Several battleground Democrats in close House races have used working‑class life stories to link with voters’ money worries, but Fox News Digital’s review of financial records and other documents makes those stories more complicated than they appear on the campaign trail.

In New Jersey, Democratic candidate Rebecca Bennett says she is a parent who knows the “rising costs and economic uncertainty” families face, but records show she earned almost $250,000 in 2024 and owns investments worth about $1.8 million with no reported debts.

In New Mexico, Rep. Gabe Vasquez says he “never had the luxury of financial wealth,” says voters like candidates who “don’t come from wealth,” and describes his mother working long hours in Mexico’s “maquiladora industry” to get by. Yet Fox News Digital found his mother held finance jobs at GE in Mexico and later in Indiana, and family photos show European trips, luxury shopping and other upscale activities.

DEM IN KEY SWING RACE MISSED NEARLY HALF HER STATE HOUSE VOTES WHILE TAKING TAXPAYER SALARY: ‘NO SHOW’

In Washington State, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez says she worked in an auto shop and went to Reed College, saying she held three jobs and paid for the private school “by the credit hour” after her parents stopped paying. Fox News Digital saw no student‑loan debt listed, and some people who knew her question whether jobs like nanny, barista and work at an “iPhone case factory” could really pay the school’s cost.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D‑Wash., (left), Democratic Party candidate for New Jersey’s 7th Congressional District Rebecca Bennett, (center) and Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D‑N.M. (right) (Getty Images)

“Voters can see through the fake double‑talk easier than politicians think. It’s better to be honest and give a clear plan to improve lives than to twist your own story,” Republican strategist Colin Reed told Fox News Digital. “Normally, money success is a good selling point, but with socialism rising and wealth being blamed, these are not normal times.”

DEMOCRATS CAUGHT ON CAMERA COACHING CANDIDATE ON HOW TO BE ‘AUTHENTIC’ IN 2026 MESSAGING

Bennett, running in New Jersey’s competitive 7th District, filed an amended financial disclosure on May 15 that listed many investments, retirement accounts and other assets. The ranges suggest her total assets could be as high as about $1.8 million, and she reported no liabilities.

Her holdings include three items worth $50,001‑$100,000 each and 17 items worth $15,001‑$50,000 each. Because the filing uses ranges, the low‑end total is about $447,000 and the high‑end total near $1.8 million; using mid‑points gives an estimate of roughly $1.12 million.

The disclosure also shows Bennett earned almost $200,000 from Noom and about $46,000 from Oshi Health in 2024, totaling more than $242,000.

Bennett’s money picture differs from the message she shares on the trail, where she often talks about her family’s finances as a mother of two. In a June 18 post titled “My 2010 Honda Accord,” she said she and her husband still drive the 16‑year‑old car because “it’s what we can afford,” urging Washington to listen to “regular people” who feel family money pressure.

(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images) (Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In that post, Bennett also mentioned childcare, saying, “I know what it’s like to worry about childcare costs,” and added that grocery bills and other expenses rise because there isn’t “an unlimited amount of money in the bank.” Earlier she said she was “like so many of you,” dealing with “astronomical” food, education, childcare and health costs.

FEC records show Bennett’s campaign has paid $21,250 since June 2025 for her childcare costs. Campaign rules allow such spending when the expense is directly tied to campaign activity.

“After 15 years as a Navy helicopter pilot, Rebecca swapped her MH‑60 Seahawk for a 2010 Honda Accord to drop her two kids at daycare and school. She knows childcare costs well, and it’s vital we have Congress members who understand New Jersey families’ struggles,” campaign spokesperson Carly Jones told Fox News Digital. “While Tom Kean Jr. plays the stock market, Rebecca will fight to lower costs and end Washington corruption.”

Vasquez also stresses his working‑class background. In his first House floor speech in March 2023, he said, “I’ve never had the luxury of financial wealth,” and in his 2022 campaign he said voters want a candidate who “doesn’t come from wealth.”

DSA CO‑CHAIR STRUGGLES TO EXPLAIN MILLIONAIRE TAX POLICY

Vasquez often cites his mother’s work in Mexico’s “maquiladora industry” as part of his blue‑collar story. In an October 2025 op‑ed, he wrote that his mother, Hortencia Banuelos, “worked long hours in the maquiladora industry to make ends meet,” calling her story one of “sacrifice, resilience, and hope.” In a 2023 interview he repeated that his parents worked in the same industry, assembling aerospace parts and building sensors for appliances in Ciudad Juárez.

But Banuelos’s own records show she held senior finance jobs at GE during most of Vasquez’s childhood. Her LinkedIn lists her as “Finance Manager/Comptroller” for GE in Mexico (Dec 1985‑Mar 1994) and later as senior finance analyst at a GE plant in Bloomington, Indiana, overseeing a $800 million operation with 3,000 employees.

Rep. Gabe Vasquez, D‑N.M., holds a news conference with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Va., on March 13, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ‑Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

A 2020 profile in Hispanic Executive said GE hired Banuelos in Mexico in the 1980s and placed her in a two‑year training program aimed mainly at Ivy‑League graduates before she moved to Indiana.

