GOP bullish on stock trading attacks in midterm

When Vice President JD Vance hosted a Long Island rally in June, he knew how to attack the local Democratic member of Congress.

“Tom Suozzi is really good at one thing: trading stocks,” Vance said as the “Protect Taxpayers Dollars” rally audience chuckled.

Congressional stock trading has become a hot issue in politics. Some members expressed dismay that both Republicans and Democrats traded heavily last year amid the tumult from President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs. But the initially bipartisan push for a ban on insider trading ended up dividing the House. The Stop Insider Trading Act passed on July 22 in a 232-198 party-line vote led by the Republican majority. Democrats like Rep. Joe Morelle called the bill a “sham” with an irrelevant poison pill provision about voter ID added to the bill to deter Democratic votes.

And in the state that’s home to Wall Street, congressional stock trading is at the forefront in two tight races where the GOP is seeking to unseat Democratic incumbents: Suozzi and Rep. Josh Riley. 

Before and after Vance’s rally, Suozzi’s Republican opponent Mike LiPetri has repeatedly criticized Suozzi’s stock trading. In a May Instagram post, LiPetri alleged Suozzi had “violated the Stock Act 300 times” and “had 35% gains on his portfolio in 2025, far EXCEEDING the S&P - and even Warren Buffet.”

There is merit to LiPetri’s claims. In 2021, a complaint from ethics watchdog the Campaign Legal Center accused Suozzi of violating disclosure rules about 300 times by failing to file any reports whenever he bought or sold stock. And outlets including the New York Post reported on his portfolio’s impressive performance.

But Suozzi’s campaign brushed away LiPetri’s criticism, when asked to respond. “Mike LiPetri’s baseless and misleading attacks are his attempts to hide from his own record as a Trump loyalist pledging his allegiance as a ‘MAGA Warrior,’ Suozzi campaign Senior Adviser Kim Devlin, told City & State. “Trump knows LiPetri can be counted on to support his agenda of reckless tariffs, endless wars, and cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and life-saving medical research.”

Like most Democrats, Suozzi voted against the Stop Insider Trading Act, telling Newsday, it was “a watered-down version with unrelated poison pills” and that he instead co-sponsors the bipartisan Restore Trust in Congress Act, which is meant to ban members of Congress from owning individual stocks.

Congressional stock trading has become an issue people talk about, said democratic strategist Jack O’Donnell. “Voters broadly have heard, whether they're real stories or anecdotal stories, about members of Congress benefiting from information to make money,” he said. “It’s something that voters know happens, and it's something that they're concerned about.”

But it may not be enough to make voters overlook other issues, said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist University Institute for Public Opinion. 

“It’s not like the cost of living, the war in Iran, immigration,” Miringoff said. “It's obvious insider trading is like in sports when you're kind of betting on your own team. It kind of doesn't sell well for voters.”

Still, stock trading has become a key talking point in the upstate race where Republican state Sen. Peter Oberacker is taking on Riley, the Democratic incumbent. 

In May, Rep. Riley called for legislation to ban lawmakers from trading stocks. Oberacker shot back on X, criticizing his opponent for owning stock in the parent company of New York State Electric & Gas – which Riley has slammed for raising rates. 

“Give me a break. How about you start by selling your Iberdrola stock and stop profiting off of struggling Upstate families?” 

Oberacker has repeated the attack line, even though Riley’s not even a direct investor – he has shares of a mutual fund, where Iberdrola is one of 700 stocks, WIVT News 34 reported. The state pension fund holds shares in Iberdrola too, making Oberacker an indirect beneficiary, and has gotten a few hundred dollars in campaign donations from the parent company too, Riley’s campaign shot back – though Oberacker said he’s since returned the donations. 

“Josh Riley doesn’t own any stocks, and he’s leading the effort in Congress to ban stock trading,” a campaign spokesperson said. “Pay More Pete accepted campaign cash from utility monopolies as they were jacking up rates.”

Riley was one of the few Democratic co-sponsors of the Stop Insider Trading Act, but ended up voting against it, after the voter ID provision was thrown in.  Riley also voted “nay”. He said he was against the bill because a voter ID requirement was added.

“Washington Republicans used (the bill) as a ploy to stop senior citizens from voting,” he said in a statement after the vote. “These people aren’t interested in taking on corruption, only scoring political points.”