The U.S. House of Representatives is currently without a Speaker of the House after a historic vote saw Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the first speaker voted out of the position in history.
One candidate to replace McCarthy became the subject of a viral post on social media, calling his past stock trades into question.
What Happened: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) won the Speaker of the House nomination from the Republican party Friday, beating Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) in a 124 to 81 vote.
Scott, who served in Congress since 2011, shared his candidacy to serve as Speaker of the House on Twitter, now known as X.
“I have filed to be Speaker of the House. We are in Washington to legislate, and I want to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people,” Scott tweeted.
Replying to the post, the X account of the well-known market news account Unusual Whales questioned Scott about his past trading history while in Congress.
“Austin, in 2021, you were the top political trader. You sold FuelCell Energy, FCEL, on 2021-01-14 after buying on 2020-10-30, for a 780% gain. You sat on the Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit subcommittee. Any comment?” Unusual Whales asked.
The post by Unusual Whales went on to get more than 14,000 likes and 1,800 retweets, significantly outperforming the likes (1,521) and retweets (842) of Scott’s original post. The question by Unusual Whales also led to Scott’s post being seen over two million times.
“We ratioed United States Representative, Austin Scott. Thank you,” Unusual Whales later posted.
The question posed came as Scott ranked as the best trading member of Congress for 2021 according to a report from Unusual Whales. Scott also had the two best trades by any member of Congress in 2021, selling shares of FuelCell Energy Inc FCEL on two occasions for gains of 780% and 571%.
Unusual Whales has been a leading voice in sharing data on Congressional trades, which could be made with conflicts of interest.
“What is important is making sure people always have enough data about their members to make informed decisions about them,” the anonymous founder of Unusual Whales told Benzinga.
“Unusual Whales has always been about providing good data (with some humor), and most people forgot about Austin Scott’s trading history.”
Unusual Whales told Benzinga it was important to remind people of the trades Scott made.
Scott’s team had not reached out to Unusual Whales in response to the post.
While Scott dropped out of the race and is now backing Jordan, Unusual Whales will be sure to share data on more members of Congress going forward.
“Members like Jordan do not trade necessarily, but many members of Congress receive benefits that go beyond stock trading, such as lobbying, donations, PACs and others.”
Unusual Whales previously released a report on Congress lobbying, which found Scott on the list as well.
Related Link: Members Of Congress Buy Energy, Defense Stocks Prior To Russian Invasion Of Ukraine: Who They Are, What They Bought
Why It’s Important: The focus on Scott's trading history came as call outs have increased by the public and several members of Congress to ban the buying and selling of stocks and options by members of Congress.
Data from Unusual Whales shared on social media has helped lead the charge and increase public awareness of potential conflicts of interest.
“There were gross inequities in information, education and access for the everyday trader,” the founder of Unusual Whales previously told Benzinga. “Retail [traders] are the future.”
Unusual Whales provided the data for two Congress trading linked ETFs that were recently launched. The Series Portfolio Trust Unusual Whales Subversive Republican Trading ETF KRUZ and Series Portfolios Trust Unusual Whales Subversive Democratic Trading ETF NANC track the trades of Republicans and Democrats, respectively.
Read Next: The 10 Best Stock Traders In Conngress In 2022
Photos: Shutterstock; Scott's official website
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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