The Republican incumbent, Jack Bergman, joined the Congressional DOGE Caucus that did Elon Musk’s bidding, which led to profound losses nationwide, including the closure of multiple Michigan hospitals. Meanwhile, Bergman’s major donors include AIPAC and military contractors, ultra-wealthy individuals involved in private equity and AI companies. One such major donor is Elliott Broidy, who was charged with pay-to-play corruption felonies, and pardoned by none other than President Trump.

We talked with Callie Barr about why she’s challenging Bergman to flip this district.

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

Barr: Why am I running? Because enough is enough.

I married my high school sweetheart. He had enlisted in the Marine Corps right after 9/11, and he served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He came back with both traumatic stress and a traumatic brain injury. I got very involved in advocating for military families. In that experience, we lost a lot of folks that were really close to us. When you lose people you’re close with at a young age, you ask yourself a couple questions. What does it mean to be a part of something bigger than you. What does it mean to serve this country?

I’ll never forget my very good friend, who lost her husband. When her husband didn’t come home, she just asked me one question: “Callie, is any of it worth it?” And I’ll be answering that question my whole life.

I think we have a duty, and I feel this strongly, to make this country worthy of the best of us. To be able to answer her, “Yes, it was worth it.” That’s what this race means to me.

Democracy News What are you hearing from people in your district about political corruption?

Barr: Our district is probably one of the hardest hit places in the nation right now, and we have an incumbent who has enabled this national chaos and engaged in his own corruption. Out of every member of Congress, Jack Bergman is the Number One spender of our taxpayer dollars on meals and lodging for himself.

Look at what he spent during COVID. He spent over $61,000 on himself. Most members were getting reimbursed like 600 bucks. And meanwhile, he’s telling folks in my district that we’ve got to tighten our belts. He was cutting food assistance for children, cutting hospital funding. We’ve lost three local hospitals. It’s going to be four lost hospitals soon. Women in the Upper Peninsula have to drive to Wisconsin for labor and deliveries.

Bergman was a part of the DOGE caucus, and they cut protections for our Great Lakes, and everyone should be concerned about that because the Great Lakes are a fifth of the world’s fresh drinking water supply. Meanwhile, he’s picking fights with our Canadian neighbors, who no longer want to come hang out with us, and that means an estimated $60 million economic impact just in one area. So, there’s real harm to our district, and he’s spending all of that money on himself.

Another thing, he claims he’s an advocate for veterans, but he’s trying to promote legislation to protect people who’ve ripped off veterans by thousands of dollars. So, this is someone who is terrible, not just for the district but for the country.

And then there’s the rising cost of gas and diesel, because of a war after there was so much Republican messaging about how we’re going to be in these forever wars anymore. People want to see some checks on this administration’s power. Even people who gravitated toward Trump are talking about seeing people clinging to wreckage after being bombed in the Caribbean, and overwhelmingly, they’re talking about the cost of living. They have to choose between gas, health insurance, and groceries.

Democracy News: When you’re in Congress, what will your priorities be to help working people?

Barr: Number one, we’ve got to make sure that we fund Medicaid. If we don’t, we will lose our hospitals. It’s very scary. We’ve also got to extend these Affordable Care Act subsidies. We can’t just kick people off their insurance and not have a plan. That is cruel.

Democracy News: In Congress, what will you do to tackle political corruption?

Barr: We have to build credibility, which means people have to be held accountable to the law. This is not retribution. It’s just accountability. We’re a nation of the rule of law. And at one time, that was an inspiration to the world.

We can look at the Statue of Liberty. The name of that statue is actually Liberty Enlightening the World, and it was given to us by the French after the Civil War, because they thought, well, here is a country actually living up to its ideals. In one arm, she holds the tablet of law, with the other, she holds a torch leading the way, because for the first time since the fall of the Roman Republic, we had a nation that said we believe we are all equal before the law and one another. Now, unless we can say that with a straight face, we’ve lost credibility, not just with ourselves, but with the entire world.

We need to pass laws that increase transparency and accountability. We’re living in another Gilded Age. We have industries like crypto and AI, and they’re using us to make a tremendous amount of money. What do we get in return? We need to be able to share in that success. That means, obviously, we need to get big money out of politics.

Democracy News: I’ve been asking everyone, with everything that’s happening, how are you coping?

Barr: Running for Congress has been a tremendous privilege. I’ve met so many folks who’ve risen to meet the moment. I’ve got people who stood in 30-degree below zero weather protesting. I’ve met people in their nineties who’ve donated to a political candidate for the first time in their lives. I have been so encouraged by that. You know, there’s that research that just 3.5% of the population needs to rise up against authoritarianism peacefully to create change. I think sometimes we don’t understand how small that number is. It’s a small, committed group that can make change. We need to just keep going. I believe in audacious hope.

In contrast, according to Open Secrets, last cycle, Wagner’s biggest PAC donors by sector were from the finance, insurance, and real estate industries. Wagner took at least $981,500 from those sectors and then voted on the Big Billionaire Bill (as Wellman calls it) that gave major tax breaks to corporations and billionaires. The conflicts of interest don’t end there. Wagner currently sits on the Financial Services Committee, she’s taking significant donations from financial industry PACs, and according to Capitol Trades, she’s traded $1.83 million volume of stock just in the last year. Her most recent stock purchase was of shares in a private equity firm.

We talked to Wellman about why he’s running to challenge Wagner.

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

Wellman: I’ve always been one of those guys who steps up. I went to West Point. I served overseas. After I retired from the Army, I started a firm focusing on veterans and military families. When COVID hit, I drove to New York to become the administrative chief of staff of a field hospital staffed by special operations medical veterans. Here at home, I helped organize donations for refugees. I’m just the kind of person who hears a call and steps up.

Last spring, you might recall there was a split screen between Jeff Bezos’s $56 million wedding and the Senate voting on the Big Billionaire Bill, and I got mad. My god, these people are dismantling so much of what makes our country strong. They were dismantling the floor that protects so many people— including my adult children—and at the same time smearing people who just need at break. It was clear to me that Rep. Ann Wagner has been completely out of touch with reality. She’s done nothing for the district. So, I decided to my take a crack at it.

Democracy News: What are you hearing from your neighbors about political corruption?

Wellman: When we started the campaign, it was very obvious that the cost of living was the number one issue for voters in the district, but now it’s clear that the blatant naked corruption has also become a top issue. People are realizing that this corruption in Washington is deeply impacting their personal lives. They’re losing things because of Trump’s ability to just take money from a government coffer and use it however he wants, including giving contracts to his kids, sending Kushner around the Middle East to end a war when he’s actually just making investments.

People are pissed. That’s the only way to put it. The anger is palpable, and it’s bipartisan. It’s a very personal issue for most people. You’re stealing our money, and it’s so obvious that we see it. So, for me, I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise that people are angry, but one of the biggest surprises really has been how often corruption has come up in conversations with voters. So that’s why I’m running against costs, corruption, and chaos.

Democracy News: When you’re in Congress, what will some of your priorities be for cutting down on corruption and helping working people?

Wellman: I call myself a Day One Democrat. We have to restore faith in government. Polling says 91% of people believe the government is corrupt. So, on Day One, I want to pass a true stock trading and asset trading ban for Congress and members of the executive branch. We also have to ban all crypto trading by members of the Congress and the federal government. If you have access to classified information, you should not be on crypto market. Same thing with prediction markets.

Eight prediction markets allegedly made over $150 million on the Iran War. No one who works for the United States government should be betting on my kid getting killed in combat. So, we have a long way to go in terms of restoring confidence that elected officials aren’t just there to get rich. And that goes for either party.

Second, a robust investigation and subpoena power of the Congress to investigate this Administrations’ crimes, and that leads where it leads. I’m going to investigate Trump. I’m going to investigate the Trump kids. I’m going to investigate Hegseth. I’m going to investigate everybody. And the remedy will be the remedy, depending on what we find. That has to occur to restore confidence in the government.

Third, we have to end Citizens United. There’s no way around it. The amount of time that I’ve wasted trying to raise money to beat an opponent that has been sitting in Congress, just raising money. Over half her money comes from corporate PACs. People may say, “Well, you can’t say she’s corrupt.” I’m sorry, she’s dropped over $2 million in attack ads against me, and they’re being funded by the people and corporations she oversees because she sits on the Financial Services Committee. If that’s not corruption, I don’t know what is.

You know, West Point has an honor code, and the honor code is that a cadet will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do. And Wagner sure does tolerate it. She’s on the House Committee of Financial Services and she’s Chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets, where she oversees the Securities and Exchange Commission. She is supposed to investigate insider trading, and she refuses to do that.

Democracy News: What has surprised you about running for Congress?

Wellman: What shocked me is how many people told me that I couldn’t win, who said something like, “You know Missouri’s pretty red, right?” Yep, that’s true. Wagner has won in the past. But I’m on the ground. I’ve been volunteering and working in my community. Wagner comes into the district, does a one-day safari, stops at five locations, and then posts those pictures every week. I know the truth on the ground, which is people are hungry for recognition and change, hungry to be recognized as more than just flyover country.

