Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson — one of Congress’ most prolific stock traders — is exiting the stock-trading game.
The Texas congresswoman sold all or parts of 59 individual stock holdings during August, according to a NOTUS review of new congressional financial disclosures.
Asked about the stock sales, Johnson spokesperson Thomas A. Falcigno confirmed that Johnson is in the “process of divesting her stocks, managed by an independent third party, into ETFs and mutual funds to avoid any potential conflicts of interest with her congressional work. These actions on her portfolio reflect this ongoing process.”
Johnson still holds some stock shares and has purchased individual stock shares as recently as last month, congressional records indicate.
Among stock shares Johnson jettisoned: oil companies Chevron, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil; defense contractors General Dynamics and RTX Corporation; banking giants Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Wells Fargo; and tobacco company Philip Morris International.
Her shift in personal investment habits is particularly notable because few members of Congress trade individual stocks more frequently than Johnson, who’s made nearly 350 purchases, sales or exchanges in 2025 alone — putting her in the top 2% of traders in all of Congress.
Taken together, Johnson’s stock trades this year are worth at least $415,340 and as much as $5.4 million. (Federal lawmakers are only required to disclose the value of their trades in broad ranges.) Among them: Dozens of stock sales in the hours before President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff declaration on April 2, which temporarily sent stock markets tumbling.
Johnson’s stock divestiture also comes at a time when a bipartisan coalition in Congress is pressing for a floor vote on bills that would altogether ban members of Congress from buying, selling and even owning individual stocks.
Earlier this month in the House, a group of lawmakers as ideologically varied as Republican Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Chip Roy and Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pramila Jayapal coalesced around the Restore Trust in Congress Act — an amalgamation of several precursor stock-ban bills. A Senate committee advanced a similar measure to the full Senate in July.
Stock-ban bill supporters argue that current congressional financial conflicts-of-interest and financial transparency laws, most notably the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, are too weak and don’t adequately punish violators.
During this year alone, numerous members of Congress have violated the STOCK Act’s public disclosure provisions, including Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Dwight Evans, Jamie Raskin, Chellie Pingree, Shri Thanedar, George Whitesides, Ritchie Torres, Jonathan Jackson, Donald Norcross, Tom Suozzi, George Latimer, Val Hoyle and Jared Huffman.
Among Republicans, STOCK Act violators include Sen. Markwayne Mullin and Reps. Dan Meuser, Lisa McClain, Austin Scott, Neal Dunn, Scott Franklin, Brandon Gill, Hal Rogers, Tim Moore, Troy Nehls and Tony Wied.
Dozens of other lawmakers have violated the STOCK Act in recent years. In most cases, these violators paid a $200 fine or no fine at all, as the House and Senate ethics committees reserve the right to waive such penalties.
Johnson joins several other federal lawmakers who’ve pledged to voluntarily abstain from stock trading to avoid actual or perceived financial conflicts of interest, including Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont and Reps. George Whitesides of California and Greg Landsman of Ohio.
“By stepping away from individual stock holdings, she’s demonstrating that serving the public, not personal profit, comes first,” said Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman and ambassador to India who now works with government watchdog organization Issue One.