Editor’s note: We are publishing a series of fact-checks of advertisements in the Pennsylvania 8th Congressional District race between incumbent Republican Congressman Rob Bresnahan of Dallas Twp. and his Democratic challenger, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti. The election is a key one for both major parties’ hopes of holding a House majority the next two years.
The 30-second ad is paid for by House Majority Forward, a tax-exempt advocacy organization aligned with the Democratic Party, which operates as a “dark money” group and does not have to disclose its donors.
It opens with video of stock tickers changing alongside photos of the House floor and a file photo of Bresnahan. It pans to another black-and-white shot of a silhouetted man on his cellphone in the foreground, staring toward the U.S. Capitol.
Text labels Bresnahan “a Congressional stock trader” before airing video footage cut from a television news story.
“Rob Bresnahan is facing fresh scrutiny over stock trades,” a news anchor states, as a color photo of the congressman on his cellphone, in front of the Capitol, flashes on the screen. “Bresnahan, who ranks as one of Congress’ top stock traders, dumped up to $130,000 in stocks from four major Medicaid providers. Seven days later, he voted to slash Medicaid funding.”
It concludes by asking viewers to call Bresnahan’s local offices to demand he stop trading stock, with on-screen text demanding support for H.R. 3779, a bill introduced by Dems in June that would ban stock trading and tighten financial disclosure rules for senior government officials.
Key claim
“Members of Congress are getting rich trading stocks around their votes. It should be illegal. But Congressman Rob Bresnahan doesn’t think so.”
Is it factual?
It is mostly true.
According to transaction reports he filed with the House, Bresnahan sold up to $130,000 in stocks in four companies that oversaw about half of all Medicaid managed care organizations at the time — Centene Corp., CVS Health Corp., Elevance Health Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc.
A week later, the House took its first vote on President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” which will cut federal Medicaid spending by at least $911 billion over the following 10 years. Bresnahan voted yes on the bill, and it ultimately became law.
Though he noted his trades were made by a third-party financial adviser without his input, Bresnahan traded around 650 stocks during his first year in office in 2025, ranking him among the most prolific traders in Congress.
However, the claim that Bresnahan “doesn’t think” congressional stock trading “should be illegal” is open for scrutiny.
During his 2024 campaign, Bresnahan promised to push for a ban on congressional stock trading.
In July, he voted in favor of the Stop Insider Trading Act.
While Democrats argue the bill doesn’t go far enough to prohibit lawmakers from owning or selling stocks (which H.R. 3779 does), the Stop Insider Trading Act does bar members of Congress, their spouses and dependent children from buying new publicly traded stocks while holding federal office. It also requires them to file public notice between one to two weeks in advance before selling any existing investments.