Another thing that surprised me is how much I enjoy just hanging out at a labor hall and with a bucket of Busch Lights and talking to working people and learning from them. I really enjoy just having this chance to talk to people and get to know people. It’s my favorite thing to do.

I think this is a good year for people who are genuine. One of the nicest compliments I’ve gotten was when the president of the first union to endorse us told me that he has a bullshit detector a mile wide and he didn’t detect a single ounce of bullshit on me. I think that’s the greatest compliment a man can get at my age.

My opponent has never had an open town hall. A town hall is the minimum. The other day I was walking in my favorite park in the district. A gentleman came rolling up on his bike. He said he recognized me and wanted to talk about Medicare. I walked, he kept riding, and we talked. At the end of our conversation, he confided in me that he’d lost a son to fentanyl, and he gave me a hug. I think people are hungry for leaders that will just listen and understand their lives. I want leaders who do that. If I get elected it’s going to be my mission to do that.

Democracy News: With all of the terrible things happening, how are you coping?

I have a ritual in the morning. I get up, make my coffee, sit in my chair, maybe sit on the back deck, and I let the world go by. In the end, what matters is I have my fiancé, who’s my rock, and my buddies.

Running for office is one of the harder things I’ve done in my life, but not the hardest. I ran the Lincoln Project during the 2020 election. We had oppo files dumped on us. I had nasty attack stories written about me as a private citizen. There was constant vitriol online, death threats. I was sued by Mike Flynn for $150 million over three tweets. So, they’ve been coming at me for a long time. So, I’m used to a certain amount of it. But in the end, nobody’s shooting at me. I’ve been in combat. People did shoot at me. In the end, if the mission matters, the mission matters.

You can learn more about Fred Wellman here.

I talked to José Javier Rodriguez, the Democrat challenging Ulthmeier in November, about how he’s running to restore the attorney general’s office to what it’s supposed to be: A watchdog that upholds the law.

Rodriguez and I talked about how Uthmeier established the infamous detention center he named Alligator Alcatraz, how the DeSantis administration funneled millions of state dollars into a campaign committee chaired by Uthmeier, and more.

Democracy News: Why are you running to be Florida’s Attorney General?

Rodriguez: I’m running to be the people’s lawyer. That’s a campaign slogan, but it’s also the job description of our attorney general to represent the people of the state, not the governor, not the government.

My entire professional life, in courtrooms and in the legislature, I’ve been advocating for Floridians, particularly when they’re being taken advantage of by corporations or institutions. I’ve been asking people to raise their expectations for what they expect from the attorney general’s office when it comes to crime, costs, corruption, and public safety.

I’m running for attorney general to deal with the corruption in Tallahassee, which is at the root of so much of what drives up costs for Floridians. So, this run is about standing up for Floridians and working to make their lives better. That’s what I’ve done my whole career, and I don’t plan to stop.

Democracy News: What are you hearing from Floridians about how political corruption affects their daily lives, especially the cost of living?

Rodriguez: Voters see the cheap tricks that they’re being fed from Tallahassee. That’s why when I’ve been traveling everywhere in our amazing state, from Pensacola to Key West, I’ve been asking people to use their imaginations and raise their expectations.

My opponent, James Uthmeier, the current attorney general of Florida, who was appointed by Governor DeSantis, is the legal architect of the mass detention center that he named Alligator Alcatraz. Not only were human rights abuses committed there, the construction of the detention center was also massively corrupt. It’s completely state-run. They slapped the place together without any federal approval. They seized land from the local government, went around the legislature, and grabbed millions of taxpayer dollars.

It’s a $1.2 billion boondoggle. It’s the most expensive project like it anywhere. Everything from the toilets to the warden was privatized with no-bid contracts. All the services are at least twenty times more expensive than at the average detention facility.

Uthmeier used state funds to build that detention center to get a pat on the head from the president when he thought he was having a primary challenger. As soon as he got his pat on the head, he left us Floridians with a gigantic bill and human rights abuses. It was an abuse of power to do that.

My opponent is also at the center of the biggest political crime we have seen in Florida in modern times, where $10 million was stolen out of the state Medicaid program and funneled into Republican political campaigns. My opponent was at the center of that crime. He was driving the whole thing, coordinating everything. Money that was supposed to be for sick children ended up in a Republican political committee.

Uthmeier is also supported by the insurance and utility industries. That’s the massive corruption in Tallahassee. We’ve gotten used to an attorney general that does absolutely nothing to help us, and in fact spends all his time trying to hurt us. He’s endorsed by these exact industries. He does nothing for a reason. He collects their checks, and that’s it.

Democracy News: Florida’s largest monopoly utility, Florida Power & Light, a major political donor, has specifically targeted you. Its former CEO even sent an email instructing an employee to “make [your] life a living hell.” Can you talk about that?

Rodriguez: There was a Republican scandal in 2020 when I was running for re-election to the state senate representing my Miami district. Republican operatives ran a fake candidate. My name is Jose Javier Rodriguez. Their fake candidate was named Alex Rodriguez. He was a spoiler in my race against the Republican candidate named Garcia. Republican operatives bribed Alex Rodriguez to run. They put thousands of dollars behind the ghost candidate, on issues I’d worked on like the minimum wage and acting on the climate crisis. Their ghost candidate got over 6,000 votes and I lost to the Republican candidate by 32 votes.

I tell this story because the whole thing was funded by Florida Power & Light. They funded that campaign against me because when I was in the legislature, nobody in Tallahassee was standing up to our monopoly utilities on behalf of their forced customers more than I was. They’re so wealthy and powerful that nobody is standing up to them. That’s why in this campaign, we’re going to give them hell.

Democracy News: What are some of the things you’ll do as attorney general to address this rampant corruption in the state?

Rodriguez: I have a long list of priorities. You can see the whole list on my website. They’re categorized by my priorities of fighting crime, costs, and corruption.

When it comes to crime, we need an attorney general that will lead on issues like gun violence, synthetic drugs, and especially the impacts of Big Tech, rather than just having cheap press conferences and lining people up for a photo op.

I’m also going to tackle issues that are impacting costs to everyday homeowners and renters. We’re going to tackle issues related to insurance and utilities. We have the worst landlord-tenant laws in the country. There are things attorneys general can do here to make things better. We can go after corporate landlords that are juicing rent. Other states have done so.

When I’m attorney general, workers will have an advocate. It’s routine for attorneys general, particularly in states like ours that don’t have a Department of Labor or state OSHA, to stand up for workers facing issues like wage theft and unsafe conditions. When I’m attorney general, our office will do that.

The third issue is corruption. There’s a very long list of things that need to be done. I’ve talked about the scandal of Alligator Alcatraz and the Hope Florida Medicaid scandal. We also have multiple other scandals in broad daylight in Florida. Millions of dollars from our education system have gone missing. Medicaid fraud is rampant under my opponent’s watch. Instead of rooting out corruption, my opponent is one of the people stealing from the program. As attorney general, I’m going to protect our precious dollars for healthcare and for education.

You can learn more about José Javier Rodriguez here.

Macy is challenging Republican incumbent Ben Cline (VA-6), who voted to support the Republican’s 2025 mega-bill and other Trump administration priorities, like massive tariffs, that have had devastating consequences for rural Virginians. I spoke with Macy about why she’s running for Congress in a district that Trump won by 24 points and what she’s been hearing from her neighbors.

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

Macy: I’m running for Congress so our kids and grandkids don’t grow up in an authoritarian regime. I’m very worried about what’s happened to this country, and I think the Republicans in charge have forgotten who they work for.

I’m just ticked off about how rigged the economy has gotten against working people. I grew up poor. I was the first person in my family to go to college. We have basically taken that opportunity away from most working class kids, and I want to do something about it.

I’m an investigative journalist. I’ve written five books, thousands of newspaper articles. My specialty is holding power to account, and I’m tired of just talking about it. I want to actually do it.

Democracy News: How have you heard people in your district connect political corruption to their daily lives?

Macy: The story that got me most recently is some volunteers were out knocking doors, and there was this farmer who always puts out a Trump sign who asked for a Farmers for Macy sign. When we asked why, she said, “I’m done.” They’re beef farmers. The land has been in her husband’s family for 300 years. She’s a Marine Corp. vet. They’re in their thirties and they have four kids. Her husband had to take a construction job, even though they have a massive cattle farm.

After Ben Cline, my opponent, put out his first campaign ad in which he claims to be reducing gas prices, this farmer was like, “Are you kidding me? I actually have eyeballs, and he can’t gaslight me about gas prices. He can’t claim to care about Epstein files when he’s voted three times against the release.” She described how she and her husband were bothered by the fact that the president, with his stupid little phone, can go tweet that we’re going to help American consumers by importing beef and then they lose significant equity they had in their cows overnight.

We’re out there meeting these people, we’re stepping around their cow patties on their farm, listening to them. That’s what I’ve been trying to do, meet people in their pain, not their politics.

Democracy News: You’re an accomplished journalist. How has talking to people as a political candidate been different or similar to talking to people as a journalist?

Macy: Journalism was a good training ground for this. I’ve always gone out and talked to people working on the ground level, factory workers, people who’ve lost their jobs. For this campaign, we started having themed town halls.

