Congresswoman Who Tripled Net Worth in Congress Fumbles Response to Insider Trading Claims

“I think I am one of the most transparent members (of Congress) because everything, you know, has been reported and I’m, um, continuing to try to always have transparency there,” Sherrill said.

If you made $7 million trading stocks, do you think you would remember it?

If you’re Congresswoman Rebecca Michelle "Mikie" Sherrill (D-NJ), this is seemingly a difficult question to answer. Recently, Sherrill went on popular iHeartRadio program The Breakfast Club to discuss her upcoming run for New Jersey Governor. Unfortunately for Sherrill, the hosts came prepared to ask her about serious allegations of improper use of federal campaign funds for her state race, questions about her family's increased net worth, and past violations of stock trading laws.

In turn, she stuttered, stammered, and, ultimately, did not succeed at dispelling voters’ concerns. And it’s also now going viral.

“When Newsmax claims that you made $7 million from stock trading, what are they talking about?” asked program host Charlemagne Tha God.

After sitting in silence for several seconds, Sherill responded by saying “Newsmax is, first of all, a very questionable organization that is, um, paying multiple fines” and that she’s “not sure what they’re talking about.”

“Did you make $7 million in stock trades at all?” the host asked more directly.

“I… I haven’t… I-I don’t believe I did, but I’d have to go see what that was alluding to, again, what kind of came from that,” Sherrill said, stuttering abundantly.

Later in the interview, Charlemagne Tha God reminded her that there is an ad running about her which cites the existing allegations: “If you get an opportunity to just clear it up, I think you should take it now.”

“It says (Sherrill) made millions on the stock market, tripling her net worth while in Congress, and was then fined for unreported trades,” the host says. “Is that true or false?”

“So… I think we made money from, uh, my husband’s job,” Sherrill answered, notably hesitant. She then proceeded to describe how her husband is paid in stock options which are “automatically sold” and promises that they are currently “out of all individual stocks.” 

That could be presently true, at least presently. Sherrill did not, however, detail when they supposedly stopped—only that they are not doing it currently—and therefore the allegation that she tripled her wealth while in Congress and could have been involved in insider trading up until an undisclosed point, still lingers. 

Sherrill married her husband, Jason Hedberg, in 2003. Over the next sixteen years, the couple amassed a household net worth of between $733,209 and $4,321,000, according to her 2019 financial disclosure (some sources split the difference at around $2.3 million). The following year, Sherrill became a Congresswoman. Five years later, in 2025, their net worth had grown to $11,321,863, according to the latest filing. 

“Not bad for someone making a $174,000 taxpayer-funded salary,” reads an ad put forth by Jack Ciattarelli, Sherrill’s Republican opponent for the Governor’s race.

Indeed, Sherrill’s annual salary over five years equates to $870,000. Her husband’s salary is not public record. But if the arithmetic—or Sherrill’s story—is to add up, that suggests Hedberg made over $6 million in five years when, after sixteen years together, their total assets were anywhere between $733,209 and $4,321,000.

Evidently, Hedberg deserves congratulations on the impressive professional success he has had in the years that happen to coincide with his wife being elected to Congress. 

“I think I am one of the most transparent members (of Congress) because everything, you know, has been reported and I’m, um, continuing to try to always have transparency there,” Sherrill said.

Of course, Ciattarelli is and will continue highlighting the allegations and questioning Sherrill’s integrity.

“There’s a big difference between her public service and my public service. It actually cost me money—the time I put in and took away from my company,” Ciattarelli said during a recent public debate with Sherrill. “In the seven years that she’s been in Congress, she’s tripled her net worth. Here’s another big difference between the two of us. She broke the law.”

Ciattarelli then turned to Sherrill to say, in no uncertain terms, “while you were sitting on the House Armed Services Committee, you were trading defense stocks."

The presumption of innocence dictates that Sherrill, like any suspect, is innocent until proven guilty. That said, her fumbling reaction to the allegations has only fueled scrutiny and speculation. 

“Nobody makes $7 million and doesn’t know where it comes from or if they even made that money,” one user comments. “It’s a yes or no question, and she said everything but no. She’s already not trustworthy.”

Conservative politico and former Communications Adviser to Sen. Ted Cruz, Steve Guest, opined that Sherrill’s flippant and noncommittal response to Charlemagne The God was “one of the worst answers imaginable to that question.”

“I would love to be in a spot where ‘I’d have to check’ if I made 7 mil,” another user responds.

If Sherill had hoped that going on The Breakfast Club would put these rumors to bed once and for all ahead of her gubernatorial campaign, she got the exact opposite outcome.