Kalshi Blocks Most Campaign Staff Trades but One Staffer Completed a Bet on Their Race

Kalshi has blocked dozens of attempts by campaign staffers to trade on races they work on since May 2026. The company cross-references names from Federal Election Commission filings against its user logs to identify and prevent such activity. Robert DeNault, Kalshi's head of enforcement and legal counsel, said the system flags campaigns and stops matched users from placing trades on associated markets.

"If we're able to identify a potential match, we have markets that are associated with each of the campaigns that are flagged, and those individuals would be prevented from placing trades on those markets," DeNault told Npr. At least one campaign operative listed in FEC records completed a trade on a race they were involved in despite the monitoring.

The staffer shared trade records with Npr on condition of anonymity.

Kalshi announced the FEC monitoring program in May 2026, shortly after Npr reported that some campaign staffers earned thousands of dollars using insider polling data on Polymarket and PredictIt. Kalshi spokesperson Jacki McGavick said the company opened more than 150 insider-trading investigations, blocked over 100 trades and referred at least 20 cases to law enforcement in the first quarter of 2026.

Two former FEC commissioners described the program as a constructive step but noted limits.

Sean Cooksey, appointed by President Trump in 2020, said FEC data does not list volunteers, lawyers, pollsters or subcontractors. Lee E. Goodman, who served from 2013 to 2018, called the effort helpful yet incomplete because many campaign participants do not appear in filings.