Checking ‘I do’ regarding stock trades is an issue in Florida’s 7th Congressional District

Banning congressional stock trading has become a big issue in this year’s midterm election in Florida, with both Republican and Democratic candidates including it in their agendas to clean up corruption on Capitol Hill.

In a campaign ad released Tuesday, Democrat Bale Dalton attempts to weaponize that his Republican opponent in Florida’s 7th Congressional District — former TV news anchor Ryan Elijah — indicated on a disclosure form that he intends to trade stocks if elected to Congress next month.

“Elijah admitted that he’ll trade stocks in Congress with inside information,” a narrator says in the ad.

But Elijah insists that although he did check the “I do” box on the disclosure form — introduced for the first time this year for federal candidates in Florida — he actually has no intention to trade stocks if elected.

“I checked ‘yes’ as I wasn’t sure how my retirement account would be managed,” Elijah told the Phoenix in an email message. “I do not intend to trade stocks. I actually have campaigned on not allowing members of Congress to trade stocks while they serve on committees that could lead to privileged information.”

Dalton’s ad also takes on Elijah’s stances on the economy, tariffs, and the Iran war. Elijah says the attack regarding stock trades isn’t fair.

“I have spoke out many times against members of Congress trading stocks,” Elijah says. “My opponent has deceived people about me from the very beginning — it’s all he has. Unfortunately for him, the people in this district know better.

Elijah defeated incumbent Cory Mills (who had been dogged by ethics issues) in the August Republican primary.

On Monday, Mills asked Elijah on X whether he and his spouse had committed to not trading stocks while in office, adding it’s “hard to say you support banning stock trading in Congress but signed on the official form ‘yes’ to planning to trade stocks.”

Elijah replied that it was not hard.

“I checked the box out of ‘full transparency ‘ because I wasn’t positive how my retirement account would be handled (others did also). I do not intend to trade stocks,” he wrote back to Mills.

“Intent is not the same as a pledge to Florida’s 7th not to trade or play the Pelosi game by putting in your wife’s name,” Mills responded, referring to Nancy Pelosi.

 Upon reading of Elijah’s comments, the Dalton campaign responded in a text message to the Phoenix.

“Ryan Elijah’s candidate form speaks for itself. Even disgraced Congressman Cory Mills saw the grift potential. Game recognizes game.”

Anti-corruption

Elijah’s primary campaign chances were boosted in the primary over Mills when he won endorsements by two members of Florida’s GOP congressional delegation — Mike Haridopolos and Anna Paulina Luna.

Luna is sponsoring federal legislation that would ban members of Congress — and their spouses and dependent children — from trading or owning individual stocks, bonds, commodities, or complex investment vehicles. A similar bill, the Stop Insider Trading Act, passed in the U.S. House in July but failed in the Senate in late September.

This is the first time federal candidates in Florida are required to declare whether they’d trade stocks if elected to go to Washington. The provision was tucked into the Florida SAVE Act (HB 991), signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Ron DeSantis. It also will require Florida voters beginning next year to prove their citizenship when they next register or re-register to vote.

DeSantis indicated his support for a state law requiring all candidates running for federal office to check a form disclosing their intentions in January, during a press conference with Luna.

“It’s really odd,” DeSantis said in Clearwater. “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 become Warren Buffett on steroids. They’re putting some of the biggest hedge funds in America to shame with these stock trades that have these suspicious timings. Because, look, if you buy a stock and it goes up 400% in like a month? That’s like a once-in-a lifetime investment, and yet these guys seem to be doing this quite frequently. And they have access to certain information, I believe, that is helping to fuel that.”

The form asks congressional candidates whether they do or do not “intend to trade stocks, if elected, in a manner other than a trust or similar mechanism which strictly limits my ability to influence or exercise control over decisions regarding the management of assets.” It also asks whether they have previously traded stocks while serving in federal office.

Confusion

The Washington Sun reported Monday that the wording in that question has led to confusion not only for Elijah, but Florida District 27 Democratic candidate Eliott Rodriguez, as well. The Sun reported that Rodriguez also checked the “I do” box” when he did not intend to. (The Rodriguez campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment).

The form asks congressional candidates if they do or do not “intend to trade stocks, if elected, in a manner other than a trust or similar mechanism which strictly limits my ability to influence or exercise control over decisions regarding the management of assets.” It also asks if they have previously traded stocks while serving in federal office.

Other Florida congressional candidates from both major parties checked that they do intend to trade stocks if elected (or re-elected). They include Republicans Randy Fine and Scott Franklin and Democrats Lois Frankel and LaShonda J. Holloway, a candidate for Congress in Florida’s 4th Congressional District. The Phoenix reached out to them in the past 24 hours, but did not receive responses.

The idea of banning stock trading by lawmakers is extremely popular. An Economist/YouGov poll taken in May of 1,520 U.S. citizens found that 71% said yes about whether they supported it. Eight percent said no, while 21% were not sure.

The issue has been a hot one in several congressional races in Florida, most notably in CD 13, CD14, and CD 25.

Dalton, 45, was a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and ultimately served in the Navy for 24 years. He served most recently as NASA chief of staff.

Elijah, 54, is a Fort Wayne, Indiana, native who stepped down from his news reporting and anchoring duties at WOFL, the Fox television affiliate in the Orlando market, after 14 years.

CD 7 encompasses all of Seminole County and a part of Volusia. It’s a red-leaning district that voted for Donald Trump by more than 12 points in 2024.