When the New York Times columnist ran for governor in Oregon, he did so not as a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner but instead as a humble cider apple farmer. In 2020, he purchased 115 acres next to his 20-acre family farm for a cool $1 million in cash, then promptly set about suing the neighbors while launching a campaign based on small-town values. It may be true that Kristof grew up in Yamhill County, but in 2022, Oregon secretary of state Shemia Fagan ruled that — given that Kristof was still voting, paying income tax, and renewing his driver’s license in New York in 2020 — he did not meet the three-year residency requirement to run for office.

The Coloradoan who ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) in 2020 might have “rancher” in her Twitter/X bio, but the commercials she shot featuring herself hauling hay and riding on horseback leave a few things out — namely that said ranch is a hobbyist retreat where Donovan’s family raises Scottish Highland cows. Also, she doesn’t even live on the 400-acre ranch in the district where she ran; instead, she lives in the ski town of Vail, Colorado, where the average home price is north of $1.5 million and there is not a cow in sight.

Valentine, an heiress to the Busch (of beer company Anheuser-Busch) family fortune, would rather commentators focus on her childhood on Grant’s Farm in Missouri, where she lost a 2022 Senate run, than the fact that her family is the 16th-wealthiest in the country. However, this attention on Grant’s Farm has led to further criticism: it turns out the tract is part of the former White Haven plantation, where the wife of President Ulysses S. Grant was raised in opulence afforded by slave labor. “Grant’s Farm  . . .  brings so much happiness to others,” Busch has written with astounding tone deafness.