Rep. Elaine Luria’s (D-VA) husband’s recent purchase of shares from electric vehicle carmaker Tesla, Inc. puts the Democrat congresswoman in a position to personally benefit off of President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion spending package should it pass through Congress.
The spending package, which the Biden administration named the “American Jobs Plan,” includes $174 billion in electric vehicle incentives, a provision that would affect Tesla, which dominates in the electric vehicle market.
Tesla’s shares rose five percent the day Biden introduced his plan, on March 31.
Luria’s husband, according to a transaction report the congresswoman filed last week, purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 in Tesla stock on March 22. He also on March 22 purchased stock in that same cost range in QuantumScape Corporation, a developer of electric vehicle batteries.
Congressmembers, as well as their spouses, are prohibited by law from making trades based off of privy knowledge gained through the congressional role, though there is no evidence to support Luria’s husband’s purchases were made unlawfully.
The purchases do however fall in line with criticism over those involved in making policy decisions seeing a personal financial gain as a result of those decisions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has come under similar scrutiny for her husband’s massive investment in Tesla in December, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon. Though the speaker’s office later denied to Fox News that Pelosi had any involvement in that purchase, the fact remains she holds enormous influence over her caucus as it prepares over the coming months to vote on the spending package that currently includes the multibillion-dollar electric vehicle provision.
Luria’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the matter.
Luria has represented Virginia’s Second Congressional District since 2019 and won reelection last year by close to six points, but she is considered vulnerable in the 2022 midterms.
The Cook Political Report’s most recent partisan index finds her district leans one point favorable toward Republicans, and the National Republican Congressional Committee has targeted her as one of several “battleground Democrats” whose defeats would aid Republicans in retaking the House majority next year.
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com.
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