A Republican legislative director has traded in the House for stock-investing platform Robinhood.
Conor Carney joined Robinhood this month as government-affairs manager. The financial-services group is fairly new to the D.C. lobbying game. It first hired contract lobbyists in 2020 and added its own in-house lobbying presence later that year, registering that team in February 2020. In January 2020, the company drew attention for blocking trades of GameStop stock during an infamous GameStop short squeeze.
Carney comes from the office of Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.). Zeldin, who is running for New York governor and will leave the House at the end of this term, sits on the House Financial Services Committee. Carney has also worked for Rep. John Rose (R-Tenn.), former Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and former Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-N.C.).
Note: An earlier version of piece suggested that Robinhood had registered its in-house lobbying team in response to the GameStop controversy. A representative from Robinhood clarified that although their lobbying registration came shortly after the controversy, they began assembling their in-house lobbying team in late 2020.
