Joe Scarborough Net Worth

What is Joe Scarborough net worth and salary?

Joe Scarborough is an American cable news and talk radio host, lawyer, author, and former politician who has a net worth of $25 million. Joe Scarborough is known for co-hosting the MSNBC news and talk show "Morning Joe" with his wife, Mika Brzezinski. Before this, he hosted "Scarborough Country" on the same network. During his earlier career as a politician, Scarborough served for six years as a Republican for Florida's 1st district in the United States House of Representatives.

Early Life and Education

Joe Scarborough was born as Charles Joseph Scarborough in 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia. His parents were Mary and George, and he has two siblings. In 1969, the family moved to Meridian, Mississippi. They moved twice more in the 70s, first to Elmira, New York and then to Pensacola, Florida. In the latter city, Scarborough went to Pensacola Catholic High School. After graduating, he enrolled at the University of Alabama, from which he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in history in 1985. Subsequently, he went to the University of Florida College of Law, obtaining his Juris Doctor degree in 1990. During his years in higher education, Scarborough wrote and produced music with his band Dixon Mills, and also coached football.

Legal Career

Admitted to the Florida Bar in 1991, Scarborough practiced law in Pensacola. He had his most high-profile case representing Michael F. Griffin, who had murdered Dr. David Gunn in 1993. Although he eventually removed himself from the case, Scarborough continued to assist Griffin in choosing counseling services, and worked to protect his family from the media on a pro bono basis. Later in 1993, Scarborough gained attention for assisting with a petition drive that opposed a property tax increase in Pensacola.

Congressional Career

In the 1994 general election, Scarborough defeated Democratic candidate Vince Whibbs Jr. to represent Florida's 1st congressional district in the US House of Representatives. He was reelected in 1996 with 72% of the vote, and was reelected again in 1998 and 2000, when his only opposition consisted of write-in candidates.

Over his congressional career, Scarborough served on the Judiciary, Education, Government Reform, and Armed Services committees. He signed the controversial Contract with America legislative agenda, and was named chairman of the Civil Service Committee in 1998. Scarborough was also among a group of around 40 freshman Republican legislators who called themselves the New Federalists, in reference to "The Federalist Papers." This collective advocated for major cuts in the US government, including plans to drastically reduce or privatize the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development. Additionally, Scarborough advanced numerous other regressive policies. Among them, he supported anti-abortion positions, sponsored a bill to force the US to withdraw from the United Nations, and voted to eliminate federal funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Overall, Scarborough had a conservative voting record on social, economic, and foreign policy issues, with slightly more moderate records on environmental and human rights causes. Five months into his fourth term in 2001, Scarborough announced his resignation from Congress, with his intention being to spend more time with his kids.

Media Career

While still serving in Congress in 1999, Scarborough founded the free weekly Pensacola newspaper The Florida Sun, which merged a couple years later to become Independent News. Subsequently, in 2003, he started his television career by launching the opinion and analysis show "Scarborough Country" on MSNBC. Four years later in 2017, Scarborough began hosting "Morning Joe," a morning news and talk show featuring cohosts Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist. The show utilizes a panel format, and includes in-depth discussions focused on current political events and discourse. Additionally, Scarborough has been a regular guest on news programs on NBC and MSNBC, and has appeared on "Meet the Press" many times. On top of his frequent appearances, he was a guest host on the latter show in 2012.

Beyond television, Scarborough cohosted a two-hour late-morning radio show on New York City's WABC with Mika Brzezinski, which ran from 2008 to 2010. He has also penned a number of books, starting with 2005's "Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day: the Real Deal on how Politicians, Bureaucrats, and other Washington Barbarians are Bankrupting America." Later titles have included "The Last Best Hope," "The Right Path: From Ike to Reagan, How Republicans Once Mastered Politics – and Can Again," and "Saving Freedom: Truman, the Cold War, and the Fight for Western Civilization." In 2017, Scarborough made a return to music with the release of his debut EP, the new wave-inspired "Mystified." A music video for the title track was also released at the same time.

Personal Life

Scarborough married his first wife, Melanie Hilton, in 1986; they had two sons, and divorced in 1999. Later, in 2001, Scarborough wed Susan Warren, a former congressional committee staffer and aide to Florida governor Jeb Bush. The couple had a daughter and a son, and got divorced in 2013. Scarborough moved to the wealthy New York City suburb of New Canaan, Connecticut in 2016. The next year, during a trip to France, he got engaged to Mika Brzezinski, whom he then married in 2018 in Washington, DC.

Due to his party's embrace of Donald Trump, whose myriad of public targets included him and his wife, Scarborough announced in 2017 that he was leaving the Republic Party to become an independent. Following the attempted insurrection at the US Capitol in January of 2021, Scarborough denounced the Capitol Hill Police for enabling the attack.