The cost-of-living crisis is also a corruption crisis. It’s not a coincidence that the number of billionaires is growing at the same time that working people are being squeezed by higher bills. It’s not a coincidence that the same president who has gotten the United States involved in a dangerous war that’s costing taxpayers billions of dollars and driving up gas prices has also personally enriched himself and his family while in office – including with a reported $1 billion in crypto holdings, while deregulating the crypto industry. It’s not a coincidence that the Congress that is failing to provide any meaningful check on this Administration’s many illogical and harmful actions also gave unprecedented tax breaks to billionaires. This is all by design: These politicians got into office after receiving millions upon millions from billionaires, corporate donors, and special interests.

We all know what’s happened over recent decades, especially since the Citizens United decision: Behemoth political donors – including private equity, fossil fuel and tech titans – have rigged the political system so they can profit more and pay their workers less. They’ve also made sure they can operate with fewer rules and contribute less in taxes. And in addition to funding candidates who will do their bidding, they’ve also funded groups that write anti-worker and anti-consumer legislation, sue when they don’t get their way, and prop up media organizations that sell their spin. And as a result, the economy is structured for the powerful, and it’s harder and harder for everyone else to make ends meet.

In response to the cost-of-living crisis, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a coalition of Democratic lawmakers, just rolled out a series of policy proposals designed to make life more affordable in this country. Progressives in Congress support a whole range of ambitious policy goals like Medicare for All, a universal living wage, and bold climate action, but because so many Americans need relief from rising costs right now, the Progressive Caucus is introducing a raft of legislation with ideas that are extremely popular with voters across the political spectrum and will make life more affordable right away. For anyone interested in addressing the cost-of-living crisis – and for winning upcoming elections – embracing these policies offer a clear path for standing with working people.

The New Affordability Agenda:

1. Getting Big Money Out of Politics: The Abolish Super PACs Act (sponsored by Rep. Summer Lee) caps contributions to super PACs at $5,000 per calendar year, which would effectively end the role of super PACs as a vehicle for unlimited contributions. That in turn would break the cycle of powerful entities buying elections to buy policies that work for them, not working people.

2. Making prescription drugs affordable: The Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act (sponsored by Rep. Jan Schakowsky) dramatically lowers the price of pharmaceuticals by establishing a federal program to directly manufacture generic drugs and offering them to Americans at a discounted rate.

3. Making groceries affordable: The Fair Competition for Small Businesses Act (sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern and Rep. Maxine Waters) allows state attorneys general to seek financial compensation from large grocery store chains that engage in anti-competitive behaviors.

4. Making housing affordable: Legislation (sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters) will provide assistance to first-time homeowners and set aside funds for creating and preserving affordable and accessible housing.

5. Making utility bills affordable: Legislation (sponsored by Rep. Greg Casar) will establish a federal standard for just and reasonable increases in electricity bills issued by for-profit utility companies and stop allowing these companies to pass along costs like political lobbying on to their customers.

6. Making childcare affordable: The Child Care for Every Community Act (sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) provides federal investment in locally administered child care so that families nationwide have access to affordable childcare.

7. Making gas affordable: The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act (sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna) curbs profiteering by oil companies by imposing a tax on large oil companies, which will return a rebate to customers.

8. Ending AI Price Gouging: The STOP AI Price Gouging and Wage Fixing Act (sponsored by Rep. Greg Casar) bans companies from using AI to set prices or fix wages based on Americans’ personal data. It would prohibit companies from doing things like increasing an airline ticket price after seeing someone read an obituary.

9. Putting more money in people’s pockets: This legislation (sponsored by Rep. Greg Casar) would increase federal overtime pay for the first time in almost 90 years.

10. Vacation time that people can afford: America is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee paid vacation to all workers. The PTO Act (sponsored by Rep. Seth Magaziner) provides every full-time worker with no less than two weeks of annual leave in addition to any paid sick, family, or medical leave guaranteed by law.

