As U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, House candidate Bridget Brink was an energetic stock trader, making 179 individual stock trades worth between $754,000 and $4 million while in office, according to more than two dozen ethics disclosures filed with the State Department and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
Now, as the leading candidate in the Democratic primary for a Republican-held congressional seat in a Michigan swing district, Brink says she will fight to ban federal officials, including presidential appointees like U.S. ambassadors, from engaging in individual stock trading as part of her plan for "fighting corruption and defending democracy."
"I've been criticized as 'focusing too intensely on the issue of corruption,'" she said after releasing her plan. "I believe there's no such thing."
Brink's newfound quest to fight corruption is in stark contrast to her prolific stock trading as ambassador to Ukraine. And it could prove to be a weakness on the campaign trail as she attempts to position herself as the candidate best suited to take on corruption in Washington, D.C.
Former president Joe Biden selected Brink, a career diplomat, to serve as ambassador to Ukraine shortly after Russia's invasion of the country in early 2022. At the time, according to disclosures filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, Brink's assets consisted almost entirely of real estate properties, cryptocurrencies, and exchange-traded and index funds, which she and her husband—also a career senior diplomat—appear to have built up over years of steady employment during boom years in the D.C. real estate market. Brink owned just two individual stocks, Robinhood Markets and Coinbase Global, the latter of which she agreed to divest from once confirmed.
Brink largely maintained that fund-heavy portfolio until 2023, when she began actively trading individual stocks even as she ran a wartime embassy in Kyiv. Between May 2023 and July 2024, Brink reported 142 stock purchases, worth between $317,142 and $2.5 million, and 37 stock sales, worth between $437,037 and $1.4 million. Officials are required to report such transactions and asset values with ranges, not exact figures.
Brink's stocks are held in brokerage accounts she owns jointly with her husband, Nicholas Higgins, a career U.S. Foreign Service and USAID official, according to her most recent disclosure. It is unclear if Higgins remains in government service after the dismantling of USAID last year.
In many cases, Brink's investments paid off quickly. For example, on June 5, 2023, she purchased stock in mining giant Albemarle worth between $1,000 and $15,000. On July 21, 2023, she sold Albemarle shares for between $15,000 and $50,000. On June 26, 2023, she purchased stock in the Chinese-owned solar panel maker Canadian Solar. She sold those shares at a profit just three weeks later. And on April 22, 2024, she bought shares of Tesla worth between $2,000 and $30,000. She sold those shares three months later for between $50,000 and $100,000.
Brink built substantial positions in stocks across various sectors. She purchased as much as $740,000 in Maxeon Solar, a Singaporean solar firm acquired by a Chinese energy company in 2024; $410,000 in Block, an online payment company; $170,000 in PayPal; $165,000 in electric vehicle startup Rivian; $105,000 in Expensify, an expense management software; $60,000 in D-Wave Quantum, a quantum computing company; and $30,000 in the Walt Disney Company, for example.
Brink also purchased as much as $150,000 worth of stock in Polestar and $140,000 worth of stock in NIO. Both Polestar and NIO are Chinese-owned electric vehicle companies and are global competitors of American automakers. Republicans and Democrats alike have called for the federal government to ban Chinese cars from entering the U.S. market.
The district Brink is running to represent, meanwhile, is home to a General Motors plant that employs 4,183 people and an LG electric vehicle battery plant that is projected to employ thousands more. General Motors is the second-largest private employer in Lansing, the largest city in Brink's district.
Based on her House candidate financial disclosure filed late last year, Brink had sold her shares in Polestar and NIO. The disclosure, though, did show a new holding: up to $15,000 worth of stock in General Motors.
Voters may also be interested in Brink's positions in Maxeon Solar and Canadian Solar, two Chinese-owned solar panel makers. The U.S. firm Corning is constructing a solar wafer plant in Richland Township, roughly a 30-minute drive north of Brink's district, that will employ hundreds of people. The Corning facility is the first of its kind in the United States. China controls more than 96 percent of global solar wafer production, an important base component of solar panels.
The revelations come shortly after Politico reported that Brink owned up to $15,000 worth of stock in Albemarle while participating indirectly in the U.S.-Ukraine negotiations over mineral rights last year.
In a statement to the Free Beacon, Brink spokesman Sam Boorstyn said Brink "has faced death threats and disinformation campaigns from the Russians her whole career, and won't stand for false, negative attacks."
"Throughout her 28 years serving our country, Bridget Brink has made ethics and transparency the highest priority," he said. "As a two-time ambassador, including the first female ambassador in a war zone, Brink underwent comprehensive vetting by both the Trump and Biden administrations before being unanimously confirmed twice by the U.S. Senate."
"While serving as Ambassador, all of her finances were closely scrutinized and regularly reviewed by the State Department. Her Restore and Reform Agenda takes on the corruption coming out of the Trump Administration, puts power back in the hands of the people, and defends our democracy," Boorstyn continued.
Brink served as ambassador to Slovakia during the first Trump administration. She resigned as ambassador to Ukraine in April 2025 over her disagreements with President Donald Trump's strategy to end the war. "I fully support pushing for an end to the war. But peace at any price is not peace, it's appeasement," she told the New York Times.
"It's important to fight for democracy at home," she added. "I fought for democracy and for freedom abroad for a long time, but I think right now we need people with principles to stand up and do everything they can so that we end up in a place that remembers who we are: a country based on freedom, democracy, rule of law."
