U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds will support a stock trading ban for members of Congress, but still wants to keep his broker.
The Naples Republican, who is running for Governor, discussed the issue with the Fox News radio affiliate in his district, 92.5 FM WFSX. The topic came up as U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a St. Petersburg Republican, presses for a floor vote on a stock trading ban through a discharge petition.
“Luna and I talked about this, actually, yesterday on the (House) floor. But when it comes up for a vote, I’m voting for it,” Donalds said. “I have always been opposed to members trading positions.”
But notably, he put conditions that aren’t included in the legislation Luna favors right now. Donalds, a former private wealth manager before his election to Congress, said members should still be allowed to own stocks, just not to direct trades.
“Let me just get it out there because I know people say, ‘Well, Byron, you own stocks.’ I do, but my stocks are traded by my financial advisor, Tom Moran, in Naples. They’ve been my financial advisor since I got to Congress. I actually worked there before I got to Congress. I do not initiate trades. That is done by my broker, (and) he has third-party authorization to trade on my behalf. We have no contact about this stuff,” Donalds said.
“The only thing with what I told Anna was, I think you do have to make an allowance for members who give third-party authorization to a financial professional because then the financial professional is the one that’s doing the trading, not the member of Congress. I have always been opposed to members trading. I’ve never supported it because you do have access to information that could be manipulated.”
Donalds has regularly reported stock trades, most recently a series of trades done between Oct. 9 and Nov. 1, with all trades handled in a Moran Wealth IRA.
The website Quiver Quantitative, which flags reported congressional trading, pegs Donalds’ net worth at $4.38 million, with about $456,000 of that tied to stocks and $84,000 as cash in his IRA, with another $33,000 in pensions.
The majority of his worth comes from stake in OptimaEd, the online learning company run by his wife, Erika Donalds, not in stocks.