We had four farmer town halls where we met with farmers up and down the districts. Agriculture is the number one industry in the district. During these town halls, I wasn’t giving a stump speech, I wasn’t selling. I was just out there listening to people in barns in 100 degree weather, and it went really well. People said, “Thank you, nobody ever comes out. And by the way, we haven’t had a farm bill passed since 2018. And by the way, the cost of fertilizer has doubled. We can’t get a second crop of hay because of the drought. And Ben Cline won’t answer our calls.”

Then we started doing veterans town halls, because our district has a disproportionately high number of veterans. I asked people how their VA care was. At one point, somebody said, “My husband was a hero in Vietnam. He lost an eye. He saved five members of his platoon. When he came back, he became a lawyer. He helped his whole career help people get their benefits, and now he’s dying. He’s in hospice, and the VA can’t find a hospice bed for him.” She said none of her reps had called her back. It was just like being a reporter, you call who you know, you keep unpeeling the layers of the onion until you can find someone who can help you. A retired Air Force guy, Rear Admiral John Butler, had been out there with me, and he said, “Beth, I got this.” He made calls. And by the end of the day, he’d found this guy a hospice bed.

But that’s what our congressman should have been doing. We were doing Ben Cline’s job for him. Our members of Congress should have really good constituent services. They should not be taking a sledgehammer to the VA. 40,000 people have been let go from the VA because of DOGE. Veterans come up to me at town halls and say things like, “Beth, I can’t sleep at night because I took a life, but every time I go to the VA, there’s somebody new, and I have to tell my story all over again.” That’s just heartbreaking.

Democracy News: What are a few things you would do in Congress to help working people?

Macy: The first thing I did when launching my campaign was I signed on to support Pramila Jayapal’s Medicare for All. She called me right away, and I was happy to say that if elected, I will co-sponsor that legislation. Medicare for All should be the goal, and because that’s going to take some time, we need to take incremental steps like getting Medicare at 50 or 55 and expanding Medicaid for kids.

Immediately, we have got to get those ACA subsidies back that took millions of people’s healthcare away and that suddenly tripled and quadrupled premiums for a lot of people like freelancers and gig economy workers and small business owners. And a lot of farmers I know don’t have health insurance anymore. Some are driving school buses. They’re leaving the farm in the morning to have other jobs, too, to get health insurance. Farming is one of the most dangerous jobs in America, and I absolutely hate for them that some farmers are uninsured.

We also have to end this ridiculous war of choice. We’ve got to get back to a negotiated peace because the war is hurting everyone. The diesel price was almost up to $7 a gallon last week. It’s killing the farmers. It’s killing small businesses. The tariffs are really a double whammy on the small businesses.

Democracy News: How else do you see the influence of money in politics affecting your neighbors?

Hunger is up because of the USDA cuts and the Big Ugly Bill. Hunger in this district is off the charts. I’ve met with both of the food bank directors in the district. I saw they have empty shelves because of the USDA cuts. I asked one director, “How many meals have vanished since the cuts? And she said, “1.1 million meals.” That’s just in one district. You’ve got people sleeping in their cars outside of food pantries, so they can be the first in line in the morning when the pantry opens up because they know the food’s going to run out. That’s because of the USDA cuts.

A couple months ago, I went to a food pantry and I talked to the minister, who said, “We don’t do politics here.” I said I just wanted to see what was happening. Later, he said he’d invited all the local leaders, and I was the only one who showed up. We were a three-minute drive from Ben Cline’s house. But I don’t think he can show up, because I don’t think he wants to see what his votes have caused. $2 trillion out of things like Head Start, Medicaid, housing programs, food, all so that billionaires who want to be trillionaires can, you know, buy an 11th house. Who even wants 11 houses? I just don’t understand why we’re letting all these rich people run everything.

If we got money out of politics, it would help everyone. I’ve taken a pledge that I won’t take any corporate PAC money, that I won’t trade stocks if elected. I believe in ending the revolving door and getting rid of Citizens United, which is just a pox on the country.

The crypto guys just dumped a lot of money into the race to help my opponent. So far, we’ve raised almost 2.7 million total from 26,000 donors. And when you can outraise corporate money with just regular people, that’s not a statistical anomaly. That’s a movement, and that feels really good.

Voters know the system is corrupt. According to a just-released YouGov poll commissioned by ECU Education Fund, 91% of midterm voters say corruption in government is a serious problem. ECU-endorsed candidates are listening to voters. A record-breaking 300 candidates have taken ECU’s Unrig Washington pledge to support three specific anti-corruption reforms: banning congressional stock trading, getting dark money out of politics, and refusing corporate PAC money. These candidates are talking about fighting corruption on the campaign trail every day, and voters are rewarding them for it.

ECU President Tiffany Muller has been zigzagging the country campaigning with House and Senate candidates and talking with community organizers and voters about how we can all contribute to getting our country back on track. First and foremost, this November, we need to elect anti-corruption champions who are going to address the problems in Washington head on.

Muller talked to us about ECU’s work during this election cycle that is being defined by discussions about corruption, in large part thanks to ECU’s Unrig Washington campaign.

Democracy News: How is the corruption conversation different this cycle or this year versus other years?

Muller: There are two main differences this cycle. Number one, I think the corruption we are seeing in this administration and then this government is more blatant and bigger than we’ve ever experienced in the history of our country. Every day there’s a new pay-to-play scandal coming out of this Trump Administration or related to his family, and voters know it and are mad about it.

The other way that corruption is really playing differently this year than in previous cycles is how much more voters are connecting corruption in Washington to the costs that they are paying day to day. At ECU we used to have to connect the dots between the money in politics and the fact that all the political corruption means we couldn’t address things like the high cost of healthcare or a tax system that’s really unfair. Voters are drawing those connections every single day, and they view not just Donald Trump and this administration as to blame, but the entire political system as rigged and corrupt and harmful to them personally.

Democracy News: ECU has been hosting town halls and other events all across the country. What are you hearing from candidates, and what are you hearing from voters about political corruption?

Muller: ECU has hosted almost 50 town halls across the country. At this point, I’ve met thousands of voters in all kinds of communities. We’ve been in red districts, blue districts, urban areas, rural areas, red states, blue states, and the first thing I would say is that voters feel invisible. They say things like: “No one cares about me. No one cares about me or the struggles of my family and my community.” There’s a desperation that I feel from voters about the need for change.

In 2018, I traveled all over the country, and there was kind of a righteous, happy warrior energy about taking back our country. This cycle, there’s a much more desperate energy out there. One of the things that voters bring up in every single town hall is data centers and AI. The Supreme Court and how corrupted it is also comes up. People are very concerned. They understand that the war in Iran and healthcare cuts and all these other problems all connect back to money in politics.

This is the most corruption-focused election cycle that we have seen in at least the last 20 years. At ECU, we have our largest ever class of anti-corruption candidates. We have 300 candidates running on the Unrig Washington Pledge, which is about three common sense things: supporting a congressional stock trading ban, not taking corporate PAC money and ending dark money. ECU candidates are out there talking to voters about their commitment that’s reflected in that voluntary pledge, trying to break through voters’ cynicism and restore a little bit of faith and trust in the possibility of a different kind of public servant.

Democracy News: Your Unrig Washington program has been one of the biggest successes in progressive politics for the cycle. More than 300 federal candidates across the country signed up to center getting both corruption and money out of politics in their campaigns. Why do you think it resonated?

Muller: The reason that so many candidates have signed on to the pledge isn’t because we ask them to. It’s because voters are demanding it. The number one issue for our voters is costs and affordability. Their next biggest concern is corruption and government, and voters are linking those issues, so candidates have to have a plan to address the corruption in Washington to reach voters.

What’s great about the Unrig Washington pledge is that it’s really common sense and easy for voters to understand. And candidates can pledge to do these things because they’re in their control. They can choose to voluntarily not take corporate PAC money and to show voters that they are going to be a people-powered campaign rather than selling out to corporate special interests.

So, we’ve seen that the Unrig pillars–a stock trading ban, no corporate PAC money, and ending dark money– have become central points around the anti-corruption framing for campaigns. You see campaigns proactively taking on these issues. The reason they’re talking about it is that it’s breaking through with skeptical voters.

The Unrig pledge helps them contrast themselves with their Republican opponents, especially incumbents, who have often taken thousands from corporate PACs and then have been lining their pockets trading stocks in those same companies, while serving on government committees. Some candidates’ ads are essentially Unrig ads, and that’s great to see because candidates who campaign on these issues will then champion these reforms in office. There’s been over $115 million spent already on ads about a stock trading ban, and there’s been almost $100 million on ads on not taking corporate PAC money. That is far and away the most we’ve ever seen spent on anti-corruption messaging ads during any election cycle.

In 2018, when the No Corporate Pac pledge started, we were able to flip 27 House seats with no corporate PAC members. It led to HR1 and the largest comprehensive democracy reform bill in a generation. I think during this cycle an even bigger wave of reformers will be elected, and so it’s going to change the makeup of both the House and Senate caucus, and it’s going to give real momentum for needed change on Capitol Hill.

Democracy News: As ECU’s president, what are you most focused on in these final weeks before the election?