Each one of these bills provides a solution to a very real and important problem. The Abolish Super PACs Act might seem the most abstract, but it’s also the one that addresses the underlying issue impacting the rest: Rampant political corruption is driving the cost-of-living crisis.

As we consider the concerns that matter most to us, whether it’s housing, energy policy, union rights, etc., we have to keep in mind that the reason we need solutions to so many problems is that rich political spenders and their preferred politicians have rigged the system against working people. Only when we decrease the power of corporate and billionaire political spenders will we have elected officials who adequately respond to our needs – including by passing legislation that benefits patients instead of Big Pharma, workers and kids instead of tech giants like Meta and Amazon, consumers instead of oil companies, and so forth.

As Rep. Summer Lee, the bill’s sponsor, recently explained on the I’ve Had It podcast: “The reason that my Abolish Super PACs bill is the most important bill to me is because it is the gateway to getting all of the other things that we need in our society.” So, fighting corruption is an essential part of fighting for a pro-active, sustained progressive agenda.

I spoke with one candidate running this year, current Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar.

Aguilar knows something about standing up to threats to our election system. He is the namesake of Department of Justice v. Aguilar, the case wherein the Trump Administration sued the Nevada secretary of state office for defying federal orders to turn over voters’ personal information. I spoke with Aguilar about why electing secretaries of state with a strategy and a backbone really matters.

Democracy News: There are numerous threats to our elections right now, more than I can even summarize in a question. How should we be prioritizing those threats?

Cisco Aguilar: The biggest threat to our election is Donald Trump, and the fact that he’s trying to create chaos. He has this delusional obsession with the 2020 election, which I think the American public has moved past, right? In the 2022 election, every secretary of state who ran against an election denier won. That’s the public saying, “Hey, move on. We have better, bigger issues to worry about as Americans. We need to be focused on solutions. We want leadership.”

This is a federalism issue. The Constitution says that states run elections. It’s up to the states to really provide the plan, to provide the strategy, and to provide the confidence that our elections are safe, secure, and accessible. Nevada has some of the most safe, secure and accessible elections in the country because we have a strategy.

All the secretary of state elections around the country this year are really about the 2028 election. If we don’t elect strong secretaries now, 2028 is going to be chaos. That’s going to be a unique election year because neither party will have an incumbent running for president. Instead of candidates talking about their vision, their plan, and the issues that Americans want to hear, they’re going to continue to talk about the election system. There is going to be substantial litigation. That’s why we need to elect strong secretaries of state now.

Democracy News: What are some of your priorities as secretary of state?

Aguilar: Nevada is one of the most diverse states in the country, from a geographical perspective, but also a demographics perspective. We have a 30% Latino voter base. We’re a 24/7 economy. If somebody in Las Vegas took the time on Election Day to go vote, that’s money that they don’t have in their pocket because they work in the service industry. So, those are the challenges we look at when thinking about how to make elections accessible. We’re making sure that we are meeting the needs of the working people.

For me, it’s a bit more personal. I’m the first elected Latino secretary of the state. I have a duty and a commitment to my community to protect them.

One of my priorities is making sure that the voter experience is strong. We want people to feel confident going to the polling locations. We want them to feel confident that their mail-in ballot is going to get counted. We want them to know that Nevada is one of the most critical states in the country when it comes to our elections, and I have to build that faith, trust, confidence. And so, when I see the president make these attacks on certain communities, especially in Nevada, again, where a large percentage of the voter base is Latino, I know it’s intentional, just as it’s intentional in Georgia, where there’s a strong Black voter base.

We also have to make sure our poll workers feel safe. After Trump’s intimidation, people really understand what it means for a poll worker to be there.

Trump wants to create fear. What they say about non-citizens voting is a bunch of bullshit. It’s not happening. It’s intimidation. But you know, the more they try to intimidate us, the more emboldened election officials become to protect our voters and protect our states. Nevada led the legal challenge to Trump’s executive order exerting federal control over elections.

