“Carol Miller is a multi-millionaire worth over $16 million.”

West Virginia’s Democratic Party recently took Republicans to task for opposing President Joe Biden’s efforts to enact partial forgiveness for student debts.

In a tweeted statement, state Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin argued that Republicans don’t understand the financial pressures that recent college graduates do, especially Miller, given her personal wealth.

Miller, Pushkin said, “is a multi-millionaire worth over $16 million.”

Is this description of her personal finances accurate? Well, it’s complicated. (Neither Pushkin nor Miller’s office responded to inquiries for this article.)

Data from OpenSecrets.org, a nonprofit research organization tracking money in U.S. politics, shows Miller’s net worth was $16,037,033 in 2018. 

This number stems from personal financial disclosure forms all members of Congress file that cover their holdings and those of their spouses. These forms require the disclosure of a variety of assets and liabilities, with certain categories of assets and liabilities listed within broad dollar ranges.

Some of Miller’s wealth stems from the holdings of her husband, Matt Miller, who owns five Dutch Miller auto dealerships and has a stake in MFM Realty, a real estate company, the Dominion Post reported. The couple’s holdings also include a mixture of stocks.

The $16 million figure is OpenSecrets’ midpoint estimate, coming halfway between the maximum value and the minimum value of the submitted ranges. This means that the actual dollar value of Miller’s holdings could be higher than $16 million, or it could be lower. It’s impossible to know, given how the forms are designed.

“Assets are reported in very broad ranges, so it’s always more accurate to portray these rough estimates as ranges,” Alex Baumgart, an OpenSecrets researcher, told PolitiFact West Virginia. 

Meanwhile, these numbers are 4 years old. On the form Miller filed this year, which covers 2021, the midpoint estimate of her net worth was about $15.8 million, which is close to $16 million. 

Given this year’s overall decline in stock values, it’s possible that Miller’s net worth has declined since 2021. But we won’t know for sure until next year, when she files her form covering 2022.

Our ruling

The West Virginia Democratic Party said, “Carol Miller is a multi-millionaire worth over $16 million.”

Financial disclosure forms for 2018 and 2021 show that, using the standard method of estimation, Miller’s net worth is about $16 million. However, this data is disclosed in ranges, and there’s no way to know whether her net worth was higher or lower than that. 

The statement is accurate but needs additional context, so we rate it Mostly True.