Muller: We still have a lot of work to do in these last weeks. At ECU, we’re rolling out programming on an almost daily basis to make sure that we are getting voters out to the polls, making sure that we are fighting voter suppression, and making sure that voters know the contrast between our reform champions and their opponents. So, our volunteers are helping campaigns reach and turn out voters through phone banks and text banks and knocking on doors.

Meanwhile, I’m traveling to some of the biggest battlegrounds in the country to talk about these issues as we are coming down the stretch. Some of the toughest races, whether in Maine or Michigan, are going to decide the House majority and the Senate majority. Unrig Washington and ECU-endorsed candidates want to make the argument about their Republican opponent’s corruption. During these events, ECU is helping bring the anti-corruption platform of candidates like Troy Jackson and Abdul El-Sayed to the forefront of voters’ minds.

Democracy News: What are you paying attention to as a political observer?

Muller: September often feels good for Democrats, and October often tightens back up. We know that there’s just a small sliver of voters that are truly undecided by the end of the election, so I’m looking to see what happens with polling in Republican-leaning districts just before the election.

I’m going to be looking at places like Iowa. Kansas is my home state, so I always watch it. I’m going to be watching races like Ohio 7, which is a Republican-leaning House district, to see where the polling moves and tighten ups, to kind of get a sense of how big that wave might be on Election Day.

Those of us in the democracy movement are paying attention to what shenanigans this administration is going to pull to keep people from voting or to stop certification of the votes. This authoritarian-leaning administration has shown almost no boundaries and no limits around their willingness to cheat to win. You know whether it’s redistricting, whether it’s the sheer amount of money they’re pouring into politics, the voter suppression, the gutting of the Voting Rights Act - they’re interfering with the right to vote. Now they’re talking about everything from the National Guard at polling locations to seizing ballots and stopping certification of election outcomes. Thankfully, there’s an incredible group of leaders who are regularly working on those scenarios and what can be done to push back against those scenarios.

But at the same time, there’s a lot that gives me hope. People are showing up to these town halls to talk about how to save our country. Everything that’s going on in their lives, the jobs they’re working, and they’re still showing up.

And, here’s another thing: I don’t think we can let them win without a fight. It matters that we show up and keep pushing for the country and future that we believe in. That we fight for our values every day. Even if there are battles we lose, I believe the long-term effort will be successful. That’s what keeps me going every day.

Dembo’s Republican opponent, Ralph Alvarado, is a long-time politician who exemplifies status quo political corruption. He’s funded by Republican PACs that are funded by billionaire mega-donors. His career is rife with conflicts of interest. He owns significant amounts of stock in several companies—like NVIDIA and the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing—that profit from data center expansion. While he was serving as Kentucky state senator, Alvarado also served as a medical director for nursing homes in Kentucky that were reportedly deemed substandard. While he was in the legislature, Alvarado championed legislation that protected the nursing home industry from malpractice and wrongful death suits. Kentuckians deserve better than someone who’d rather protect his industry and profits than people.

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

Dembo: I’m running for Congress because corruption ended my public service unexpectedly. I was an eighth-grade English teacher. I was on active duty in the United States Navy. I was a prosecutor at the Civil Rights Division in D.C. and then worked for Governor Andy Beshear here in Kentucky. And finally, I had what I thought was going to be my last job, my dream job, being a federal prosecutor here in Lexington, fighting corruption.

But then under this administration, the mission of the Department of Justice was politicized, it turned into the president’s personal law firm. The decisions that rank-and-file law enforcement and career prosecutors were making were being overturned and interfered with. Folks were fired for doing their job. It was clear that that was not consistent with the oaths that I had sworn to the Constitution four times. And so, I concluded that the right thing to do was to resign rather than risk being put in the situation of being given an illegal order. And then the question was, well, how do I continue in public service? How do we keep fighting against corruption? It seemed like there was a huge opportunity for change, and that’s why I got in the race.

Democracy News: What have you been hearing from people in your district about how Big Money has corrupted our politics?

Dembo: No matter where I am, in Lexington or in the rural counties of the district, everyone agrees that D.C. politics as usual is not working for us here in Central Kentucky. This is a time when so many of us, especially here in Central Kentucky, are really hurting. It’s really hard to make ends meet, especially for our farming communities here, diesel being well over $6 is an existential threat to people’s livelihoods.

People bring up the idea that politicians are in it for themselves; that they’re in it to line their pockets, and that they’re bought and sold by big money, dark money, etc. Everyone’s seeing this terrible juxtaposition of people here having to decide which groceries they can afford while at the same time folks in D.C. are getting richer and richer, being able to get rich trading stocks or crypto, and it just leads them to the conclusion that the system is rigged.

The other thing I’d say is I really don’t think this is about Democrat versus Republican. I’m a Democrat but I don’t co-sign everything that every Democrat in America does because I definitely don’t agree with it. All I care about is what matters in these 16 counties. This race is about challenging the corrupt status quo. It’s about whether you want someone who will fight to change the status quo or someone who has benefited from the corrupt status quo and intends to continue benefiting from it. My opponent has got up to $500,000 in data center development stocks.

I’m a former corruption prosecutor who’s never run for office and doesn’t owe either party anything. And my opponent has run for office six times, he’s a career politician who took votes specifically designed to benefit his own financial interests. He was the medical director of several substandard nursing homes, and he passed a bill, championed a bill, sponsored a bill designed to make it harder to sue and investigate substandard nursing homes, and was unapologetic about it. He’s still the medical director of several substandard nursing homes.

Democracy News: When you’re in Congress, what will you do to help working people?

Dembo: To help working folks, the first thing we have to do is be laser focused on costs and bring them down. The good news is that the only reason these costs were allowed to go so high is because this spineless Congress has not been doing its job, and so all we need is for Congress to do its job.

For example, these tariffs have added at least $1,000 to every American household. They’re just taxes being passed on to us. Congress has the power to control tariffs, and there may be a couple of good tariffs, there that might actually protect American industries. But most of them are being done based on tweets and tantrums and egos, and we are treating trade allies as enemies and vice versa. And so, Congress needs to step in get rid of these tariffs that have been crushing Kentucky industries like bourbon, like soybean farmers, like the horse industry, like cattle farmers, and that would bring down prices.

Another big issue, of course, is the economic fallout of this war in Iran. This has been a complete disaster. This administration has achieved none of its strategic goals. Service men and women have been put at risk. We’ve lost 18 of service members, including two Kentuckians. And everyone is paying the price here back home, and that’s something else that Congress, if it had a spine, could stop. As a veteran, that’s something that’s important to me.

The third thing on cost is reversing these terrible Medicaid cuts. They haven’t taken effect yet. They’re going to hurt working people who rely on Medicaid, because of the health impact. And rural hospitals are a huge source of jobs, so if they shut down, the impact on our rural economies is going to be a huge issue.

After stemming that damage, we need to try to restore trust between Congress and the American people. Congress’s approval rating is lower than the IRS! That’s because they’ve forgotten what their job is. They think their job is to line their own pockets and get reelected.

I was proud to come out with an anti-corruption platform that has common sense things like a call to ban stock trading for members of Congress, and banning them from lobbying for life. If you choose to be a member of Congress, you shouldn’t turn around and lobby your colleagues. We have been proud to not accept a dollar of corporate PAC money. Even if was going to put us at a financial disadvantage compared to my opponent, it was important to me that people not question where my loyalties are, because my loyalties are to my family, friends, and neighbors here in Central Kentucky.

Democracy News: Can you tell me about your decision not to take corporate PAC money?

Dembo: It was not a hard decision at all. There was obviously pressure from well-meaning folks who want us to win and pointed out that my opponent will take any money that comes his way. He’s taken money from AIPAC, from corporate PACs. Any money out there, he’ll take it. But we haven’t taken any corporate PAC money, and we’ve still managed to have a cash on hand advantage over our opponent. Our message has resonated, and so we’ve had huge numbers of individual donors who’ve been willing to put their stake in this campaign. But even if we hadn’t raised money, it would still have been the right thing to do. There are some things that are gray areas. For me, this is not a gray area.

Democracy News: With everything that’s happening in the country, how are you coping?

Dembo: Campaigning has been exhausting, but it has given me a great deal of hope. Pretty much everyone I’ve met has been very hardworking and they’re doing their best in difficult situations.

I loved being a prosecutor, but that meant seeing people at their very worst and in terrible situations, people who committed crimes, victims of crime. I worked with an amazing team, but that it was a pretty dark view of humanity. Now, I’m meeting all different kinds of people, and even if they’re not going to vote for me, they’re nice and curious, and willing to talk. That’s the part I’m enjoying the most.

That’s something that gets lost when we view politics through the lens of the media. They would have you believe that a Democrat here in rural Kentucky has more in common with a Democrat in Manhattan or Los Angeles than they do with their own neighbor, or that a Republican has more in common with a Texan or a North Dakotan than their own neighbor. I’m not seeing that when I’m out here talking with folks, so that’s given me a lot of hope.

You can learn more about Zach Dembo here.

