Elected officials hold enormous power over laws, regulations, contracts, budgets, and industries. They can also gain access through their jobs to information ordinary people never see.

That power should never become a financial advantage.

Across northeastern Pennsylvania, residents are organizing around that basic principle. More than 40,000 signatures were submitted in Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties as part of a grassroots push for ballot measures prohibiting county officials and employees from making individual stock trades or prediction-market bets based on nonpublic information learned through their official duties. The proposals also strengthen financial transparency.

The demand for action reaches far beyond Pennsylvania. A national survey found that 72% of Americans support prohibiting members of Congress and their live-in families from trading individual stocks, with strong support among both Republicans and Democrats. Pennsylvania support reached 74%.

Every state should establish clear protections against public officials using information obtained through government service for private financial gain. Strong laws should prohibit insider trading, require meaningful financial transparency, and hold officials accountable when they violate the public trust.

Tell your state legislators to ban insider trading by public officials and make public service about serving the people.