Tony Hanagan has been appointed as the Head of Congressional Affairs at Kalshi. With extensive experience in the Senate Republican Cloakroom, he most recently held the position of senior Republican floor assistant.

Posting on LinkedIn Tony said, after 12 amazing years in the Senate Republican Cloakroom, I have joined Kalshi as Head of Congressional Affairs.

I started in the Senate as a Page when I was 16 years old. I learned what it was like to be in the middle of everything on the Senate Floor. I wanted to work there. Kalshi is innovating the world today. I want to work here.

Why Kalshi? Why did this Senate lifer make the jump? I’ve spent my career as “Cloakroom Tony” answering questions about what’s next: When are we voting? What are we voting on? Will that live UC really pass? Do you have an objector? What’s the House doing? Are we winning? And everyone’s favorite question… is this the last vote?

I got pretty good at it and could usually give Senators the best update possible.

Then I found Kalshi, where “what’s next?” isn’t just a Cloakroom question, it’s the whole product. By letting people trade on the events they care about across politics, culture, the economy, and the world, Kalshi turns the wisdom of the crowd into real-time odds that get us closer to the truth. I found myself looking up the Kalshi odds on Congressional races before going to traditional polling. I looked at what the markets were saying live as Congress was responding to world events at the same time.

Kalshi is changing everything through the power of markets. Our co-founders Tarek Mansour and Luana Lopes Lara have created the largest legal prediction market in the U.S., and they have gone about doing it the right way: with a regulatory first approach from day one.

Kalshi is paving the way for good policy in the industry by working with policymakers to ensure consumers are protected and prediction markets can remain safe while innovating in the U.S. In my career in D.C., I have seen how conversations around new industries and emerging markets can become polarized before they are fully understood.

But through education and consensus-building, the debate can shift from often-reflexive skepticism to a more thoughtful discussion about how to balance innovation and responsibility. Kalshi is stepping up to work with regulators and lead this conversation. They believe in responsible innovation – balancing individual responsibility with the proper consumer safeguards. They want to work with Congress to get it right. This approach will take Kalshi to the next phase. I’m excited to be part of that work.