These U.S. politicians made the most from stocks in 2024

In numerous ways, 2024 has proven to be a pivotal year for Congressional trading. 

On the one hand, public awareness about elected officials engaging in extensive stock market activity – and frequently engaging in exceptionally suspicious investments – is greater than ever, in no small part due to the many Congressional copy-trading strategies.

Indeed, the issue has gained enough prominence that the outgoing president, Joe Biden, recently called for a ban and that some Congresspeople such as Representative Dan Crenshaw, have taken to publicly defending the practice.

Despite the pressure, 2024 has also been a very strong year for politician-traders thanks in equal measure to their own savviness – or access to insider information – and the overall strength of the bull market.

With the New Year rapidly approaching, Finbold decided to examine which Congresspeople made the best stock market returns this year.

Estimating Congressional stock trading returns

To begin with, despite the laws intended to provide transparency about Congressional trading, gauging the investing successes and failures of elected officials is not an exact science. 

While the STOCKS Act has a deadline for politicians to report their activity, the penalties for overstepping the grace period are minuscule – often even non-existent – leading to some failing to report trades for years. 

A prime and recent example of this was Representative Darrell Issa, who filed a vast number of trades – almost all of them significantly overdue – within days in late September.

Furthermore, the wide range of the exact transactions also complicates matters. For example, it is known that Representative Josh Gottheimer sold a significant amount of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock in November, but it is impossible to know the details as the trade was reported as worth between $1 million and $1 and $5 million.

Still, even though the uncertainties can’t be eliminated, several Congresspersons emerged as clear stock market winners of 2024. 

These are Congress’ high rollers

As could probably be expected, Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi – the poster child for Congressional trading – is near the very top of the list. Thanks to numerous massive and frequently perfectly-timed investments, her net worth exploded in 2024 from an estimated $231 million to an estimated $273 million.

Much of this success can be attributed to her well-timed bets on the semiconductor giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), one of the best-performing stocks of the last two years. Still, not even Nancy Pelosi managed to make all her investments perfect.

Her original Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) purchase spent much of the year in the red, though she did, with the second buy of PANW shares, correctly gauge the late February downtrend is but a setback.

Another testament to Nancy Pelosi’s success is the fact that copy-trading her portfolio would have yielded a return rate of 38.67% in the last 12 months. Still, given that the S&P 500 is up 24.74% in the same time frame, there is proof that the overall bull market had at least as much to do with Congresspeople’s successes as any potential use of insider information.

Furthermore, Representative Pelosi is far from the only wealthy and successful trader in Congress. Josh Gottheimer, who is heavily invested in technology and healthcare, saw his net worth rise by 10% from about $46 million to about $51 million.

Several more low-profile politicians have recorded massive gains this year despite being mostly inactive traders.

Inactive Congressional traders record stellar returns in the 2024 bull market

A prime example of this is Representative Dan Meuser – a Congressman who filed his most recent stock trade in March – whose portfolio returned more than 94% in the last 12 months.

Similarly, Representative Brian Higgins might be the single most successful elected official in the stock market despite filing a total of three trades during his incumbency and making his latest known investment in 2021.

Specifically, Higgins – already noted as 2023’s most successful Congressional trader – bought Nvidia stock in 2021. The stake appreciated approximately 900% since and enabled the politician’s net worth to skyrocket from an estimated $115,000 in 2021 and 2022 to approximately $745,000 at press time.

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