FIRST ON FOX: Former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has pitched himself as a Washington outsider fighting against a broken system, but records reviewed by Fox News Digital show his campaign pocketed tens of thousands of dollars from Nancy Pelosi, one of the most notable establishment figures in Washington, D.C., whose husband is a prolific stock trader.
A vocal critic of members of Congress “who are too busy lining their own pockets” and trading stocks, Brown’s campaign has accepted a total of $33,000 from Pelosi-affiliated committees since 2006, including $28,000 since February 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Brown has taken a firm stance against congressional stock trading, writing on his campaign website, “No one – NO ONE – who serves in Congress, or their spouse, should be able to trade stocks. They also shouldn’t be able to turn around when they leave office and become a lobbyist. If you can’t agree to that, you shouldn’t be in public office.”
Just weeks after announcing his comeback bid last year, Brown received $7,000 from committees affiliated with Pelosi. PAC to the Future gave $5,000, while Nancy Pelosi for Congress gave $2,000.
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Mehek Cooke, a GOP strategist and attorney in Ohio, told Fox News Digital that Brown has always sided with the Democratic establishment and has “never worked for us.”
“I hate when people present themselves as one thing and then turn their backs on you in Washington,” Cooke said, calling it another example of Brown’s “Jekyll and Hyde” platform.
She pointed to Brown’s lengthy career in politics as proof that he has been part of a system for “50-plus years” that he frequently condemns.
The former House speaker and her husband, Paul Pelosi, have an estimated net worth of roughly $278 million, according to a 2026 Yahoo Finance report. A 2025 New York Post report also found the couple made more than $130 million in stock profits during her congressional career.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Nicholas Martin, a spokesperson for Pelosi, denied she had any involvement in stock trading.
“Speaker Pelosi does not own any stocks and has no knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” Martin wrote.
Pelosi stood behind lawmakers trading individual stocks during a 2021 press briefing, saying, “We are a free-market economy. They should be able to participate in that,” before changing course in early 2022. Last year, Pelosi supported a ban, saying, “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.”
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Brown’s position comes amid ongoing debate over congressional stock trading, with critics arguing the controversial practice gives lawmakers an unfair advantage. Last month, Senate Democrats blocked a Republican-backed bill, the Stop Insider Trading Act, that would ban lawmakers from trading stocks, arguing it wasn’t strong enough.
Brown, recruited to run by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, is looking to reclaim a seat in the U.S. Senate and will face Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio’s closely watched midterm race. Brown, a former chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, was first elected to the Senate in 2006 before losing his 2024 re-election bid to Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio.
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This is not the first time Brown has faced questions over his campaign donations. Fox News Digital reported in September that Brown targeted Husted over Ohio’s data centers in a campaign ad featuring a facility owned by Google, despite its PAC and lobbyists donating thousands of dollars to his campaigns.
Cooke said Brown will continue accepting money from prominent Democrats like Pelosi rather than fighting “for the working man.”
“Sherrod Brown’s always going to be part of the broken Washington system that President Trump just flipped upside down when he got into office,” Cooke said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Brown’s campaign for comment.
“Sherrod Brown spent 32 years in Washington literally building the system he now calls ‘rigged,’” Husted campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Brown is backed and funded by the same people he claims to oppose — this is just another stunning example of Sherrod Brown’s hypocrisy and the fact that he’s willing to lie to Ohio families.”
