{"id":17345,"date":"2026-01-06T17:16:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/desantis-florida-should-require-congressional-candidates-to-answer-about-stock-trades\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T17:16:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T17:16:42","slug":"desantis-florida-should-require-congressional-candidates-to-answer-about-stock-trades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/desantis-florida-should-require-congressional-candidates-to-answer-about-stock-trades\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis: Florida should require congressional candidates to answer about stock trades"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

TALLAHASSEE, Florida \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the state to take steps to discourage members of Congress from trading stocks, a topic that has seemingly divided Florida\u2019s Hill delegation ahead of a potential vote in the House.<\/p>\n

DeSantis, during an event in Clearwater with GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna<\/a>, gave his full backing to Luna\u2019s proposed ban on individual stock trading for members. But he also said he is seeking state legislation to require people running for Congress in Florida to disclose ahead of time whether they intend to trade stocks if they are elected.<\/p>\n

During his press conference, DeSantis called individual stock trading a \u201cbipartisan ailment,\u201d adding, \u201cWe need to clean both houses up there.\u201d He said members have either gotten windfalls \u2014 or avoided major losses \u2014 that defy normal investment patterns.<\/p>\n

In a social media post, he added that<\/a> \u201cit is a farce how some members of Congress \u2014 including but not limited to Nancy Pelosi \u2014 suddenly become Warren Buffet on steroids when it comes to investment returns.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis acknowledged the state has limited authority to place restrictions on Florida\u2019s congressional delegation. But he wants to require candidates to answer a question about stock trading on forms that are submitted at the time they qualify for the ballot. <\/p>\n

He said that would at least let voters know ahead of time what plan they to do. The governor added that such a requirement wouldn’t really work for state legislators because they are only on the job part-time and many work in the financial sector.<\/p>\n

DeSantis also called on Florida\u2019s congressional delegation to vote for Luna\u2019s bill. Several Florida members signed on to a discharge petition<\/a>, but it\u2019s not clear if all 28 will ultimately support the legislation.<\/p>\n

Luna said she\u2019s spoken to House Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a> and she anticipates that her bill will be taken up during the first three months of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wrong and it needs to stop,\u201d Luna said about individual stock trading.<\/p>\n

DeSantis\u2019 support for the measure is not a surprise given his ongoing criticism of Congress. He has also advocated for congressional term limits.<\/p>\n

The governor made his stance amid the backdrop of 2026 elections, where the Republican front-runner for governor, Rep. Byron Donalds<\/a>, has been dinged over his stock trading. Donalds has said previously that he relies on a financial adviser managing his IRA without his input<\/a> and that brokers who work for congressional clients should be required to publicly submit notes that would show whether members are directing trades.<\/p>\n

Donalds has been hit with ethics complaints alleging that he failed to disclose more than 100 stock trades in a timely fashion as required by federal law. He said during a radio interview in December<\/a> that he would vote for Luna\u2019s bill, even though he wants a carve-out to allow stock trades if it is done by a broker on behalf of a member.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Florida \u2014 Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the state to take steps to discourage members of Congress from trading stocks, a topic that has seemingly divided Florida\u2019s Hill delegation ahead of a potential vote in the House. DeSantis, during an event in Clearwater with GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, gave his full backing to Luna\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}