Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mikie Sherrill has filed an
annual financial disclosure report that lists specific values of
her assets, going beyond the disclosures required by federal and
state laws and debunking the theory that she’s personally profited
off her service as a congresswoman.
According to her disclosure, which includes the exact values of
her stock funds, Sherrill and her husband, Jason Hedberg, who runs
equity derivative sales at a New York investment bank, have an
estimated net worth of roughly $9.4 million.
Most of that was accumulated through Hedberg’s salary and bonus;
he made $2,913,882 in 2024, $2,748,591 in 2023, $2,704,916 in 2022,
and $2,581,419 in 2021. (Sherrill’s own congressional salary is
$174,000.)
There’s nothing in the disclosure to indicate that Sherrill has
unfairly used the stock market to grow her family’s wealth.
In December 2019, Sherrill opted to sell all of her individual stocks and
convert her holdings to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – essentially
a basket of investments that can be purchased as stock – that
prevent any appearance of conflict. Sherrill and Hedberg do
not buy and sell individual stocks, with one exception: they sell
shares of UBS Securities stock earned by Hedberg as part of his
employee compensation package.
That runs contrary to attacks from her Republican gubernatorial
opponent, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, claiming that the
congresswoman has financially benefited from her six-and-a-half
years in public office. A super PAC supporting Ciattarelli
began running ads last month alleging that Sherrill
profited through stock trades during her tenure in Washington, and
Ciattarelli’s own campaign is running a website titled “Mikie Made
Millions” that levels the same accusation.
Sherrill also faced similar attacks from several of her
opponents during the Democratic primary election, which she
ultimately won by a substantial margin. During the primary
campaign, she was asked on The Breakfast Club radio show about then-primary rival
Ras Baraka’s claim that she made $7 million in stock trades; her
answer, which declined to give many details on her finances, has
now made it into Ciattarelli’s advertising.
Many of those attacks, however, are based on a simple issue with
the way that members of the U.S. House of Representatives release
their financial disclosures. Instead of relying on ranges on
actual values, the House allows members of Congress to list ranges,
creating ambiguity in calculating net worth and allowing the
distortion of data by choosing the upper range for each
category.
For example, two of Sherrill’s savings accounts listed in the
$1,001 to $15,000 range were actually worth $2,295 and $5,032,
respectively, as of the end of last year; more often than not, the
values are closer to the lower end of a limit than the higher
end.
Sherrill and Hedberg’s assets include the family’s primary
residence in Montclair, a modest vacation home, and a townhouse in
Washington, D.C. All three have mortgages, and the Capitol
Hill home includes rental income from Sherrill’s former roommate, ex-Rep. Abigail
Spanberger, now the Democratic nominee for governor of
Virginia.
Again, the ranges open the door to bad numbers: Sherrill’s
Washington home is listed as an asset worth between $1 million and
$5 million, but tax records show the actual valuation to be about
$1.55 million.
She has total brokerage holdings of $4,427,956 with zero
investment in individual stocks.
Last year, Sherrill’s joint tax return showed an income of
$3,163,008; in addition to Hedberg’s salary, that included her
$174,000 congressional salary, $114,970 in ordinary dividends taxed
like regular income, and $47,510 in qualified dividends taxed at a
lower long-term capital gains rate.
In three of the last four years, Sherrill had negative capital
gains: -$3,000 in 2024, -$1,751 in 2023, $3,394 in 2022, and
-$2,380 in 2021. In total, she has made $426,666 in ordinary
and qualified dividends.
As a UBS employee, Hedberg receives stock that vests over time
as part of his compensation package. Unvested shares would be
forfeited if he were to leave the company – and the shares aren’t
his until the vesting period ends – so it’s not included in his net
worth. Still, Hedberg’s unvested stock is listed in
Sherrill’s 2024 filing – valued at $1.937 million – and is
unrealized until the shares are vested.
Sherrill’s stock funds appear in line with the market, either
just below or just above. In a review conducted by insider
trading watchdog Unusual Whales, Sherrill’s investment portfolio
performed 1.9% worse than the S&P 500.
The New Jersey Globe has reviewed details of Sherrill’s personal
finances with her campaign staff and with Hedberg.
“This is a greater level of transparency and detail than what
Congresswoman Sherrill is required by law to make public.
Unfortunately, many public disclosure requirements have moved in
the opposite direction, allowing public officials to share less
information,” said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich
Institute of New Jersey Politics at Rider University. “But
that need not stop any official from sharing more information than
the law requires, as Sherrill has done here. Let’s hope
others follow her example.”
Sherrill’s net worth also includes retirement accounts: $214,494
in Rollover IRA accounts and $530,501 in Hedberg’s UBS 401k; the
cash value of their life insurance policies is $713,686.
And the level of detail is specific: she had $84,929 in her
joint checking account as of December 31, 2024.
In her 2022 re-election campaign, Sherrill faced false allegations that she and her
husband profited from the Chinese Communist Party because his
employer, UBS, does business in China.
Though Sherrill may be wealthy, a review of her assets still
puts her at the low end of other recent Democratic statewide
officeholders: Jon Corzine had an estimated net worth of about $500
million when he ran for statewide office the first time in 2000;
Phil Murphy’s range was between $50 million and $235 million in
2017; and Frank Lautenberg had an estimated net worth of between
$55 million and $116 million when he last ran for Senate in
2008.
Sherrill and Hedberg both came from modest means and first met
while attending the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. After
serving in the Navy – she was a helicopter pilot, and he was an
intelligence officer – each went on to earn post-graduate degrees:
Sherrill to law school and Hedberg to business school.
Sherrill’s disclosure is reminiscent of those made by Republican
Richard Zimmer during his time in the legislature and U.S. House of
Representatives in the 1980s and 1990s. Zimmer would publicly
release the exact values of his individual holdings, including the
value of a small flock of sheep on his small farm in Hunterdon
County.
The post Sherrill releases exact values of her finances,
showing no unusual stock gains appeared first on New
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