Finstad has shown voters who he is: He’s voted in support of that ongoing war in Iran, even though the cost to taxpayers is now more than $43 billion. In 2025, Finstad also voted in support of an additional $70 million in funding for ICE, and then, this year, after ICE agents shot and killed Minnesotans Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Finstad voted to increase ICE’s funding by another $38.5 million. He also voted to help his Republican colleagues gut healthcare, give billionaires and corporations major tax breaks, and increase the national deficit.

I had the chance to talk with his challenger, Johnson, a math teacher and father, about why he’s doing something he never thought he’d do: run for Congress.

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

Johnson: For me, it’s rooted in my story and my upbringing. I grew up in our district. I had a dad who was a garbage man, a mom who was a meter reader, and 10 siblings. So, we certainly were hardworking people, but we also needed a lot of local community support. We needed a school, a church community, family, and neighbors. A whole lot of people wrapped their arms around us. And even with that support, we were also a SNAP family and a Medicaid family. I wouldn’t have gone to college if it wasn’t for Pell grants and subsidized Stafford loans.

I got my teaching degree, married my wife, who also grew up in our district, just south of Rochester, and we moved back to southern Minnesota, where we now have four boys. I’ve been a public-school teacher for 20 years. My wife is a paraprofessional in the middle school in town. I really felt like I got to live an American dream.

I thought that the best of this country was that everybody should have a chance, even if your parents don’t have a lot of money. I was still worth investing in and believing in, and I got to climb into the middle class because my government and society believed in me.

But I’ve been watching our congressman just be so proud of cutting SNAP and cutting Medicaid, trying to get rid of the Department of Education, just being a rubber stamp. I thought: This isn’t a time to sit on the sidelines.

I jumped into the race with a pretty simple idea in mind. We need somebody who is independent-minded, who can think for themselves and who’ll work tirelessly for the people of southern Minnesota. That’s the energy and spirit of public service we’re bringing to this race.

Democracy News: What are you hearing from people in your district about money in politics?

Johnson: We’re hosting town halls open to everyone, and what’s come up consistently is that people are losing faith in their government because of corruption. You don’t have to look too far. My Republican opponent takes money from state-owned Chinese corporations and then votes to make it easier for them to buy up our farmland. It’s pretty clear who he’s working for when he takes money from data center corporations buying up farmland and then votes to give them tax breaks. These are huge issues, and if you’re in the pocket of Big Tech and other industries, the votes follow.

Here’s another way to look at it: Why would our congressman vote for policies that he knows are bad for the people in his district? Why would he vote to continue an Iran war that continues to jack up prices? Why would he vote to gut healthcare? Why would he vote for tariffs?

Because he chooses his corporate donors who fund his campaign over the people of Southern Minnesota. He’s made his calculation. He’s made his choice. People see it and are really fired up about it. That’s what I hear more than anything else.

One of the myths that corporations and billionaires have pushed is this scarcity mindset that we, especially in rural areas, need to live with less. I’ve heard from county administrators you are making the choice between a water treatment plant, a school, and flood mitigation. They’re looking at the bottom line, and they might be able to afford one of those things. That’s not good enough.

If you don’t have a school and you don’t have access to clean water, and your town is going to flood every 10 years, you don’t really have a small town anymore, right? You are just waiting to die on the vine, and that is really, really unpalatable for people who live in small towns and are very, very proud of their big parades, as they should be. But their kids can’t afford to stay there, and so future generations leave because there’s no opportunity.

The federal government continues to defund education. And meanwhile, we see ICE funded at record levels. If ICE were a standalone military, it would be the seventh largest military in the world. We’ve seen ICE in Minnesota. We’ve seen it across the country. And Congress also found $30 billion for a war in Iran that nobody wanted and nobody understands.

If we really do value people all across our country who’re working incredibly hard to make ends meet, we should want to start investing in them again, and that’s where we need a Congress that actually works for people and not corporations. That’s why we’re very proud to take no corporate money.

Democracy News: When in Congress, what will you prioritize to help working people?

Johnson: The Republican’s “Big Beautiful Bill” really has done damage in places like southern Minnesota. The reality is we saw the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the billionaire class in our nation’s history in a single bill. It drove up the national debt by $4 trillion. It made life worse here. Cuts to SNAP, cuts to Medicaid, and those cuts are only going to get worse if a new Congress doesn’t act immediately. So, the first and most prudent thing that a new Congress should do is undo that damage.

I would also fight tirelessly to end the war in Iran. Unfortunately, as we all know, it’s jacked up prices at the pump, especially for diesel, which in a district like mine, where harvest season is upon us now, it’s just untenable for farmers to pay $6.50 a gallon for diesel. People are already scraping by. We need to bring down the cost of living. There are a lot of ways to do that, starting with ending the war.

Democracy News: What actions would you take to fight corruption in Washington?

People see politicians of both parties lining their own pockets at the public’s expense, while the American people are working harder and harder and falling further behind. The toxic influence of money in politics is very evident to people in southern Minnesota.

People in my district want a true ban on stock buying and insider trading for members of Congress and their families. I would be a proud champion for making that happen and ending Citizens United. I also advocate for ending the lobbyist to legislator pipeline. I’m willing to work with anyone to make that happen.

Democracy News: Given how tough things are right now in the country, how are you coping?

Johnson: I’ll be candid with you. There are good days and bad days. When you see this administration put out another harmful policy, unwilling to put up any guardrails, it can feel really tough.

We’ve got a citizenry right now who’re viscerally aware in every fiber of their being that the government’s not working. We’ve got people knocking on doors and writing their neighbors postcards by the hundreds to try to take our government back from hostile forces. And that gives me hope. You just have to believe that our best days are ahead of us. It’s going to be hard, with all the damage that has been done, but it’s the best of us who show up in times like these. We have to repair this. We have to start somewhere, and we have to start now. What gives me the determination to keep going is that people deserve better.

Luna engages in classic Republican pay-to-play politics. She’s taken corporate PAC donations from Duke Energy while voting to deregulate energy companies and from the defense contractor Lockheed Martin while voting to support President Trump’s war in Iran. Billionaire donors like Paul Singer and Rex Sinquefield have funded the super PACs backing her campaign, as she voted to support the Republican megabill that gave those billionaires and corporations huge tax breaks.

There are also allegations of other kinds of corruption following Luna. For instance, Luna has invested as much as $500,000 in America First Natural Resources LLC, a company that was founded and is owned by one of her political donors. And The Wall Street Journal has also reported that Luna tipped off a MAGA influencer with insider information and allowed him to profit on betting markets, an allegation that Luna denies, along with the allegation that she profited from her government post.

Enough about Luna, though. The Democratic candidate for this seat is General Leela Gray. She’s a formidable candidate on her own terms. She’s a retired Army Brigadier General, a small business leader, lawyer, and mom who has lived in the Tampa Bay area for over thirty years. She’s taken End Citizens United’s Unrig Washington pledge and she’s running on “Leadership over chaos.”

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

General Gray: I took an oath to the Constitution almost 40 years ago, and that oath included protecting and defending America. So, in late 2025, after watching so many horrendous actions being taken by this administration against the American people I felt I could no longer stand on the sidelines. I have the skill set, the experience, and the desire to serve this country.

I’ve never been in politics, and I never aspired to be in politics. But I’ve always aspired to serve. I served thirty years in uniform. I commanded four times. I deployed three times. I left my daughter with my husband for four and a half years over the course of her young life to serve our country. So, I understand what service over self truly means.

I’m on a mission for my neighbors and my country. Because this moment is too important. Our country is at a serious inflection point, and I want to lead the charge to bring us back to serving the American people.

Democracy News: What are you hearing from people in your district about how political corruption affects them?

General Gray: In our district, about 30% of voters are 65 years old and older, and they’re really being squeezed in a way they’ve never anticipated. People see the direct connection between these high costs and the fact that Congress, and that includes members like Rep. Luna, are rubber-stamping Trump and his oligarchs’ wishes, so there’s no check on war powers, there’s no check on the tariffs.

These issues of corruption do come up in conversation. It’s astronomical just to buy groceries or pay for insurance on a home. Two years ago, our community was hit with two hurricanes in five days. So, this cost-of-living crisis that’s gripping the nation is exacerbated right here in our district because of the costs of insurance. It’s not just the seniors who feel it, but they do feel it. Retirees who are living on a fixed income and drawing on their retirement accounts faster than they originally planned are scared and concerned. They feel left behind, like nobody cares, and they see the inherent unfairness of what’s happening. The rich are getting rich and the poor are getting poorer.

Democracy News: What would you prioritize to address the cost-of-living crisis when in Congress?

General Gray: When you have ship that’s sinking because it’s got a big hole in it, you need to plug the hole, but you also have to bail water so you don’t drown. But if you only focus on bailing the water, you’re never going to plug the hole. So, we have to do more than one thing at a time. When I’m in Congress, I’m going to lead the charge to attack this cost-of-living crisis head on, and there are three things we can do to do that.

The first thing: Stop the Iran war immediately. Trump and his sycophants, like Congresswoman Luna, have created this reckless war of choice that has directly impacted us in our wallets because of the cost of gas, but we have also destroyed relationships worldwide. We need to rebuild those relationships for our national security.

