Investing
Discover the Stocks the Political Elite Bought and Sold This Month
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It defies all reason that elected officials are allowed to buy and sell stock in an economy that they are actively involved in running and are in charge of making the laws for, yet they are among the most active traders in the country. This situation doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon, unfortunately. In the meantime, in order to keep them accountable, elected officials are required to disclose their trading activity. The most the rest of us can do to try and keep them honest is to keep track of these trades and make informed decisions about our votes every election season.
It seems like the common citizen is always fighting a losing battle when it comes to politics. The rich and powerful always get their way while the rest of us are left to vote for the lesser of two evil every time we enter the voting booth. However, the more informed we become, the better decisions we can make, and the more vocal we can become about our political and economic preferences. Information is among the best weapons we have against corruption.
Jonathan Jackson, who is the son of activist Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., won his Illinois Democratic House Seat in 2022. Jonathan Jackson has had a firm stance on not supporting Israel’s “offensive campaign in destroying Gaza.” He was among other House Democrats who recently criticized President Joe Biden for backing the most recent Israeli Foreign Aid Bill.
Bought: JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM)
Sold: Hexcel Corp (NYSE:HXL)
Virginia Foxx is the chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee and first won her seat in Congress in 2005 as part of a recent probe into the nationwide student-led Pro-Palestine protests. Foxx has told the heads of Yale University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Michigan to testify on the pro-Palestinian activism happening within their institutions. She also expressed her dissatisfaction with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona’s response to the protests and used a recent hearing to press him to step down.
Bought: Energy Transfer LP (NYSE:ET)
Bought: Hercules Capital Inc (NYSE:HTGC)
Bought: Ardmore Shipping Co (NYSE:ASC)
Mark Green, who is serving as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee announced at the beginning of February that he was planning to retire, stating that he had accomplished what he set out to do. Shortly after that announcement, the decision was reversed after former President Donald Trump encouraged him to stay in Congress.
Sold: NGL Energy Partners LP (NYSE:NGL)
Deborah Ross has had her seat in Congress since 2021. She has been a proponent of women’s reproductive freedom and the environment. When recently asked how students can engage with political causes while being interviewed at the Watson Institute in April, she said, “I try to do things big and small. As students, some want to do the big things, but sometimes the most effective would be to do the small things. So what you can do at Brown is protest, which has its value and raises awareness of issues. You can go work for your governor, somebody in the statehouse, or somebody in Congress. You can go work on a campaign or you could start a nonprofit. All those ways are ways to make a difference. And the most important thing is that you find the way that’s true to you.”
Sold: Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Kathy Manning is a North Carolina Democrat who may be forced out of her position at the end of this term due to North Carolina Republicans drew up new congressional maps that heavily disfavor Democrats after a North Carolina Supreme Court reversed a decision that previously barred partisan gerrymandering in 2022. Before the new congressional maps were drawn, each party was entitled to elect an even amount of 7 House seats each, now, Republicans are more likely to capture 11. About her forced retirement she said, “As a Greensboro resident of 40 years, I am disgusted by the callous disregard of Republican leaders for the citizens of my district. Politicians should not choose their voters; voters should choose their representatives.”
Kathy Manning has been the only Jewish person to ever represent North Carolina in Congress.
Bought: Payjoy Asset Fund LLC
Earl Blumenauer is a congressman from Portland who will be retiring at the end of his term. He has been a huge advocate of Cannabis Legalization and has urged his fellow Democrats to support this cause, as he believes it could boost President Biden’s support with young voters. Blumenauer has served in Congress since 1996 and will not be seeking re-election next year. He has pledged to continue “Championing livable communities starting right here in Portland and being a resource and a partner for the next generation.”
Bought: US Treasury Bills (two orders)
Bill Keating represents Massachusetts’s 9th congressional district. He has been serving in Congress since 2013. He sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the House Committee on Armed Services. He was also the primary sponsor of H.R.2062 (112th) which designated a U.S. Postal Service in Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts to be renamed the “Matthew A. Pucino Post Office.”
Bought: Lowe’s Cos Inc (NYSE:LOW)
In 2023, Burgess announced that after his 11-term service in Congress, he would retire at the end of the current term. He currently sits on the House Budget Committee Following the announcement he said, “It has been the honor of my life to have gone from a small-town doctor delivering babies, with no prior political experience, to elected to represent my friends and neighbors in the United States Congress.”
Sold: AbbVie Inc (NYSE:ABBV)
Sold: International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM)
Sold: ISHARES INTL INFLATION-LK BD
Sold: Merck & Co Inc (NYSE:MRK)
Marjorie Taylor Greene may be one of the most controversial Congresswomen of our time. She has held her seat since 2021 and has been a huge endorser of former President Trump and the MAGA brand. Greene is recently, along with Rep. Thomas Massie, threatening to call a vote to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson. Greene held a meeting to explore policy demands that they are seeking before backing down from their threat to call for the vote. Among them were, no further aid for Ukraine, a return to the “Hastert Rule,” defunding the special counsel probes, and enforcement of the “Massie Rule.”
