Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke says banning members of Congress from trading stocks is 'the right thing to do'

• Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke said lawmakers shouldn't be allowed to trade stocks.
• He told Insider if elected, he'd try to work with the state legislature to institute a ban.

HOUSTON — Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said restricting members of Congress from trading stocks is "the right thing to do."

O'Rourke's comments came during the final stop of his "Keeping the Lights On" cross-state tour in Houston, where he railed against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state's handling of Winter Storm Uri, which shut down large parts of Texas' electrical grid and left millions without power in freezing temperatures early last year.

Insider asked O'Rourke, a former congressman, if state or federal lawmakers and their spouses should be allowed to trade stocks. He quickly endorsed a ban on trading and said if elected governor, he would try to implement one in the Texas state legislature.

"I think you have both the real opportunity for conflict of interest and the appearance of a conflict of interest and we don't need any more cause for cynicism in our politics or in our democracy right now, and so I think that's the right thing to do," O'Rourke told Insider. "At the state level, I'd love to work with members of the legislature of both parties to make sure that we get that done."

Lawmakers around the country are currently debating whether to prohibit themselves from trading individual stocks. This comes after an Insider investigation, "Conflicted Congress," found that 57 members of Congress and at least 182 senior aides have violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, which was designed to curb insider trading and limit conflicts of interest.

At the event, O'Rourke also unveiled his gubernatorial "five-point plan," which includes connecting Texas' electric grid to the national grid, weatherizing the state grid to prevent future blackouts, and strengthening the rights of voters in the state.

The Democratic primary for governor is set for March 1, 2022. A recent University of Texas poll of a matchup between O'Rourke and Abbott showed the sitting Republican governor with a 10 percentage point advantage, winning over the majority of independent voters.