did not disclose any gifts, but she did accept a round trip flight to Madrid in November 2022 paid for by the Ripon Society, a center-right think tank based in Washington.

Joe Wilson, Republican, 2nd Congressional District

Wilson, a 12th-term congressman who represents a western part of the state including Columbia, recorded between $1 million and $2.1 million in assets in 2022 and earned between $30,000 and $95,000 in rental income.

Previously a state senator and an Army veteran, Wilson earned $43,209 in retirement funds from a combination of the South Carolina state system, the state’s National Guard and the U.S. military.

As of last year, Wilson listed six mortgages ranging from $615,001 to $1.4 million.

Wilson reported no gifts or travel, but did note that he is a member of AGW LLC property managers in South Carolina.

Jeff Duncan, Republican, 3rd Congressional District

Duncan, a seventh-term representative, reported between $1.1 million and just over $2.5 million in assets in 2022, including 40 acres in Montana and a 100% profit sharing interest in a Laurens, South Carolina-based dentist’s office, both owned by his spouse, as well as six rental properties that are a combination of residential, commercial and a parking garage, some of which are jointly owned.

Duncan reported a savings account balance between $15,001 and $50,000 last year. Duncan also reported between $1,001 and $15,000 in Colgate-Palmolive stock and the same amount in JD.com Inc., a Beijing-based e-commerce company considered one of China’s largest online retailers. Duncan reported no more than up to $200 in income on the shares last year.

Duncan’s positions outside of Congress include being president of The Future Group, Inc., listed as the holding company for several of his rental properties, and serving as treasurer and secretary of Three Tigers Capital Corporation, another real estate holding company.

Duncan earned between $22,501 and roughly $70,000 in rental income last year.

Duncan reported a construction loan between $250,001 and $500,000 and a home mortgage between $100,001 and $250,000, both jointly owned with his spouse. He also reported a personal loan between $15,001 and $50,000 “to put capital into Three Tigers Capital Corporation,” and a $10,001 to $15,000 investment loan for three of his Clinton, South Carolina-based rental properties.

Duncan did not report any gifts or travel. He reported eligibility for the South Carolina retirement system but no benefits incurred.

William R. Timmons IV, Republican, 4th Congressional District

Timmons, who represents the smallest of South Carolina’s congressional districts, reported between $3.9 million and just over $14 million in assets, including a 50% interest in an investment company that owns land as well as hot yoga and CrossFit ventures.

Timmons reported between roughly $1.25 million and $6.4 million in income from a combination of interest and dividends, partnership and distribution income and capital gains. The largest chunk resulted from a sale of his 50% stake in the Greenville-based investment company KPWT No Limits, LLC.

Timmons ended 2022 with four loans, including a business loan for $1 million to $5 million from United Community Bank, a loan from the same bank listed as a “U.S. Congress loan” for $250,001 to $500,000, and two separate loans from the Timmons Family Trust totaling between $750,000 and $1.5 million.

Timmons did not report any gifts or travel.

He is a non-managing member of both MWC Holdings, LLC and KPWT Holdings LLC.

Ralph Norman, Republican, 5th Congressional District

Norman, the fourth-term Congress member who represents a large swath of north-central South Carolina, reported nearly 15 pages of transactions, including purchases and sales of mutual funds, exchange traded funds, stocks and rental properties, for the year 2022.

Nearly 12 pages of assets on his 31-page financial disclosure represented a total of between $24.7 million and $95 million, largely in rental properties, mutual funds and stocks, 25 of which are owned jointly and five owned solely by his spouse.

Of that total, Norman reported an IRA held in cash through PNC Bank worth between $5 million and $25 million, and several rental properties valued between $1 million and $5 million.

Norman collected between $2.1 million and roughly $13 million in rental income, dividends and capital gains.

Norman is a managing member of Norman Development and listed member positions in 22 other organizations.

Norman did not report any gifts or travel for 2022.

James Clyburn, Democrat, 6th Congressional District

Clyburn, the lone Democrat of the delegation and the longest serving at 16 terms, represents a sprawling area of South Carolina beginning in the southwest and stretching northward through the center of the state toward the east.

Clyburn reported between $97,000 and $282,000 in assets last year, including $15,001 to $50,000 in Dominion Energy shares.

He collected from roughly $3,700 to $9,300 in rental income, dividends and interest.

Clyburn, a former state administration official, reported a pension account through the South Carolina system worth just over $59,800 in 2022.

Clyburn has two mortgages, both in the range of $250,001 to $500,000, for separate residences in Washington, D.C. and Santee, South Carolina. He has an additional home equity line of credit for $50,001 to $100,000 on a residence in Charleston.

Clyburn listed two unpaid board member positions for Allen University and for the Congressional Black Caucus Education and Leadership Institute.

Clyburn accepted travel payments and reimbursements for four trips, one to Tel Aviv paid for by the J Street Education Fund, an advocacy organization for democracy in Israel. Clyburn also traveled to Tunica, Mississippi, last August on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. The congressman also paid visits to Bethune-Cookman University in Florida and Morehouse College in Georgia to accept honorary degrees.

Clyburn reported a charity payment of $2,000 in lieu of honoraria for an appearance at the Lincoln Club of Los Angeles, though the specific charity is not disclosed.

Russell Fry, Republican, 7th Congressional District

The first-term congressman, who represents the northern half of the state’s coastline, reported between $17,000 and $81,000 in assets, including one checking account with his spouse. Fry reported no significant income collected on them above $200.

Last year, Fry earned just over $115,000 as an attorney at Coastal Law LLC and roughly $15,000 from the state of South Carolina from his time in the state legislature.

Fry reported student loan debt and a home mortgage each in the range of $250,001 to $500,000.

Fry did not report any gifts or travel.