Social media posts from Banuelos’s Facebook and Instagram, shared with Fox News Digital, show frequent European travel, including a three‑month stay in France, and photos of her and Vasquez’s sister shopping at luxury brands. Other pictures include Vasquez posing with a Corvette.

Vasquez faced questions about a lavish 2018 ceremony with a former fiancée at Akiin Beach Tulum, Mexico. The Daily Mail reported such beachfront events can cost $30,000‑$90,000. His campaign said the couple “participated in a private commitment ceremony but never married and later separated.”

DAN BONGINO CALLS SOCIALISM ‘BUMPER STICKER POLITICS’ AS IT SURGES IN POPULARITY AMONG YOUTH

When asked about Vasquez’s claims on his family background and his mother’s record, campaign manager Patricia Socarras Santiago defended Banuelos’s story.

“It’s pathetic that as Americans face Trump’s disastrous economy, Republicans attack Gabe’s mom who has worked incredibly hard, starting from the maquiladoras in Mexico, in pursuit of her American Dream,” Socarras Santiago told Fox News Digital. “Gabe is proud of his mom and will work to let everyone reach the American Dream and reverse Trump’s tanking economy.”

Gluesenkamp Perez also puts her own money struggles and trade work at the center of her political story. In a 2023 Reed Magazine interview, she said her parents stopped paying tuition after she left church.

“After that, I worked three jobs and paid for Reed by the credit hour,” she said, naming the jobs as nanny, barista and work at an “iPhone case factory.”

Reed’s records show tuition was $39,440 for 2010‑11, with a per‑credit charge of $1,625, rising to $40,940 and $1,750 per credit the next year.

Gluesenkamp Perez’s latest House financial disclosure, filed May 15, lists two commercial‑property notes and a mortgage on her home but no reportable student‑loan debt.

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez seen walking up the steps of the U.S. Capitol wearing a Carhartt jacket. (Bill Clark/CQ‑Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Some of Gluesenkamp Perez’s former Reed classmates have publicly questioned her story of paying for private college with those jobs. On a Jan 29 NOEXIST INC podcast, former roommate Isaac Eger said the “iPhone case factory” was actually Grove (now Grovemade), a small Portland company that made bamboo iPhone cases by hand, and that she didn’t start there until around 2010‑11, late in her Reed years.

Eger added that Gluesenkamp Perez worked as a barista at Reed’s on‑campus Paradox coffee shop, but only started that job around her senior year. Another former roommate, Sam, said barista wages were far too low to cover Reed’s tuition, noting that even all barista earnings together wouldn’t pay one student’s semester.

FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS: AS DEMOCRATS TURN LEFT, BLACK VOTERS TAP THE BRAKES

Questions have also been raised about the mechanic image Gluesenkamp Perez uses. Her campaign still calls her a “small business owner in the trades,” and shows her working on cars and turning wrenches.

But the Washington Free Beacon reported in 2024 that an archived 2018 biography on Dean’s Car Care’s website said Gluesenkamp Perez mainly managed the business side of the shop, which faced several workplace‑safety violations in a 2017 Oregon OSHA inspection.

Her campaign pushed back on the broader criticism of Gluesenkamp Perez’s working‑class credentials.

“Marie fights every day for families in Southwest Washington. She and her husband built their small business from the ground up — not with family money but with grit and determination,” campaign manager Tim Gowen told Fox News Digital. “She knows what it’s like to fill out a huge SBA loan and make payroll. She wants to fix the affordability crisis by giving regular people the right to repair what they own, homes they can afford, and farms they can pass to their kids. She’ll keep doing that because Southwest Washington needs her, not another career politician tied to corporate interests.”

Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D‑Wash, (left) and Gabe Vasquez, D‑N.M., face questions about how true their voter messages are. (Tom Williams/CQ‑Roll Call, Inc and Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

The scrutiny over Democrats’ working‑class branding has extended beyond those three battleground Democrats.

Fox News Digital reported last month that Montana Democratic House nominee Sam Forstag, who campaigned as a blue‑collar smokejumper who can “swing a tool,” previously worked for years as a registered lobbyist for groups like the ACLU and Planned Parenthood.

In May, before the Democratic primary for that seat, Fox News Digital reported that Forstag rival Ryan Busse also faced authenticity questions after he filmed a campaign ad about fighting for working people in what looked like a staffer’s modest townhome, while his own four‑acre property was valued at about $1.6 million.

Busse ultimately lost the primary to Forstag.

“Only a rich liberal can afford to be a socialist in this day and age,” Matt Gorman, chief communications officer at Targeted Victory, a Republican communications firm, told Fox News Digital.

“These Democrats show a trend of downwardly mobile voters who make up the Democratic base. They have the highest share of secondary degrees but the lowest income. These candidates don’t mind asking for more of your money while they keep their own.”

Alec Schemmel is a Politics Reporter for Fox News Digital who is originally from Charlotte, North Carolina but now lives in the Washington D.C.–Baltimore Metro Area.