Rep. Bryan Steil made his lead on banning congressional stock trading the main platform of his reelection bid. It turns out to have been a very poor choice.
Steil is running a rather cynical and hypocritical ad boasting about his bill to ban congressional stock trading. Before he did that, maybe he should have considered how he doubled his own wealth through trading stocks:
Steil’s median net worth more than doubled from 2018 to 2024, from $812,000 in 2018 to nearly $1.9 million in 2024, according to his financial disclosures. Several of Steil’s brokerage and retirement accounts jumped in value, including Vanguard Target Retirement, Mid Cap Growth Index Fund, and Strategic Equity Investor accounts. He also added a Vanguard U.S. Growth Fund account worth between $250,001 and $500,000 that’s now among his largest assets.
To make matters worse for Steil, his bill failed in the Senate this past week, with many senators from both parties saying it didn't go far enough. Well, they can't expect Lyin' Bryan to cut off his own gravy train, can they? Geez.
All of this, plus the Trump albatross around his neck, means the most recent polls show Steil blowing a 14-point lead over his opponent, Mitchell Berman. Cook Political Report has shifted the district from Likely Republican to Leans Republican.
Steil is in enough trouble that Trump's Super PAC has thrown extra money (which had been earmarked for Rep. Drunken Van Orden) to Steil's campaign:
Since its creation on Sept. 1, the No Going Back Inc. super PAC, affiliated with Trump's MAGA Inc. PAC, has spent a total of $373,000 on Steil's race against Democrat candidate Mitchell Berman, according to Federal Election Commission disclosures.
By comparison, the PAC has spent less than half of that — roughly $148,000 — in one of the most watched races in the country, Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District, where Republican U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden is trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Rebecca Cooke.
If the Democrats manage to flip both Steil's and Van Orden's districts, Wisconsin will be awash in MAGA tears.
