Leading up to the midterm elections in November, corruption is proving to be a defining issue in many battleground states and districts.
An April poll, commissioned by End Citizens United (ECU) and conducted by Change Research, showed that more than 40% of likely voters ranked corruption in Washington, D.C., as their top concern—second only to threats to democracy and the voting system, and even ahead of gas and grocery prices.
While corruption can and is taking many iterations in Washington—ranging from insider trading through prediction markets to curious crypto projects that net politicians billions of dollars—suspicious stock trading by members of Congress is one form that voters particularly detest.
It could even prove to cost some legislators their seats this fall.
A 2023 poll showed that 86% of Americans want to ban stock trading by members of Congress, but that hasn’t stopped some D.C. lawmakers from playing fast and loose with the markets—despite promises from some to do just the opposite.
The problem with congressional stock trading
Members of Congress are allowed to trade stocks or other securities, and most do. Problems arise, however, when legislators may have conflicts of interest, trade securities related to sectors they influence or oversee, or take action underpinned by nonpublic knowledge.
For example, a member of Congress might sit on the Armed Services Committee and have some sort of say in regard to how the defense budget is allocated, while also holding shares in defense companies that could benefit from that spending.
Or members could become privy to an impending event that could affect the stock market, such as a pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, dozens of congressional members traded a total of more than $150 million to shore up their portfolios before the market cratered, according to a 2022 report from the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, passed in 2012, mandates that members of Congress disclose their trades to the public, or face small fines—assuming penalties are levied at all.
However, it has seemingly not been enough to dissuade legislators from trading and potentially appearing to take advantage of their positions for financial gain.
Tales from Pennsylvania’s 8th District
In northeastern Pennsylvania, concerns—or at least anger—about congressional stock trading may supersede many economic issues that are also squeezing the region.
That’s because the area’s congressman, Rep. Rob Bresnahan Jr., a Republican representing Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, won his seat during the 2024 cycle in part due to a promise to end the practice.
Bresnahan first floated the idea in an op-ed in a local Pennsylvania newspaper and reiterated it during the 2024 campaign, during which he beat incumbent Matt Cartwright, a Democrat.
But after his election, Bresnahan became a frequent trader: Industry investment data from Quiver Quantitative shows that Bresnahan made roughly 650 trades totaling around $8.4 million in volume. He has, this year, curbed that activity, likely as it has become more of a concern to his reelection campaign.
In May 2025, Bresnahan introduced the Transparency in Representation through Uniform Stock Trading Ban (TRUST) Act to address the issue of congressional trading. It didn’t gain traction, however, and currently there are other bills and proposed laws targeting a ban on congressional trading.
In response to concerns about his trading, Bresnahan campaign spokesperson Samantha Bullock tells Fast Company that “voters need to be able to trust that their representatives are acting in their best interests, which is exactly why Rep. Bresnahan ran on and has sponsored legislation to ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks.”
Adds Bullock: “His own transition from the private sector into public service reinforced his belief that Congress should establish clearer standards to make that transition more seamless for future members while protecting the public’s trust.”
Despite the introduction of the TRUST Act, concern about the stock trades is palpable in his district. It’s not uncommon to overhear people bring up Bresnahan’s trading activity when discussing key issues. Which is notable, given the other concerns that could be defining this year’s election.
But there are reasons why it may be striking a chord in the area specifically.
“The way that this resonates is not surprising to me, given the history of this region and the politicians who have let folks down,” says Paige Cognetti, mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Bresnahan’s Democratic opponent for Pennsylvania’s 8th District seat this fall.
“The story of Scranton and why I felt compelled to go into public service here is not unique,” she says. “It’s a story of judges and county commissioners, really in the last decades, getting in trouble for people using public office for private gain. So, when Bresnahan calls for a trading ban in an op-ed—which he didn’t need to do—and gets to Congress and immediately becomes one of the biggest stock traders, it resonates.”
A bipartisan problem
Bresnahan is not the only member of Congress to catch heat for stock trading, nor is it a single-party problem.
Perhaps most prominently, Democrat Nancy Pelosi has been vilified for her trading activity. But she’s not alone: Democratic Reps. Elaine Luria of Virginia and Jared Moskowitz of Florida have also caught flak for their trading activity, as have Republicans such as Reps. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee and Brian Mast of Florida.
Many others from both the House and Senate have failed to properly report financial trades as mandated by the STOCK Act.
The behavior weighs on voters, and research finds that it actually undermines democracy.
A study published in 2025 by the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego, found that the more people learn about stock trades made by Congress (and the corresponding returns of those members’ consistently outperforming the stock market), the more they view the institution of Congress as corrupt and less legitimate.
It also makes them less willing to follow laws themselves.
“Not only is stock trading hurting the institution of Congress, but it’s also a democratic problem in that people don’t want to follow the rules,” says Raihan Alam, a doctoral student in management at the Rady School of Management, and the paper’s first author.
Alam, too, has been surprised at just how resonant the issue of stock trading has been with voters. “I was at a No Kings protest a couple of times, and I was shocked to see how many posters were about insider trading. It really ticks people off,” he says.
Even so, the lessons from the study were clear, he adds. “Here is an issue, one of the few issues where there’s bipartisan support for reform. If you want to improve trust in Congress, and if you want people to follow the law, we should ban or regulate stock trading in some serious way.”
“Instead, they’re betting on Kalshi”
Some experts say it’s pretty simple why the topic of congressional stock trading and other forms of corruption are overtaking other issues in the run-up to the midterms: It’s out in the open.
And with a “K-shaped” economy emerging, there’s a clearer-than-ever delineation between winners and losers.
“Corruption really resonates with people,” says Abigail Bellows, senior policy director for anti-corruption and accountability at Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group. “It gets under their skin because it’s an issue of fairness.”
Adds Bellows: “It’s a sense that the system is rigged . . . what we’re seeing in the last couple of years is a level of brazenness and unapologetic theft that is really next level, and it makes people angry.”
On a more granular level, Bellows argues that congressional stock trading is resonating with voters “because it’s easier to see a villain in the story, since voters know who their representative is.”
But again, stock trading is a part of a larger mosaic, and while corruption may not be the be-all and end-all for many voters in November, for some it will.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that one party will win over the other at the ballot box, but it demonstrates how insolent behavior from many in the federal government is, to some, intolerable.
“Gas prices, war, tariffs, all of these things, you want to have an image of politicians fighting for you,” Bellows says. Then, she facetiously compares congressional stock trading to prediction markets, where insider trading is notorious. “Instead, they’re betting on Kalshi.”