KINGSTON – Congressman Pat Ryan’s Republican opponent is accusing him of hypocrisy after a newly filed financial disclosure revealed that he personally owns between $100,001 and $250,000 in Tesla stock while repeatedly criticizing the company’s CEO, Elon Musk.
Jackie Auringer is now questioning whether Ryan (D,NY-18) will sell the Tesla shares or place them in a blind trust, as he has proposed in legislation. Ryan’s 2025 financial disclosure lists Tesla holdings in a Charles Schwab brokerage account in his name, according to Auringer’s campaign.
“Another day, another hypocrisy from Pat Ryan. Just yesterday he was warning voters about Elon Musk,” Auringer said. “Pat’s message: Musk is great at making money for me, but not for you?”
Ryan has been a vocal critic of Musk. In March 2025, Ryan said he had “zero trust in Elon Musk.” More recently, he warned voters that he would not allow “no politician or trillionaire like Elon Musk” to control Social Security.
Ryan also introduced legislation called the Stop Millionaires Using Service for Kickbacks Act, or the MUSK Act, along with the TRUST in Congress Act, which would require members of Congress to place individual stock holdings into blind trusts.
“Pat will always stand up to greedy billionaires like Elon Musk, especially when they mess with the Hudson Valley,” a spokesperson for Ryan said. “When Musk tried to close our Social Security office in Poughkeepsie, Pat rallied the community to protect our seniors and stopped him. Pat has not traded any stocks since becoming a member of Congress and is fighting for a ban on congressional stock trading to start cleaning up the corruption in Washington.”
Auringer said Ryan’s Tesla holdings conflict with his criticism of Musk and his push for restrictions on congressional stock ownership. She called on Ryan to explain why he continues to hold Tesla stock, and whether he bought, sold, or traded Tesla shares while publicly criticizing Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
“The more you look at Pat Ryan, the more it’s clear he is a complete phony,” Auringer said. “You can’t stand on a stage and call a man a threat to Social Security, then go home and check your portfolio hoping his stock’s up.”
Ryan’s campaign fired back at Ryan, stating: “This is another nonsense attack from his opponent who has spent more time at Mar-a-Lago the past five years than she has in the Hudson Valley. That’s why she refuses to talk about the issues that actually matter to our community, like why Republicans cut $1 trillion from health care and kicked up to 240,000 NY-18 residents off their health care.”
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