The second thing that we need to attack head on is the tariffs. We’re destroying relationships with our northern neighbor that we’ve had longstanding great relations. A lot of Canadians usually come to Florida, but they’re boycotting, they’re not coming and spending their money here. And then of course there’s the impact on household goods, lumber, which we need for paper and toilet paper. And then there’s the food prices.

The third thing we need to attack is the bad choices that were made by the bill passed last year that cut support for some of the most vulnerable, including food assistance for seniors and veterans and children, and gave that money to some of the wealthiest people and corporations. We need to restore the ACA subsidies. Right now, there’s a prediction that some Floridians will have their health insurance go up by $5,300 per year. That’s a lot for a lot of people, and it’s frankly just egregious.

So, we need to bail out water, and then we need to plug up the hole. I have an anti-corruption agenda, and campaign finance reform is a big part of that.

Democracy News: Can you talk about your anti-corruption agenda?

This is my first time in politics, and it’s just astounding how much money is flowing to curry favor and influence elections. We need to get rid of this dark money and big money in elections.

My anti-corruption agenda is grounded in the fact that when I was a senior leader in the military, we admirals and generals were held to a higher ethical standard than those in Congress. So, in essence, we are held to a higher ethical standard, including in terms of accountability, than those that can send us to die for our country. So, for example, if there’s a government shutdown and they’re suspending pay for military personnel, they should also suspend it for members of Congress. We also need to ban congressional stock trading. We need to end this culture of corruption.

Concern about corruption isn’t partisan. Republicans and Independents are coming up to me individually at these events, talking to me afterwards and saying they’re distraught, they’re concerned, and they’re fearful about what’s going on. They feel betrayed by this administration, and that includes Rep. Luna.

Democracy News: With everything that’s going on in the country right now, how are you coping?

I look at this as a mission. The essence of this campaign is really about my neighbors and our country. For thirty years, I was in uniform defending our country. I got into this because of everything that happened in 2025: purging of the military, purging of our inspectors general, of JAGs, the abuse of and misuse of the law, the ignoring of our Constitution. I am thinking of this campaign as a kind of deployment with a very specific mission, and because of that, I’m coping fine.

I am very determined and I refuse to let this country be dismantled because I have a twenty-five-year-old daughter and I need to fight for her and every twenty-five-year-old. I need to fight for every seventy-five-year-old out there, too.

This election will be a referendum on political corruption. The connections between billionaire and corporate political spending, the Trump Administration’s corruption, and the affordability crisis are the major themes of this election year. ECU-endorsed candidates across the country are running on clear anti-corruption messaging, because those candidates understand that political corruption is a root cause of the cost-of-living increases that are making life unmanageable for too many of their neighbors.

With Election Day fast approaching, a majority of the Democrats in the most pivotal Congressional races have signed onto ECU’s Unrig Washington commitment designed to root out corruption from our political system.

I talked with ECU’s Vice President of Campaigns and Organizing Farah Melendez to hear what the political team is working on with just over a month to go before Election Day.

Democracy News: Can you talk about Unrig Washington? What has made it so successful this year?

Melendez: We have more than 300 candidates or incumbents who’ve signed onto our Unrig Washington program to refuse corporate PAC money and support a ban on congressional stock trading and dark money. It’s been really exciting to see the numbers grow and hear candidates talk about getting Big Money out of politics in all kinds of districts, including very competitive districts.

All that interest is because of what candidates are hearing from voters. ECU has done a lot of research asking all kinds of voters — including Trump supporters, middle of the road voters, and others — about getting money out of politics, and across the board American voters see corruption as a major problem.

Frankly, voters are sick and tired of the backdoor dealings that politicians are making, especially when people are hurting at home. Voters don’t want to think that the people who they are electing are hurting them, so voters are getting more vocal.

Democracy News: What have some of ECU’s goals been this election cycle?

Melendez: A lot of what we do at ECU is help candidates see that they can run viable campaigns without corporate PAC money. This cycle, we’ve even seen candidates change their position to no longer take corporate PAC money and to pledge to get dark money out of politics, because they see it’s possible and voters are responding positively to that message.

We have a dangerous president who’s making dangerous policies, and we are excited to see that there are candidates that are standing up to fight against these billionaires, these corporations that get involved in politics and minimize the voices of the people. We’re seeing voters respond to fighting corruption. ECU has had over 40 town hall events across the country, in small towns and big cities, people want to talk about how we can hold politicians accountable. It’s been really great to see people show up. This year, we’re helping to elect anti-corruption champions in districts across the country.

Democracy News: Are there any candidates you want to highlight?

Melendez: Jon Ossoff is a great example of how leaders can talk about getting dark money out of politics. He’s in the South and in a swing state that matters for the presidential election. To be reelected, he needs the support of independent voters, not only Democrats, and he talked about how he’s running on anti-corruption not just because it’s popular but because it’s what the country needs. He’s very clear about not accepting corporate PAC money, and he shows you can do that and win.

On the state level, there’s Amy Acton, who is running for governor in Ohio. She’s also seeing some great progress getting the message out in her state, where now the race is considered a toss-up, which is exciting given where Ohio has been in recent cycles. Up and down the ticket in Ohio, we have candidates who are running on Unrig Washington. Acton is tying the broken economy to corruption. Voters are starting to see the cost of corruption at their kitchen tables, and so the message is resonating with them.

Something we’re hearing is that voters really want change. They don’t want to just hear about it; they want to see it. So, candidates and organizations need to be pro-active. Candidates need to be active listeners within the community, and that’s what Unrig Washington candidates are doing.

We see how much distrust voters have of politicians, and it’s because they don’t think politicians are listening to them anymore. So, for a candidate to resonate, they can’t just have a boilerplate message that came from a poll. They have to reflect the needs of their community. Walk the talk!

Democracy News: What can people do to help these Unrig Washington candidates win in November?

Melendez: It’s a simple answer, but it’s a real one: Get involved. We can’t expect change to come just out of organizations like ECU, because we can’t do it without the voters, we can’t do it without volunteers. So, the answer really is: Raise your hand, show up, be vocal, knock on doors, talk to your neighbors and support these candidates who care about these issues. Because nothing will change if we do nothing.

Democracy News: With everything that’s happening in the country, how are you coping?

Melendez: Having a community is really important. I think personally, for me, since I am first generation Latina, I see my community being affected by these ICE raids across the country. I have to consistently check in on my parents if they’re okay, if they’re walking around with their passport. That’s not what they came to this country for. So, every day, I know what I do for work affects my community. Every day I’m trying to move the ball forward with this anti-corruption and electoral work, because it helps keep my community and my family safe.

The Michigan organizers who’ve been working on Prop 2 are ahead of the curve. The Mop Up Michigan campaign is motivated to reform their state’s campaign finance system because during the 2024 election cycle, utility and tech companies donated huge sums to Michigan candidates. Then, during the legislative session, behind closed doors, corporate lobbyists killed a package of environmental bills that advocates had spent years working on.

“[Michigan state lawmakers] delivered a tax break for Silicon Valley billionaires that is going to raise everyone’s bills,” Christy McGillivray, executive director of Voters Not Politicians, a civic organization co-leading the Prop 2 effort, told Democracy News last year. “Right now, it doesn’t matter if legislation will help people, it doesn’t matter if it’s bipartisan. If corporations are opposed to it, it won’t pass. We’ve seen it over and over again.”

That’s when Michigan organizers realized that they needed to clean up the state’s campaign finance system or they weren’t going to be able to achieve any of their other policy goals. So, the Herculean effort to get Prop 2 on the ballot was born. Organizers had to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures and overcome numerous administrative challenges. But they hit the pavement, talked to Michiganders all across the state, and got it done: On November 3^rd, Michigan voters will have the opportunity to decide whether to limit corporate political influence in their state.

Prop 2 would limit pay-to-play politics by:

1) Banning monopoly utility companies like DTE and Consumers Energy from contributing to state officeholders and political party campaigns.

2) Banning corporations (like Blue Cross Blue Shield) with more than $250,000 annually in state or local government contracts from giving to candidates in the jurisdictions of those contracts.

Prop 2 would guarantee more transparency by:

1) Requiring groups that run ads referring to candidates or ballot issues to report their donors and expenses to the state.

2) Requiring political advertising on the internet and digital platforms to be covered by existing disclosure laws.

“Prop 2 is a simple solution that draws a clear line in the sand: if you’re doing business with the government or being regulated by it, you can’t buy political influence with campaign contributions,” McGillivray told me. “That’s common sense, and this November, Michiganders finally have the power to make it law.”

Right now, Michigan (like many states and the federal government) has very few guardrails when it comes to limiting the influence of corporate donors and lobbyists. The state allows monopoly utility companies, major government contractors, and other powerful corporate interests to give to the very same political figures who are tasked with overseeing their businesses— including their government contracts funded by taxpayer dollars.

“For too long, Michigan has had a pay-to-play political system that rewards those with wealth and power over hardworking Michiganders,” McGillivray said. “It’s business as usual for monopoly utilities and major government contractors to write campaign checks to the same politicians responsible for regulating and overseeing them -- that’s a broken system.”

