Congressional Candidates Caught Betting on Their Own Races

Kalshi, an online political betting platform, has fined and suspended three congressional candidates who placed bets on their own races, the company announced Wednesday.

The candidates are Mark Moran, an independent running in Virginia’s U.S. Senate race; Texas Republican Ezekiel Enriquez, who ran for a U.S. House seat but lost in March; and Matt Klein, a Democratic state senator running for Congress in Minnesota.

“All three cases concern political insider trading and were flagged because of our newly released safeguards to block political candidates from trading on their own elections,” Kalshi said in a statement.

Kalshi said Klein and Enriquez each placed bets of less than $100 related to their own candidacies. Moran was accused of trading twice.

Although the bets were small, Kalshi labeled the candidates “bad actors,” saying that, “just like in traditional financial markets,” some participants “will try to cheat.”

“These cases are an example of how developing proactive engineering solutions can help identify illicit trading activity,” the company added.

Moran, who has previously accused President Donald Trump’s administration of “insider trading” on social media, was himself labeled an “insider trader” by Kalshi.

“Then, once the trader announced himself as a candidate for the Democratic primary election for Virginia U.S. Senate, he again traded on his own candidacy,” the company said.

After Moran was flagged, Kalshi said he stopped responding to the company’s outreach and was ultimately fined $6,229.30 and suspended from the platform for five years.

On Tuesday, Moran acknowledged making a $100 trade but said it was intended to expose how easily the betting market could be manipulated.

“I traded $100 on myself, knowing this would happen … to highlight how this company is destroying young men,” the independent wrote on X, adding that if elected he would seek to impose penalties and a 25% “vice tax” on Kalshi to help pay down the national debt.

Enriquez was fined $784.20 and banned from the platform for five years. Klein received a $539.85 fine and a five‑year suspension.