Democrats won key elections this month in part by running on curbing corruption in Washington.
Democratic candidates repeatedly pointed out how Donald Trump’s family broadly expanded its crypto business interests while Trump was in office, and how the president made more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency in 2025, according to financial records. Democrats also raised concern that political insiders, and even lawmakers, might use privileged knowledge to profit from prediction markets. And they attacked billionaire GOP donor Elon Musk for being a special government employee when he oversaw DOGE early in Trump’s term.
Speaking to my colleague Mariana Alfaro, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California) summed up the message like this: “People can’t afford to pay the gas and the groceries because Donald Trump is ripping off the American people.”
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“The midterms demonstrated that from every corner of the country and amongst every group of people, Democrats, Independents, and many Republicans, there is a deep and growing anger at the level of corruption in Washington,” said Neera Tanden, the longtime head of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank at the center of many Democratic legislative initiatives.
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Defend the Vote, the progressive outside group that pushed candidates in 2026 to focus on how corruption had become an economic issue because it was costing voters money, has already started pushing members it helped elect to back anti-corruption reforms.
This week they hosted a dinner welcoming new members of Congress, which included a discussion about how the elected officials need to follow through on their campaign messaging.
“New members and incumbents all understand the mandate and the urgency. A stock trading ban is a popular starting point,” said Adam Bozzi, a Democratic operative and adviser for Defend the Vote. “Members are motivated to take action, and there’s a lot of work happening right now among advocates and Members on what these reforms will look like.”