Nov. 25, 2025, 4:52 p.m.
As public trust in institutions continues to wane, Democratic candidates running for the House are increasingly railing against corruption. The issue could have renewed potency as frequent headlines about backroom deals, shady stock trades, and kickbacks for close allies emerge from Washington.
Democrats are especially leaning into this line of messaging in races on the periphery of the competitive House battlefield. Some say it goes hand-in-hand with their central message of lowering costs.
“It consistently emerges as one of the defining issues for voters, and it’s because they actually connect it back to all the other issues that are important to them,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “So whether it is cost of living, or rising grocery prices, or prescription drug costs, or climate change, or gun safety, we know that the money and politics, the corruption and politics, is causing the gridlock and dysfunction on all of these issues.”
End Citizens United is an advocacy group committed to ending big money in politics. Muller says the organization has unveiled its “Unrig Washington” project for the midterms, which will support candidates pledging to ban congressional stock trading, refuse corporate PAC money, and oppose dark money in politics.
Stock trading by members of Congress has long been a touchy issue on Capitol Hill. While members are not banned from trading stock, they are subject to certain disclosure requirements. A ban on trading has gained renewed interest this year in Congress, and President Trump previously said he supports it.
Rep. Rob Bresnahan found himself at the center of the stock trade debate for the wrong reasons. The freshman Republican from Pennsylvania campaigned on banning member trades, only to turn around and become one of the most prolific traders in Washington during his first several months in office.
The Scranton-area seat may have seemed out of reach after Bresnahan flipped it in 2024. While the district has steadily trended Republican, Bresnahan’s miscues have brought national attention to the race. Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti, whose “Paige Against the Machine” anti-corruption campaign propelled her to a mayoral victory in 2019, launched a challenge to Bresnahan earlier this year.
“I don’t know very many people that live in this area that have the luxury of letting millions of dollars sit in a bank account,” Cognetti said of a Bresnahan quote about his trades. “It’s just insulting to hear him talk about stock trading in the way that he does.”
Democrats have a chance to win back voters’ trust, but only if we hold ourselves to a higher standard. ”
—Colorado Democratic candidate Evan Munsing
Other candidates in difficult races are looking to capitalize on their rivals’ inflated résumés or legal troubles.
In Nashville, Democrats have set their sights on Republican Rep. Andy Ogles, in a seat that Trump carried in 2024 by more than 15 points. Democrats are hopeful Ogles’s ethics issues could make him vulnerable in a bluer year.
Ogles has incurred a spate of negative headlines and scandals since his arrival to Congress in 2022. Chief among them: the $25,000 he raised for a children’s burial garden that never materialized. It’s unclear where the money went. Ogles also saw his cell phone seized as part of an investigation into campaign finance violations. The FBI withdrew from the investigation early this year.
“Andy Ogles is running to stay out of jail, and I’m running to lower costs and to make health care more affordable,” Chaz Molder told National Journal. The Democratic mayor of Columbia, Tennessee, is regarded as a prized recruit for his party.
Molder says voters care about these issues.
“I think anything that [Ogles] does, the voters are unable to trust,” said Molder. “I don’t think for a second that corruption will ever be normalized, nor should it be. I think the only way it becomes normalized is if we keep sending folks like Andy Ogles back to Washington.”
Others are leaning into their law enforcement backgrounds as they try to prosecute the case against their opponents. Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor told National Journal her time in the courtroom has shaped her challenge to Republican Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia.
“When people are victims of crime, I’m not asking anybody if they’re a Republican or a Democrat or an independent,” Taylor said.
Wittman, who has been in office since 2007, does not have the same stock-trade record as Bresnahan, but he’s been dinged a few times over the years for different transactions. As the suburban Richmond and Historic Triangle area trends blue, Taylor says Wittman’s priorities are becoming increasingly out of touch, pointing to a fundraiser he held hours before the government shut down in October.
Anti-corruption politics are also taking shape within the squabble of Democratic primaries. One candidate running for the nomination in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District criticized his opponent for being part of an ethics complaint earlier this year.
“If less than a year ago you started a caucus that’s already riddled with corruption, how are you going to clean up Washington?” Democrat Evan Munsing told National Journal in a statement. Munsing, a Marine Corps veteran, is one of several Democrats vying for a crucial battleground seat in Colorado.
“Democrats have a chance to win back voters’ trust, but only if we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” he continued.
The campaign for state Rep. Shannon Bird, who was one of the Colorado lawmakers named in the complaint, said at the time the claims were “baseless.” Good-government group Common Cause dropped the complaint against Bird, as she had resigned as chair of the sponsoring caucus. Both Bird and Munsing are part of ECU’s Unrig Washington initiative.
Republicans, for their part, are gearing up for an anti-corruption campaign of their own. Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar was indicted in 2024 on bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy charges. He faces a trial in 2026. Republicans did not spend any money in Cuellar’s South Texas district in 2024, but the region has shifted significantly toward Trump, and the trend has Republicans excited at the prospect of potentially defeating the Laredo mainstay.
“It’s hard to take Democrats’ anti-corruption talk seriously when federally indicted Henry Cuellar is still receiving support from Hakeem Jeffries and the [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee],” said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Reilly Richardson. “Cuellar has been profiting from South Texas for years, and next year voters will show him the door.”