Democracy News: Trump’s Department of Justice sued your office because you refused to give the federal government Nevadans’ voter data. The case is ongoing. Why aren’t you giving the federal government the information?

Aguilar: More than anything, it’s a data privacy issue. Nevadans are very sensitive about data privacy, because we recently suffered a significant cyber-attack at the state government. I think Nevada citizens saw the impact of cyber-attacks and became more aware of the information the government has.

When we got the letter from the DOJ asking for voters’ information, our response wasn’t an immediate, “No.” It was, “Hey, why do you want this information? What are you going to do with it?”

They never answered those questions. They just wanted to intimidate us to get the information. Well, we’re starting to see why they want that information: to build a national voter roll. There are so many potentials for false positives in the SAVE system (a federal voter roll administered by the Department of Homeland Security) that we have to assume that there are voters being inappropriately flagged as ineligible when they’re eligible. That’s a violation of a fundamental Constitutional right.

The data privacy issue is nonpartisan for voters. I spoke about this at an event in Carson City, mostly to an audience of Republicans, and I thought, “Here it comes.” After I was done speaking, the audience stood up and clapped. I realized that this is not a partisan issue. This comes down to the very fact that people want their private information protected. When they registered to vote, they agreed to give that information to the state of Nevada. Voters didn’t agree to give their data to third parties. So, we have to respect citizens’ expectations, and we have to keep them safe.

At End Citizens United, we’re endorsing candidates that are fighting to win back House districts across the map by vowing to fight political corruption. These candidates are part of ECU’s Unrig Washington campaign, which means they won’t take corporate PAC money, support congressional stock trading bans, and will work to crack down on dark money.

As we’ve said before: Supporting anti-corruption candidates isn’t just a means to better policy. It’s also good politics. American voters are angry with politics-as-usual, and in elections across the country they’re voting for candidates who reject the status quo and promise to do right by working people.

We want to introduce you to ECU’s most recently endorsed candidates running to flip House seats from Red to Blue. These are some of the candidates we’re proud to support.

Brian Poindexter is running to represent Ohio 7. When Ohio Republicans gerrymandered the state last year, they changed this district, but the right Democratic candidate can definitely flip this seat. Poindexter is running to replace Republican Max Miller, who takes thousands in corporate PAC money. Poindexter is an ironworker promising to bring “pro-worker mentality to the halls of Congress.” He’s backed by both Senator Bernie Sanders and is running to represent workers, not corporations – and that’s why End Citizens United is proud to endorse him.

“When times get tough, working people are always asked to do more with less,” Poindexter says. “I’m running for Congress because working people deserve real representation – not empty promises, not talking points, and not leaders who only remember us when its time to sacrifice.” As a member of the Brook Park City Council, Poindexter has opposed anti-union “Right to Work” laws and supported public schools. He’s a member of ECU’s Unrig Washington program and exactly the kind of candidate we need to reach voters who are angry about how years of out-of-control political corruption has harmed Ohioans.

“People are working harder and harder. We’re getting less and less and we’re getting more and more of the burden,” Poindexter told The Guardian, in a profile about his candidacy. “I’d like to see an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy.”

Kristina Knickerbocker is running to flip Ohio 10. Republican incumbent Mike Turner currently represents the district. Turner has accepted at least $3 million in corporate donations and in Congress has voted right in line with Trump over and over again. This year, that could bring him down. According to polling, a majority of voters in the district have an unfavorable view of Trump and disapprove of his job performance. More than half of Ohio 10 voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, and half disapprove of his handling of the war with Iran. A Democratic candidate campaigning against this broken political system has a real shot of winning back this district.

Knickerbocker is a U.S. Air Force veteran and oncology nurse. She’s never held public office, and as a nurse, she’s seen firsthand how our broken political system has led to a broken healthcare system, with devastating consequences for patients.