Here I’m focusing largely on energy and tech industry spending— because that’s a major driver for reform in Michigan —but of course pay-to-play political spending extends way beyond those industries, in Michigan and across the country. According to Open Lobby, pharmaceutical and healthcare companies have spent over $452 million lobbying the federal government. According to Open Secrets, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which holds big government contracts, spent over $1 million just during the 2024 election cycle. And it gets worse: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has donated to an orchestrated effort to oppose Prop 2.

Campaign finance reforms like Prop 2 are especially important as tech and energy giants are spending ever-increasing sums to get their preferred candidates elected. By now, we’re all too aware that over the last few years, tech companies have raced to build more and bigger data centers, and utility rates have risen dramatically. The new and proposed data centers will only further strain the energy grid and continue to raise energy costs. And, because utility companies are for the most part regulated monopolies, they can pass rate increases on to their customers (that’s us). Local residents are absorbing the pollution and health risks. And the billionaires and millionaires invested in the tech industry—and giving enormous campaign donations— will get even richer.

Major tech companies have also spent the past year launching and funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into new PACs with the stated aim of electing “pro-AI” lawmakers. And, as I’m sure you’ve seen, AI executives are now openly saying that their companies are a threat to humanity.

Long before AI entered the picture, in states across the country, monopoly utilities have been major political donors and lobbyists. Because government commissions and officials set utility rates in many states, utility companies have engaged in classic pay-to-play politics. According to the Prop 2 campaign, in 2022, the last time all the seats in the Michigan legislature were up for election, a staggering 93% of Michigan state legislators had accepted political contributions from DTE PACs, executives, or lobbyists during their careers.

Given the truly mindboggling amount of corporate political spending and simultaneous affordability crisis across the country, it’s no surprise that Prop 2 is popular among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Over 80% of Michiganders support the reform.

If Prop 2 passes, it’ll be a major victory, a sign our democracy can still work. Even in this moment, even under this government, organizers will have found a way to take power back from the richest of the rich and put it back where it belongs, with their neighbors, the voters. The rest of us can borrow from their example and make it happen everywhere.

Lindsay James (IA-2) is one of those candidates. James is a chaplain, a state legislator, and a fighter. She’s signed on to End Citizens United’s Unrig Washington pledge to not accept corporate PAC donations, she’s made fighting the nefarious influence of big corporations and Wall Street a central part of her platform, and, this year, she has a real chance of defeating the Republican candidate, a MAGA real estate developer who founded a corporate firm for the real estate industry.

James talked with us about why the impossible choices her neighbors are facing have motivated her run for office and inspired her priorities for once she’s in Congress.

Democracy News: Why are you running for office?

James: I’m a mom. I’m a chaplain. I’ve served in the Iowa legislature. Over the last eight years I spent in the Iowa legislature, I’ve knocked on thousands of doors, and too many of my neighbors are making impossible choices because of the cost-of-living crisis that we’re facing right now.

There’s the mom who is making the impossible choice: Do I pay my utility bill, or do I buy my daughter a winter coat? It’s the dad making the impossible choice: Do I put food on the table or do we pay our rent? A rent increase at a mobile home community near me means someone is making the impossible choice: Do I pay my rent increase and keep my mobile home, or do I pay for my insulin medication and keep my foot?

My neighbors are asking themselves these questions in the wealthiest country in the world. We can all agree that’s not right.

Democracy News: How is political corruption affecting people in your district?

James: People are frustrated by politics. They’re frustrated by the partisan fighting, but they are deeply disgusted by the corruption we’re seeing in Washington.

Here’s a story that shows you how corruption is harming people: My first year in the Iowa legislature, Medicaid was privatized in our state. One of my constituents lost vital healthcare services, and I shared his story on the floor of the legislature. I called out by name Amerigroup, the company that was denying his care.

As soon as I was done with my speech, I got a request to speak to the lobbyist from Amerigroup. This lobbyist said to me, “Representative James, I know you’re new here. We just don’t do that here. We don’t just call out a company by name on the floor of the Iowa House.” My response was, “I don’t care what the norms of the Iowa legislature are. I care that my neighbor gets the health care that he needs and deserves.”

So, that’s the corruption that we see. And Iowans know me as someone who will stand up and fight for everyday working families in our state. Chaplains are trained to show up in people’s hardest moments. And right now, there are too many of my neighbors across this district who are experiencing hard moments because of their financial realities. Too many Iowans are living paycheck to paycheck. Too many Iowans are one healthcare emergency away from losing their home, and that’s because of corruption.

Democracy News: Americans rate corruption as a major problem. How is corruption an issue in your race?

James: My opponent, Joe Mitchell, is running on an “anti-corruption” platform when he is the epitome of the corruption we’re seeing in this administration. Joe Mitchell is a former legislator turned lobbyist. He’s a real estate developer who founded a lobbying firm for real estate developers, then spent a season in the Trump administration. When he was a state lawmaker, he voted to expand tax credits for real estate developers, and that further enriched his own real estate businesses to the tune of $2.5 million.

Mitchell also spent over $75,000, partying at Mar-a-Lago over the course of this campaign, and he wrote it off as a campaign expense. $75,000 is roughly what the median Iowa household makes in an entire year. He’s bragging about it. He’s taking selfies of himself in tuxedos at Mar-a-Lago when he is wining and dining DC elites.

Iowans are smart. They are going to be able to see through that. We are going to hold him accountable for that corruption.

For me and our campaign, having the endorsement and backing of the largest anti-corruption organization in the country, End Citizens United, is a way in which we are gaining trust with folks. I’ve been very public about not taking corporate PAC dollars; being willing to put my name on legislation that fights against the legislator to lobbyist pipeline; supporting banning stock trading for members of Congress; doing everything we can to overturn Citizens United.

Democracy News: What legislation would you prioritize when in Congress?

James: As a chaplain, you learn about people by seeing them in some of their darkest moments. That means you also learn what practically is not working in their lives. That’s what informs the way I think about policy.

We’ve had an influx of private equity and large out of state corporations purchasing mobile home communities across the state. I’ve worked on bipartisan legislation to fight against these private equity firms and protect people living in mobile home communities. The second I started putting forward legislation, we saw an influx of money coming from the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association to Republicans in the legislature, to try to influence votes.

Private equity firms are the wealthiest people in our country who are preying on some of the poorest people in our country. That’s not right. Watching people in power capitulate to these out-of-state corporations and private equity firms highlights the deep corruption in the state legislature and the federal government.

We can put forward federal legislation to hold these private equity firms and large corporations accountable. They’re applying for and getting low interest loans from the federal government under the guise of furthering affordable housing, when they’re doing the exact opposite and furthering their own profits at the expense of some of the most vulnerable people in our country. So, we need enforcement mechanisms that ensure that if corporations and private equity are engaging in predatory practices, we can claw back dollars. That’s just one thing we can do.

Meanwhile, we know that large corporations like Bayer are coming to the Iowa legislature and to the federal government to ask to be released from liability if someone gets sick from their product. In Iowa, we have some of the nation’s highest cancer rates. People are longing for someone with a moral compass and courage of conviction who will actually take on fights against these companies. I’m here for it.

Democracy News: With everything that’s happening, how are you coping?

James: I’m never at a loss for hope because I just look next door to my neighbor to see how resilient people are. That is an eternal source of hope for me.

I’ve been shaped by the parable of the good Samaritan. You know, the parable is about how someone’s hurting and harmed on the side of the road, and someone comes by, sees them, turns a blind eye, walks the other way without offering help. That, to me, is exactly what’s happening in Washington D.C. right now. People in positions of power see the problems and the challenges that everyday people are facing in our country, and they’re turning a blind eye.

What I love about this parable was how Martin Luther King Jr. talked about it. King said it’s not just our moral obligation to pick up the person hurting and harmed on the side of the road; it’s our moral obligation to fix the road.

King said that if we didn’t fix the road, the same thing would just continue to happen over and over again. When it comes to my faith, caring for my neighbor is not optional. That means that fixing the systemic issues that are causing my neighbors to be hurt and harmed in the first place is not optional. That means fixing our healthcare systems, funding our school systems, which give our kids their best chance at life. It’s making sure that people have economic opportunities in our communities. Going up against these corporations is fixing the road, and for me, that’s not optional.

Lindsay James and Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, will be in discussion in Dubuque on Monday, September 14th at 6 pm. RSVP to attend here.

What is remarkable is that Valadao took that vote while representing the people in a Central Valley district where nearly two-thirds of constituents rely on Medicaid and ICE has terrorized many families. There’s no way around it: Valadao voted against his own constituents’ health and safety.

Enter Randy Villegas. This spring, endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and many others, Randy won the Democratic primary. He is taking on Valadao in November.

Randy is the son of immigrants who was raised in a working-class family in Kern County, CA. He earned his Ph.D. and is now a college professor, community organizer, and owner of a family auto shop. Unlike Valadao, who is funded by corporate donations, Villegas has signed onto End Citizen United’s Unrig Washington campaign and does not take corporate PAC money. He is running on a strong anti-corruption platform and has vowed to fight for the working people in his district.

