I put together a list of this year’s candidates for the United States Senate and House of Representatives who failed to submit mandatory financial disclosure statements. The deadline to file is 30 days before the November 3rd election, and the intent is to vet politicians for potential financial conflicts of interest prior to being elected.
Three incoming members of the 117th Congress have yet to submit their financial disclosures. Representative-elect
Ashley Hinson (R-IA) won her bid for Iowa’s 1st District while Robert Franklin (D-GA) advanced to the December runoff elections for Georgia’s 5th District. Senator-elect Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) is on track to becoming the only member of the Senate without conflict of interest forms on file.
13% of the 1072 Democratic and Republican candidates for Congress neglected to disclose potential financial conflicts of interest. 63 of those failing to disclose were Democrats and 74 were Republicans. While many Democrats and Republicans failed to file, almost none of the non-major party candidates for Congress disclosed their financial records this year.
Failing to report potential financial conflicts of interest can result in a fine in any amount up to $50,000. Knowingly and willfully falsifying any information that an individual is required to report can result in a fine, imprisonment for no more than a year, or both.
In compiling the full list of candidates, I used information from Politics1 and Ballotpedia cross referenced with the candidates who submitted disclosure forms to the US House and US Senate financial conflict of interest disclosure websites.
