Exclusive | Trading places: Some progressive lawmakers who push for stock bans are the real wolves of Wall Street
Socialist ‘Squad’ Rep.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) routinely rails about congressional colleagues trading stocks — yet nearly one in four of her progressive comrades in Congress are wolves of Wall Street, a Post analysis found.As many as 24 of the lawmakers in the Congressional Progressive Caucus have enviable portfolios, annual disclosures filed with the Clerk of the House of Representatives show.The top trader, Morgan McGarvey (D-KY), one of the caucus’ vice-chairs, brought in a staggering 106% return on his stock portfolio in 2024, surpassing the 71% return of Rep.
Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — whose trading is so infamous a proposed bill to curb Congressional trading was called the Pelosi Act.And it’s more than four times the S&P 500’s return for the year of 25%.“As the sole Democrat representing Kentucky in Washington, I carry the voice of working-class communities,” McGarvey, 45, claimed in a statement when he was elected vice-chair.
His net worth is $1.6 million, according to alternative data platform Quiver Quantitative.The Kentucky Democrat, an outspoken critic of President Trump who’s called him “unfit to serve,” didn’t let that stop him trading between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of shares in Trump’s media company after the November election, which ended up being one of McGarvey’s few losing trades last year.The most prolific trader among progressive lawmakers is Ro Khanna (D-CA), who vowed to co-sponsor the latest Congressional stock trading-ban bill introduced earlier this month, yet has made no fewer than 34,272 trades since he was elected in 2017.He’s made a whopping 3,424 trades in the past year alone, trading $30 million worth of stocks, according to data from Quiver Quantitative provided to The Post.The Silicon Valley lawmaker led a pack of pols who traded heavily this spring when Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs spooked investors and caused sharp market swings, with sales of more than 200 shares and options ove...