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

Randy: I love the Central Valley, where the farmworkers who get up at the crack of dawn feed the rest of the country, the rest of the world. Even though we work hard every single day, many of us are just trying to get by. I know what that struggle feels like personally. At the same time, the Valley has given me and my family so many opportunities. I was able to get my PhD, become a professor in my twenties.

With David Valadao in Congress, we have a representative who’s not even willing to acknowledge the very real fear that many members of our communities are facing. I recently talked to a fourth grader, and he asked me about what he could do about immigration raids. This is a kid who should be thinking about what he’s going to do at recess and instead is feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders, because of a representative who fails to actually stand up for our communities and our families. That’s why I’m running, to fight for people in my district.

Democracy News: Your campaign is not accepting corporate PAC donations. Was that a difficult decision?

Randy: Personally, it wasn’t a hard decision. What surprised me is that I had people tell me that if I didn’t have people I could call on Day One to ask for a thousand dollars each then I couldn’t even run. It was really discouraging. People were also asking, “When are you going to quit your job?” And I couldn’t quit my job to run the campaign. That’s why we have so many millionaires in Congress, it’s really hard to run for office as a working person. But we need people in Congress who understand the realities of working for a living.

Democracy News: When you’re out in your district, what do you hear from people about corruption and how it’s affecting their lives?

Randy: People are experiencing corruption in their day-to-day lives. Two out of every three of our constituents in CA-22 relies on Medicaid. And despite that, Valadao voted to gut it, to give tax breaks to billionaires. He also voted to gut SNAP benefits that feed children. For what? So that Mark Zuckerberg or Jeff Bezos can buy another yacht or an island? This summer, communities in Earlimart didn’t have running water for two and a half weeks. And what did Valadao have to say about it? Nothing.

For far too long, the Central Valley has been left behind. People are feeling now more than ever. This administration is using institutions and agencies against us. The Central Valley was ground zero for ICE raids last year. Instead of having a member of Congress who stands up for civil rights and civil liberties for people across this country, we have Valadao who voted to expand ICE. It’s downright disrespectful to people who have been targeted by this administration and sometimes have to go without food on their table.

Whether we’re talking about cuts to healthcare or ICE raids, it all goes back to money in politics. When I was growing up, my mom used to say, “Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres.” Tell me who you’re with, and I’ll tell you who you are. The same thing applies to who candidates are taking money. I’ve never taken money from corporations and I never will. Meanwhile, Valadao has made it clear who he’s with, and that’s millionaires and billionaires. He won’t stand up to the president, to his party. He’s taken millions from companies that continue to exploit working families. He is giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires while communities in this district don’t have adequate healthcare or running water.

Our campaign’s message has been resonating with people across the political spectrum. That’s one big lesson learned. We can’t just be against Trump or Valadao. We have to stand for something that people believe in.

Democracy News: What reforms would you prioritize when in Congress?

Randy: Priority number one is reversing the cuts in the Big Bullshit Bill to ensure that we’re restoring Medicaid and other programs that families rely on. I’m also going to co-sponsor legislation that would mean working people don’t pay federal income taxes on their first $70,000. We’re going to do that by making sure that millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share. For me, fighting for working families also means fighting for universal healthcare and childcare.

Democracy News: With everything that’s happening, how are you coping?

Randy: Personally, I remind myself of the people in my district. I remind myself of the experiences of people who are working two or three jobs just to survive and make ends meet.

It’s really easy to feel cynical and apathetic and like your voice doesn’t matter. But that’s exactly how they want you to feel. Billionaires, millionaires, and corporations wouldn’t be spending millions and millions of dollars to influence elections if our votes didn’t matter.

You can learn more about Randy Villegas here.

Given all the grift this Congress enables, it’s tough to get on ECU’s Most Corrupt list, but Lawler was a shoo-in: Beyond being a former lobbyist, he’s accepted over $1 million in corporate PAC money since his first election in 2022; he’s taken over $1.1 million from individuals and PACs related to the financial services industry he’s supposed to be overseeing; and he has funneled at least $500,000 in campaign committee funds to a company he owned.

Cait Conley on the other hand is a West Point graduate and a U.S. Army veteran who completed six overseas deployments. She draws a clear connection between her working-class upbringing and her commitment to refusing to take corporate PAC donations. She is centering her campaign on meaningful campaign finance reforms that return political power back to where it belongs: with the American people.

Democracy News: Why are you running for Congress?

Conley: I’ve spent my life committed to serving and fighting for this country. I do love this country, and I do believe that our best days are still ahead of us if we get the right people in government.

Growing up, there was the idea that if you work hard, you can get ahead. Now, you see people working harder than ever, and they’re on this hamster wheel where no matter how hard they run, they don’t get anywhere. It shows you that the system really is rigged against working people.

I went to West Point and then served as an active-duty army officer for 16 years. I’ve done six deployments overseas. Then I served as director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff, helping keep our homeland safe. So, I’ve spent the last two plus decades fighting to make sure our country is safe and secure, and fighting for our democracy.

Somehow during that time, politicians in Washington decided to stop fighting for the people and our country and started fighting for themselves and their special interest groups and corporations. That corruption has led to the government dysfunction that has fueled this affordability crisis. And if we’re going to change that, we need to change the people in Washington.

Democracy News: When you’re out in your district, what do you hear from people about corruption and how it’s affecting their lives?

Conley: People don’t believe that the politicians who got us into this mess are going to get us out of it. You know, take our own representative, Mike Lawler, who’s the seminal example of Washington corruption. He was a utility lobbyist and political consultant before becoming a politician. This guy has funneled half a million dollars to his own former company’s consulting firm.

Energy prices are rising. Instead of fighting for the people of his district, Lawler has been loyal to his utility buddies. Utility rates here in New York State have gone up over 50% since he’s taken office. You see cost of living increases across the board.

It’s the same thing with healthcare. We are watching as premiums are crushing families here in the district, and instead of holding health insurance companies accountable, Mike Lawler has taken major donations from health insurance companies and Big Pharma over the years. He’s taken over a million dollars from corporate PACs. It’s no wonder this man has not fought for the people and has not solved these problems. He’s in the pocket of these corporations.

What’s incredibly frustrating is that this guy will come out and try to claim he’s this bipartisan moderate, but the reality is that Lawler has voted with Donald Trump 100% of the time. Elon Musk donated $1.7 million to support Lawler.

So, he’s exactly who we’re talking about when we talk about politicians being propped up by dark money. Corrupt politicians like Lawler are putting up this smokescreen of BS. But you know what, that smokescreen is dissipating. People are seeing through it because they’re living with the realities of those consequences. Life has gotten harder, not better.

Democracy News: Utility companies often support data center construction. Is that an issue in NY-17?

Conley: One hundred percent. In Mike Lawler’s home county of Rockland County five data centers have been built in recent years.

After winning our primary, one of the first things we did was attend a town planning board meeting and fight the approval of more proposed data centers. My position is: If data centers are going to be built, they need to be a net positive for the community, and anything short of that is unacceptable. This goes back to how we have corruption at every level, people in charge looking out for corporate interests instead of communities on every level, and it’s fundamentally wrong.

Instead of supporting the people, Lawler is literally attacking the people who are trying to hold these corporations to account. This has happened on his watch, and he doesn’t get to run from that anymore. In this cycle, we’re holding his ass accountable.

Democracy News: What reforms do you want to focus on when elected to Congress?

Conley: On Day One we have to tackle corruption. We have to pass legislation that addresses how elected officials are using their positions to enrich themselves instead of looking out for their constituents. That means banning stock trading for Congressional members, their spouses, for the president, vice president, political appointees from the executive branch, to make sure that people who are there are doing the job and looking out for this country, not their stock portfolios.

Second, we have got to deliver for working families who desperately deserve results. There are a few things we need to do. One, when it comes to pathways to middle class America and economic success and stability, we’ve got to recognize that the cost of higher education is crippling people with lifelong student debt, and we’ve got to do a more aggressive job of tackling that.

We should cap interest rates for federal student loans. We need to expand our investment in other pathways to the middle class that aren’t just four-year colleges. In New York, we have the BOCES program, where technical trade schools and training programs give kids tremendous pathways to careers in everything from plumbing to nursing. We need to be investing and expanding programs like that. And we need to address the housing crisis. We need to create loan programs for Americans in public service, helping them to buy homes. And we need to reign in monopoly utility companies.

We also need to make substantive structural reforms to ensure that we root out this corruption. That means, yes, banning stock trading for members of Congress and their spouses, and the president, vice president, White House political appointees. It also means enacting term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court because you need people in government who are focusing on the privilege of the time they’re given, and not the next 10 re-election cycles.

Democracy News: With everything that’s happening, how are you coping?

Conley: It helps to recognize that we are living in a moment that is truly an incredible opportunity to fight for this country, our democracy, and our future. You know, this is our 250th anniversary, and this year should remind us that America and the pursuit of this more perfect union didn’t happen because it’s easy, but because generation after generation has answered the call, even in the darkest of hours, to fight for America. And now it’s our turn.

No one else is coming to save us. This is our fight. We are the cavalry, and our country needs us to answer the call again. We have to embrace the opportunity to fight for something bigger than ourselves.

You can learn more about Cait Conley here.