in 2020 and they're all vying for the

middle-class vote.

I've been referred to as middle class Joe

Working families

Investing in all of America

Working class families

The middle class of this country

But how closely can these candidates actually

relate to the struggles of average Americans?

To begin to answer that question, let's look at

how much money they have.

13 Democratic candidates have released their tax

returns as of August 2019.

At the top of the income list is former Vice

President Joe Biden, who brought in a whopping

$4.5 million in 2018.

On the other end is South Bend, Indiana

mayor Pete Buttigieg. Buttigieg and his husband,

Chasten, made a combined $152,643

last year.

So how does Buttigieg make his money?

Buttigieg is the youngest candidate currently

running for president.

He became South Bend's mayor in 2012.

Buttigieg entered the 2020 race with a lower

national profile than many of the senators and

governors he's facing.

But he quickly entered the top tier of candidates

while raising gobs of money.

Buttigieg is now jockeying for a position with

the likes of Biden and Senators Bernie Sanders,

Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.

And up to this point, he's made a lot less money

than his older rivals.

The roughly $150,000 income last year came from

Buttigieg's salary as mayor and his husband's job

as a middle school teacher.

In 2017, the year before Buttigieg got married,

he made $133,565.

That year, he got a $30,000 advance on his book

Shortest Way Home, which came out in February

2019. Between the start of 2018 and May 2019,

Buttigieg took in $45,000 total from book advance

and royalties payments.

He earned another $3,000 for narrating an

audiobook version.

That pales in comparison to what 2020 contenders

like Biden, Sanders and Warren got for their

books.

Buttigieg's

tax returns show he's only a few years removed

from making way less than he is now.

He took in about $150,000 in 2009, his last full

year as a consultant at McKinsey.

But his adjusted gross income fell to about

$34,000 in 2010.

Then it dropped again to only about $7,000 in

2011, the year he first ran for mayor of

South Bend.

He unsuccessfully ran for Indiana treasurer in

2010 before winning the mayoral election a year

later. Buttigieg is hardly wanting for cash now.

His household income of about $150,000 last year

more than doubles the median U.S.

household income of just above $60,000.

He has between about $87,000 and $307,000 in

assets held up in investment funds and stocks in

individual companies like Alphabet and Apple.

The mayor does have a major liability, roughly

$130,000 in student loans.

Buttigieg's lack of wealth relative to his rivals

could spare him from some of the criticism they

are already facing on the campaign trail.

The millions Biden made since he left the Obama

administration have sparked skepticism of the

middle class Joe persona he promotes on the

campaign trail.

And Sanders, who runs as a champion of the

working class, has faced questions about the

millions he raked in from writing books.

Ready to have me plead guilty?

I plead guilty to have written a book which was

an international bestseller.

And when you write a book that makes it to the top

of the New York Times bestseller list, you make

money. And I made money.

Either way, Buttigieg may be making a lot more

money from book royalties now, after his

presidential campaign made him into a household