Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California saw her wealth increase by at least 2,292% during her 37 years in Congress, much of it through stock trading.
The former House speaker, who announced Thursday that she will retire from Congress in 2027, reported a minimum net worth of $2,675,036 when she first took office and $63,996,050 in 2024, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of her financial disclosures. A separate analysis by Quiver Quantitative places her current net worth at roughly $278.76 million.
Pelosi’s 2024 financial disclosures list her maximum net worth at an estimated $311,443,000. Comparable figures were not reported in 1987, when she first entered Congress, the Daily Caller reported.
At 85, Pelosi’s investment portfolio nearly doubled the growth of the S&P 500 in 2024, according to previous Daily Caller News Foundation reporting. Her financial success has fueled renewed calls to tighten restrictions on stock trading by members of Congress and sparked allegations that she may have benefited from insider knowledge of industry trends.
Pelosi’s office has denied any wrongdoing, stating that she does not personally own or manage stocks and has no prior knowledge of, or involvement in, the transactions. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, is responsible for handling the family’s investments.
The congresswoman voiced her support in July for Republican-backed legislation that would ban stock trading by members of Congress, as well as by presidents and vice presidents — the same day former President Donald Trump publicly called for an investigation into her over potential insider trading.
“We must have strong transparency, robust accountability and tough enforcement for financial conduct in office because the American people deserve confidence that their elected leaders are serving the public interest — not their personal portfolios,” Pelosi said at the time.
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced the bill July 30, the Caller reported.
Trump weighed into the debate over Pelosi’s stock trading in 2022.
“She has inside information. It’s not right. It’s not appropriate. It shouldn’t be,” Trump told Breitbart News at the time. “She doesn’t want to discuss that. She wants to discuss other things that shouldn’t be discussed.
“Some of the things that they’re proposing now, like impeaching someone for absolutely no reason for a perfect phone call. You look at that. You look at impeachment—both of them. But you get impeached for a phone call that was like perfecto. So many different things,” he continued.
“I happen to watch her and see her and dealt with her a lot and I think she’s clever in one way and stone-cold crazy. She should not be allowed to do that with the stocks. She should not be allowed to do that. It’s not fair to the rest of this country,” Trump added.
Following Pelosi’s public comments about how lawmakers, like other Americans, should be able to participate in “capitalism” by trading stocks, a bipartisan effort was launched to ban the practice for serving members of Congress.
According to the New York Post, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA.) was seeking a Republican co-sponsor to back his ethics legislation, which would bar members of Congress and their families from participating in the stock market for the duration of their Congressional terms.
Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley put Pelosi and others on notice after recent reports involving allegedly shady trades.
In a statement posted to his website, Hawley announced that he is introducing the Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act. The bill prohibits members of Congress and their spouses from holding or trading individual stocks. Any members found in violation of the bill will be forced to return their profits.
Hawley noted: “Year after year, politicians somehow manage to outperform the market, buying and selling millions in stocks of companies they’re supposed to be regulating. Wall Street and Big Tech work hand-in-hand with elected officials to enrich each other at the expense of the country. Here’s something we can do: ban all members of Congress from trading stocks and force those who do to pay their proceeds back to the American people. It’s time to stop turning a blind eye to Washington profiteering.”