Sold: iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF
Sold: ISHARES CORE MSCI TOTAL INTL
Sold: iShares Core S&P 500 ETF
Sold: iShares Core S&P Small-Cap ETF
Sold: iShares Core S&P U.S. Growth ETF
Bought: Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE:BRK.A)
Bought: The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE:GS)
Bought: The Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD)
Bought: Microsoft Corp
Bought: QUALCOMM Inc (NASDAQ:QCOM)
Bought: Schwab US Large-Cap ETF
Bought: The Hershey Co (NYSE:HSY)
Bought: Tractor Supply Co (NASDAQ:TSCO)
Bought: US TREASURY BILLS (N/A)
Bought: Vanguard FTSE Developed Markets ETF
Bought: Vanguard Mid-Cap ETF
Bought: Vanguard S& P ETF
Bought: Vanguard Index Funds- Vanguard Small-Cap ETF
Tom Carper has been a Senator from Delaware since 2001. He is set to retire at the end of this term. He is currently a member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. Recently, he was criticized by his Republican colleague Sen. Dan Sullivan for allegedly killing a provision to a Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization bill that Sullivan had advocated for. The provision would have pushed legislative language that would allow Alaska more time to implement an EPA requirement that would require the state to transition off of standard leaded aviation fuel.
Carper also admitted to giving his now-deceased first wife a black eye in 1980. The issue first came up in his first run for Congress in 1998 and then re-litigated again in 2018 following the resignation of two White House staffers over domestic abuse allegations.
Sold: Valero Energy Corp (NYSE:VLO)
Bought: Enbridge Inc (NYSE:ENB)
Rep. Dan Newhouse was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump over the Jan 6th Insurrection. Out of the ten, only Dan Newhouse and one other are re-running for their seats. The remaining 8 either decided not to seek another term or lost their re-election bids altogether. In April, former President Donald Trump endorsed Newhouse’s primary challenger Jerrod Sessler on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Besides representing Washington’s 4th District, Newhouse started his career as an agricultural scientist. He also recently led a bipartisan resolution to designate May 5th as the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Bought: Accenture PLC (NYSE:ACN)
Bought: Analog Devices Inc (NASDAQ:ADI)
Bought: Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC)
Bought: CSX Corp (NASDAQ:CSX)
Bought: Danaher Corp (NYSE:DHR)
Bought: DEERE & COMPANY (NYSE:DE)
Bought: Dollar General Corporation (NYSE:DG)
Bought: Elevance Health Inc
Bought: The Estee Lauder Cos Inc (NYSE:EL)
Bought: FMC Corp (NYSE:FMC)
Bought: Fortinet Inc (NASDAQ:FTNT)
Bought: Honeywell International Inc (NASDAQ:HON)
Bought: Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE)
Bought: NiSource Inc (NYSE:NI)
Bought: PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ:PEP)
Bought: Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM)
Bought: RTX Corp (NYSE:RTX)
Bought: The Hershey Co
Bought: V.F. Corp (NYSE:VFC)
Bought: The Walt Disney Co
Sold: Booking Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:BKNG)
Sold: Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ:AVGO)
Sold: Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY)
Sold: Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU)
Sold: Marathon Petroleum Corp (NYSE:MPC)
Sold: Microsoft Corp
Sold: Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX)
Sold: NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Sold: The Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE:PG)
Sold: salesforce.com Inc (NYSE:CRM)
Sold: ServiceNow Inc (NYSE:NOW)
Rep. Ted Cruz is a self-described conservative warrior who is re-running to keep his seat in the upcoming election. Cruz was once infamously photographed while escaping to Cancun, Mexico during a cold wave that devastated his state in 2021. To combat this alleged invasion of privacy, Cruz recently proposed a bill amendment to a major aviation policy bill, S.1939. The bill would ensure that lawmakers, federal judges, cabinet members, and their families have dedicated security escorts as well as private expedited screening processes out of public view.
Sold: The Goldman Sachs Group
Scott Franklin, representative of Florida’s 18th district, introduced legislation to overturn the Biden Department of Labor’s newly finalized H-2A unionization rule. This rule allows for temporary agricultural employees to unionize and tightens regulations on agricultural producers. Franklin spent the first years of his career as a Naval Aviator, and then worked in insurance and risk management. He was first elected to Congress in 2020. He currently serves on the House Appropriations Committee under several subcommittees including Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs.
Sold: Brp Group Inc
Bob Latta co-led the recently passed Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. This bill would force ByteDance, owner of TikTok, to either sell the platform to an American Company or be banned in the United States.
Bought: Farmers & Merchants Bancorp Inc
Chip Roy has served as a federal prosecutor, Senate Judiciary Committee staff director, Senior Advisor to Governor Rick Perry, Chief of Staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, and First Assistant Attorney General of Texas before serving his 3 terms in Congress. He currently serves on the House Judiciary, Rules, and Budget Committees. He is also the Policy Chair of the House Freedom Caucus.
Roy recently expressed deep concerns that Islamic Sharia Law will soon be “forced upon the American People.” He also stated on the House floor that his Republican colleagues are only “shrugging,” instead of making any significant impact in securing the Southern Border.
Sold: AT&T Inc (NYSE:T)
Sold: Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX)
Sold: Energy Transfer LP
Sold: Exxon Mobil Corp (NYSE:XOM)
Sold: Kinder Morgan Inc (NYSE:KMI)
Sold: NuStar Energy LP (NYSE:NS)
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