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The online prediction market Kalshi has suspended Republican congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout for three years for making a wager on her own campaign.
In a document posted on its website on Monday, Kalshi announced that Buckhout had used the platform to bet less than $1,000 and has agreed to pay a $2,589.96 penalty.
“I bet on myself,” Buckhout said in a statement. “Literally. It was a dumb mistake, and as soon as I learned there was an issue, I worked to make it right. Safe to say my career as a Kalshi trader was short-lived.”
Neither Kalshi nor Buckhout disclosed when she placed the wager, or what exactly she put her money on. The notice said Buckhout “purchased less than $1,000 worth of contracts related to her own candidacy” and cooperated with the company’s investigators.
Buckhout wasn’t alone. The company said Monday it permanently banned former U.S. Rep. George Santos of New York and issued a $71,356 fine. The platform previously suspended former California gubernatorial candidate Kyle Langford and former U.S. Senate candidate Mark Moran of Virginia for five years each.
Buckhout’s activity on Kalshi pales in comparison to the much bigger bet she’s placed on herself by running in the first place: After entering the race last December, she loaned her campaign more than $2 million.
Campaign finance reports show she entered July with more than $3.5 million in outstanding personal loans, some of which were carried over from her unsuccessful 2024 campaign to unseat Democratic incumbent Don Davis.
In 2019, Buckhout sold her military advising company, Corvus Consulting, for $9 million. Two years later, she moved from Virginia to a $2.7 million home in Edenton along the Albemarle Sound. After losing to Davis, she worked on cyber policy at the Department of Defense, though she kept her home in Edenton and remained registered to vote in North Carolina.
While she narrowly lost last time, her chances at ousting Davis are much better this year after Republican state lawmakers redrew the 1st District into a more GOP-friendly area. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report now lists the district as leaning Republican.
