BREAKING: Republican Governor Candidate CAUGHT In Illegal Stock Trading Scheme
Byron Donalds is the frontrunner to be the next governor of Florida. He has raised $67 million. He has Trump’s endorsement. He is leading his nearest Republican opponent by more than 40 points.
He also violated federal law more than 100 times and apparently hoped nobody would notice.
What He Did
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, known as the STOCK Act, exists for one reason: to stop members of Congress from using their positions to profit off information the public does not have. It requires lawmakers to disclose any stock trade exceeding $1,000 within 45 days.
Byron Donalds and his spouse made 108 stock trades between 2022 and 2023, totaling up to $1.6 million. He filed disclosure reports for exactly zero of them.
Not one. Out of 108.
In September 2024, the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan watchdog group, filed a formal complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics urging an investigation. “The public has a right to know about potential conflicts of interest their elected officials may have,” said Kedric Payne, the group’s vice president and general counsel.
Why It Matters
This is not a paperwork error. Members of Congress write legislation that moves markets. They sit in classified briefings. They know things before the public knows them. The STOCK Act disclosure requirement exists precisely because of that power imbalance.
When you trade up to $1.6 million in stocks as a sitting member of Congress and tell no one, voters cannot see whether your legislative decisions and your investment decisions are pointing in the same direction. That is the whole problem the law was designed to prevent.
Donalds says he supports legislation banning congressional stock trading entirely. He just did not bother following the transparency rules that exist right now.
His Own Party Is Calling Him Out
This is not just Democrats raising alarms. Republicans in Florida are making Donalds’ stock trades a central issue in the gubernatorial primary.
Florida Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, who is running against Donalds in the Republican primary, distributed a 13-page report on Donalds’ alleged liabilities to reporters and said directly: “I wish this race was simply about the issues. But there is too much at stake to ignore the reality of what’s in front of us.”
“These issues get talked about now or they get talked about in October,” Collins warned, “where we cannot risk this state falling.”
Even Governor Ron DeSantis took a thinly veiled shot at Donalds at a press conference, saying: “It’s really odd. You’ll have people get elected to Congress having never shown any investment acumen ever in their life, and then all of a sudden they...”
He did not finish the sentence. He did not need to.
His Net Worth Jumped Significantly
When Donalds entered Congress in 2021, his first financial disclosure reported a net worth between $69,000 and $984,000. His most recent disclosure lists his net worth as somewhere between $1.6 million and $7 million.
Collins told reporters Monday that Donalds’ undisclosed stock trading “coincides” with this increase in net worth. Whether those two things are directly connected is exactly what the ethics complaint was supposed to determine. The investigation has not yet been resolved.
Meanwhile, Donalds is running for governor. He has raised $67 million. And he is leading his Republican opponents by landslide margins.
The Law Has No Real Teeth
Here is the part that explains how someone can violate the STOCK Act 108 times and still be the frontrunner in a major gubernatorial race.
The maximum fine for violating the STOCK Act is $200. Per violation. For a man reporting up to $1.6 million in undisclosed trades, the worst-case financial penalty amounts to a rounding error.
Congress has the power to fix this. A bipartisan group of senators has advanced the ETHICS Act, which would ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks entirely and impose significantly higher penalties for violations. It has not passed. Members of Congress, many of whom are doing exactly what Donalds did, have not been in a rush to tighten the rules on themselves.
What Florida Voters Should Know
Byron Donalds is about to ask Florida voters to give him the most powerful executive office in the state. He would oversee a $120 billion budget. He would sign or veto legislation affecting 23 million people. He would appoint judges. He would set education policy. He would command the state’s emergency management apparatus.
He could not be bothered to file 108 stock trade disclosures he was legally required to file as a congressman.
His campaign’s response to all of this: “President Trump’s endorsed candidate Byron Donalds will be Florida’s next governor because he is the proven conservative fighter who can unite our party and make Florida safer and more affordable.”
Not a word about the 108 trades. Not a word about the $1.6 million. Not a word about the federal ethics complaint that is still open.
The Bottom Line
Byron Donalds broke the law more than 100 times. He says he supports transparency in congressional stock trading. He did not practice it himself. His own party’s lieutenant governor called him a liability. The current governor took a shot at him on the record. A nonpartisan ethics group filed a formal complaint against him.
He is still up 40 points in the polls.
Florida voters have a right to know what their frontrunner for governor did with his stock portfolio while he was supposed to be working for them. The ethics complaint gives them a good place to start.