|
|
Folks,
Members of Congress are either some of the luckiest players on the stock market, or they know something the rest of us don’t.
Ever since a 2016 report by economist Serkan Karadas discovered Congress beats the market by over 32% with their perfectly-timed stock trades, people are calling this out for what it is – legally sanctioned insider trading. |
|
|
You would think all the increased scrutiny would lead to reforms, but there is DEEP resistance to changing this obvious conflict of interest in Congress. In fact, it’s getting worse.
In the last three years, according to the watchdog site Capitol Trades, both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have traded nearly $2 BILLION in stocks – MANY from industries they directly regulate through committee assignments.
We saw this clearly back in 2020, when the pandemic offered up a particularly vile get-rich-quick scheme:
Members of Congress received special, closed-door briefings well over a month before COVID was fully unleashed on our shores. Armed with that knowledge, they instantly dumped their stocks in hotels, cruise ships, and airlines – while grabbing up stocks for drugmakers and medical device manufacturers.
NO ONE believes this is a coincidence. This is trading on secret information that you can only get as a member of Congress. It’s such an open dirty secret that some investment firms have started tracking congressional trades so they can piggyback on that gravy train, too.
And that brings me to my opponent – Representative Rick Larsen.
Larsen, a former lobbyist, has done a LOT of trading in his 22 years in Congress. Recently one TikTok influencer spotted Larsen among several lawmakers who snapped up a bunch of General Dynamics stock, even though the defense contractor’s market performance has consistently lagged behind their peers, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
We didn’t have to look far to see why. A quick scan of the press releases published on GD’s own website revealed a total of at least $11.6 BILLION in new contracts awarded to General Dynamics *after* Larsen bought the stock. |
|
|
Larsen knows the pattern of these contracts well. He served 22 years on the House Armed Services committee and still serves on various subcommittees that regulate companies like General Dynamics. And these stocks were bought right in the middle of negotiations for the annual Pentagon budget.
Well, I’m no lobbyist. And I’m not a finance bro. I’m just an ex-teacher and a working class dad who smells corruption and is determined to stop it.
That’s why I need your support. I’m challenging Rick Larsen for the seat he’s held onto for more than two decades, because we deserve a representative who isn’t on the take from Wall Street.
Can you pitch in $25 today to help me win this seat and send an unbought voice to Congress? |
|
Remember when Martha Stewart went to prison for trading stocks after getting a private tip from a friend?
It was a rare moment of someone rich and powerful being held accountable for criminal conduct, and while I don’t believe our criminal legal system is in any way just, I have to ask why we allow this bullshit from our lawmakers.
Congressional stock trading is wrong. Pure and simple.
Unlike Rick Larsen, I’m not running for Congress to line my own pockets. If elected, I will donate 30% of my post tax salary to strike funds. And I damn sure won’t be trading stocks on companies I’m supposed to hold accountable.
The race for WA-02 is the Green Party’s BEST chance to get a member elected to Congress. This deeply progressive district has ZERO chance of falling into Republican hands. The ONLY two people who have any chance of winning this seat are the Democratic incumbent – a lobbyist-turned-career-politician – or me, a former teacher, union leader, and activist with a lifelong record of fighting for the policies you care about and getting results.
We don’t have to settle, folks. We deserve representatives who will fight for us, not giant corporations and definitely not their own enrichment.
In solidarity,
Jason |
|
|
|||
