Senator Tom Carper, D-DE (NumbersUSA Career Grade Card F) has announced his retirement. He has endorsed black Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester (NumbersUSA Career Grade Card F) as his successor.
After graduating from Ohio State University in 1968 on a Navy R.O.T.C. scholarship, Carper spent five years with the U.S. Navy as naval flight officer, including three tours in Vietnam. He reports no combat decorations: perhaps they are a liability in Democratic circles nowadays.
Then after taking an MBA in 1975, he worked for the state of Delaware before being elected state treasurer, taking office in 1977. Since then he has been in full-time elected office, being Senator since 2001.
In other words, he has never worked in the private sector, nor ever held a job with the outward appearance of being particularly lucrative—especially for a man with two children.
However, for 2018, opensecrets.com reported he had a net worth of $5.7 million. The S&P Index has risen 50% since then, which would imply $8.5 million now.
More to the point, Senator Carper has worked hard to do better. The enterprising website Unusual Whales tweeted today:
Senator Thomas Carper is announcing his retirement.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) May 23, 2023
He has been in office for 40 years.
⁰⁰In that time he became a multimillionaire many times over. ⁰⁰
In fact, he was one of the best traders in Congress.
Seriously, take a look: pic.twitter.com/mgtvUvv8vy
There follows a thread of stock transactions, helpfully related to news events. For instance:
Senator Thomas Carper’s wife bought pandemic beneficiaries like $DIS, $CVS, in March 2020.
— unusual_whales (@unusual_whales) May 23, 2023
On April 2, 2020, she bought $DGX that does Covid tests. Quest announced a COVID-19 Antibody Test on April 28.
This was not widely known knowledge.
It seems that for Senator Tom Carper, having access to this information flow was worth betraying his country.