Nancy Pelosi lost a fortune in December, thanks to The Walt Disney Company.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was first elected to Congress in a 1987 special election, and ten years later, she became the first woman elected to serve in the capacity of Speaker of the House. In 2019, she was again elected as Speaker of the House, making her the first person in more than 60 years to regain her position as Speaker for a second time.
In mid-November 2022, however, after news outlets projected that Democrats would be forced to concede their House majority following the nation’s midterm elections, Pelosi made an announcement, saying she wouldn’t seek re-election in her role as a leader in Congress.
“For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic Congress that I so deeply respect,” Pelosi said. “And I am grateful that so many are ready and willing to shoulder this awesome responsibility.”
And in December, the former Madame Speaker decided the hour had come for her to purge her shares in four major companies: Alphabet, the holding company created through the restructuring of Google in 2015 that also serves as Google’s parent company, Netflix, Tesla, and Disney.
Doing so cost the career politician a fortune. According to Congress Trading, a database designed to track stock exchange trades made by Congressional legislators, Pelosi sold 10,000 shares of Alphabet worth nearly $1 million, and 1,000 shares of Netflix, worth between $250,000 and $500,000. The Netflix sale cost her a loss of $66,385. Pelosi also sold 5,000 shares of Tesla, losing more than $500,000.
The database also shows that Pelosi sold 10,000 shares of Walt Disney Company stock, a transaction that saddled the former Speaker of the House with a loss of more than $114,000.
In 2022, Disney’s stock took a 44% tumble in what The Hollywood Reporter calls a “tumultuous year” for the House of Mouse. Walt Disney Company stock hit a 52-week low during the last week of December, finishing out the worst year for Disney stock since 1974.