Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor Holds Stock in Company Lobbying His State

Pennsylvania lieutenant governor John Fetterman wants to ban members of Congress from holding stocks to prevent conflicts of interest. But the Democratic Senate hopeful owns shares of a telecommunications company that has millions of dollars in business contracts with his state government.

Fetterman this month endorsed lawmakers’ calls to prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks. “Congress needs to ban members, their spouses, and their senior staffers from holding individual stocks,” he said. “Lawmakers should not be making profits off the same companies they’re supposed to be regulating.”

Fetterman’s position could open him to charges of hypocrisy. He holds between $1,000 and $15,000 in shares of Verizon, according to his financial disclosure report. Verizon and its subsidiaries have spent more than $1.2 million on lobbying in Pennsylvania since Fetterman took office in 2019, lobbying records show. The state has paid Verizon more than $8.2 million since 2019 as a vendor for government services, according to a state spending database. READ MORE