# Who was the last US President not a millionaire when elected?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-not-a-millionaire-when-elected/364982>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 18, 2006, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-not-a-millionaire-when-elected/364982 "2006-07-18T06:39:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-not-a-millionaire-when-elected/364982/41 "2006-07-22T18:49:06Z")

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[QUOTE=moof12]  
It costs over 50 million dollars to successfully run a campaign for presidency. If there ever was a presisdent who wasn’t filthy rich then he had some very supportive friends.  
[/QUOTE]  
Did you even bother to read this thread? Yeah, candidates have “supportive friends”–they’re called campaign contributors, and they’re not exactly a new phenomenon.

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-not-a-millionaire-when-elected/364982/42 "2006-07-22T19:14:19Z")

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Ronald Reagan grew up poor. Not ‘dirt-poor’, but definitely lower middle class. His father was an itinerant shoe salesman, and the family had to move repeatedly for Dad to find work. They were described as always having to work hard just to pay the bills, and eventually located in a small town.

Reagan didn’t begin to be comfortably well off until well into his adulthood - his 40’s, probably. Before then, he worked as a radio announcer at a small station and then as a contract actor in Hollywood, which didn’t pay all that well back then.

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**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-not-a-millionaire-when-elected/364982/43 "2006-07-22T21:19:50Z")

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“Lower middle class” does not equal “poor.”

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-not-a-millionaire-when-elected/364982/44 "2006-07-22T22:27:36Z")

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Well, it sounds like he was less well off than Clinton. Having to repeatedly move so your Dad can scrape together enough money to pay the bills would really suck.

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**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-was-the-last-us-president-not-a-millionaire-when-elected/364982/45 "2006-07-22T22:28:48Z")

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And don’t forget - Reagan and Nixon grew up in the depression. I imagine their definition of ‘poor’ was slightly different than Baby Boomer Bill’s.

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