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Official portrait of Steve Daines

Steve Daines

R Republican · Senator, Montana
12
Low self-dealing
5/6 components have data
#155 of 193 scored

Steve Daines is a wealthy senator (estimated $21M+, with disclosures ranging up to ~$28M) whose fortune is overwhelmingly pre-office, derived from the 2012 Oracle acquisition of RightNow Technologies where he was an executive; pre-office wealth is not scored and there is no evidence of abnormal in-office enrichment. On the trading dimension he scores very low: trackers (Quiver, MarketBeat) show essentially no individual-stock trading—his holdings are real estate, money-market funds, and private investments—and he co-sponsored bipartisan legislation to ban congressional stock trading. The most notable accountability item is an FEC audit finding that his 2020 re-election campaign failed to properly disclose more than $1 million, but those were reporting/disclosure errors, not personal use or self-enrichment. His donor profile shows energy/oil-and-gas money aligning with his Energy & Natural Resources Committee seat and pro-energy legislation (correlation, not proof), and his 3.0% missed-vote rate is on par with the Senate median.

Public record

In Congress since
2013
Committees
Energy and Natural Resources
Finance
Foreign Relations
Indian Affairs
Missed votes, 119th Congress
2.8% (26 of 915; median member 1.9%)
Campaign money, 2025–26 cycle
$4.7M raised · 29% from PACs & committees · $2.6M cash on hand FEC ↗

The stock-trading ban

Senate cloture on H.R. 7008, Sep 30, 2026
Yes
Cosponsored a ban bill
S. 4134

H.R. 7008 bans new stock purchases by members, spouses and dependents; it doesn't force sales of existing holdings. The Senate vote was on the version paired with the SAVE Act, which is why no Democrat voted yes. Full breakdown →

Disclosed stock trades

No periodic transaction reports on file since 2024. That's the norm: most members don't trade individual stocks, or hold them in blind trusts and diversified funds.

Amounts are the ranges members must report, not exact values. The STOCK Act requires a report within 45 days of a trade; "late" counts days past that deadline, measured to the filing date.

How the score breaks down

Stock self-trading
25% weight
3
Effectively no individual-stock trading. Trackers report ~$0 in live-trackable public equities; portfolio is real estate, money-market funds, and private 'Gen' investments. Daines co-sponsored a bipartisan bill to ban members of Congress from owning/trading stocks. No committee-overlap timing concerns identified.
Quiver reports Daines has approximately $0 invested in publicly traded assets it can track live; holdings are real estate and funds rather than individual stocks.Data aggregatorquiverquant.com ↗Daines co-sponsored bipartisan legislation with Sen. Warren to ban members of Congress and spouses from owning and trading stocks.Official recordwarren.senate.gov ↗
Net-worth enrichment in office
15% weight
0
Net worth (~$21M, disclosures up to ~$28M) is overwhelmingly pre-office, from the 2012 Oracle purchase of RightNow Technologies. Pre-office wealth is excluded by rubric; no evidence of in-office growth beyond salary/market was found.
Daines made several million dollars when RightNow Technologies was sold to Oracle for $1.8 billion in 2012, before his Senate tenure; estimated net worth ~$21.4M.Data aggregatorfinbold.com ↗
Money → action alignmentcorrelation, not proof of any quid-pro-quo
20% weight
30
Correlation, not proof: Daines sits on the Energy & Natural Resources and Finance Committees and champions oil/gas 'energy dominance' bills while receiving energy-industry money (~$243K oil/gas career per advocacy analysis). Donor-vote alignment exists but no quid pro quo is established; oil/gas total is modest in scale.
Daines has received roughly $243,000 from the oil and gas industry over his career while advocating for fossil-fuel-friendly policy.News reportingendcitizensunited.org ↗Daines serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and leads bills to expand onshore/offshore oil and gas leasing.Official recorddaines.senate.gov ↗
Campaign-fund personal use
15% weight
18
No evidence of campaign funds used for personal benefit. However, an FEC audit found his 2020 campaign failed to disclose over $1M, including $265K in undisclosed debts and $600K+ in misreported receipts. These are reporting/compliance failures, not personal enrichment—scored low and flagged as a disclosure-integrity concern rather than self-dealing.
FEC audit found Daines' 2020 campaign failed to disclose more than $1 million, including $265,217 in undisclosed debts and over $600,000 in misreported receipts; characterized by the campaign as minor reporting errors.News reportingdailymontanan.com ↗
Revolving door & familyno data
15% weight
—
No specific, sourced evidence found of family members lobbying or holding office-tied contracts, or of an unusual staff-to-lobbyist pipeline. Absence of data is not penalized.
Skips the job to fundraise
10% weight
10
Missed 129 of 4,272 roll-call votes (~3.0%), on par with the ~2.8% Senate median. He fundraised heavily as NRSC chair (2023-24), but that is party-committee activity, not personal speech fees or self-benefit. Minimal job-vs-fundraising tension on personal terms.
From 2013 to June 2026 Daines missed 129 of 4,272 roll-call votes (3.0%), on par with the 2.8% median of serving senators.Reference databasegovtrack.us ↗Daines served as NRSC chairman for the 2024 cycle, ranking among the committee's top fundraisers.News reportingpunchbowl.news ↗

Sources behind this score: 2 data aggregator · 2 official record · 3 news reporting · 1 reference database. Score = weighted average of the components that have data; the 1 without sourced evidence are excluded, never counted against the member. Methodology →

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