“I’m honored to have the endorsement of End Citizens United,” Knickerbocker said. “I’ve seen how the medical system fails people, and it’s because big health care companies are too powerful in Washington, DC. Nobody should have to decide between getting life-changing care and putting groceries on the table for their family. I’m running to take on the special interests that are making our daily lives unaffordable, and I’m grateful for End Citizens United’s partnership in this mission.”

Randy Villegas is running in California 22. Villegas is challenging Republican David Valadao, who has voted to support the Republican Congressional agenda, including last year’s mega-bill that made $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid. As the director of Protect Our Care California described at the time: “Representative David Valadao just voted for the largest healthcare cuts in history in order to fund tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations, and we’re going to make sure every single one of his constituents knows it.” Meanwhile, the editorial board at the local paper the Fresno Bee wrote, “Unfortunately, [Valadao] doesn’t measure up when it comes to looking out for the best interests of his community.” This Republican incumbent is vulnerable, and Villegas is a fantastic person to unseat him.

Villegas 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 and community organizer. 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 has a strong anti-corruption platform that includes banning congressional stock trading, undoing the harm caused by Citizens United, and introducing Congressional term limits. “We need real fighters and leadership in D.C. Our communities are suffering at home while corporations and billionaires keep getting richer. It’s time for that to end.”

Villegas has been endorsed by the imminent civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, members of Congress including Senator Bernie Sanders, Representative Pramila Jayapal, and Representative Ro Khanna, and many progressive and labor organizations like the California Teachers Association and the UAW. End Citizens United is proud to endorse Villegas because he has vowed to represent his constituents, not the corporate donors.

Tom Perriello is running to flip Virginia 6. This district is one of those affected by Virginia’s redistricting that could pave the way for Democrats to take back more House seats. It’s competitive but winnable for Democrats, especially with the right candidate. You may know the name Perriello, as he served in the House representing Virginia from 2009 to 2011. After his time in Congress, he served as the United States Special Envoy for the African Great Lakes and Sudan.

ECU is proud to endorse former Rep. Perriello, who is a part of Unrig Washington and made fighting corruption a centerpiece of his campaign. Governor Abigail Spanberger said, “Tom shows up, listens, and fights for what matters most… We need more leaders like Tom in Congress who will hold Washington accountable to the Constitution, common sense, and the people of the Commonwealth.” He’s also earned the endorsement of many other local leaders.

“I’m thrilled to be endorsed by End Citizens United, because corruption is killing us,” said former Rep. Tom Perriello. “Congress is kicking families off healthcare and jacking up costs so they can give kickbacks to dark money donors. I don’t take a dime from lobbyists or corporate PACs, so I appreciate the support from End Citizens United and their commitment to ending legalized corruption in Washington.”

By now we’ve all heard of Project 2025, the rightwing Heritage Foundation-backed Christian nationalist policy blueprint from which the Trump Administration has borrowed all manner of ideas, like dismantling the Department of Education, issuing declarations against trans identity, and rescinding Title IX rules on sexual assault and discrimination.

America First Policy Institute, though, has mostly flown under the radar. But its strategists are behind Trump Administration actions related to every major issue you can imagine, from immigration to elections to energy. America First Policy Institute, which reportedly brought in $50 million in donations in 2024, has been called “the largest pro-Trump operation launched after his [first term].” The organization has drafted lots of model executive orders, many of which mirror Trump Administration orders and policy.

Former officials from Trump’s first term like Brooke Rollins (currently Secretary of Agriculture), Larry Kudlow, and Linda McMahon founded America First Policy Institute soon after he lost the 2020 election. It has paid current Trump officials like Lee Zeldin, now the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, lucrative consulting contracts. And for context on how extreme its political vision is: One of its international partners is the Center for Fundamental Rights, a Hungarian organization that organizes the rightwing conference CPAC Hungary and supports the recently defeated Prime Minister Viktor Orban, widely recognized as an authoritarian.

America First Policy Institute spent the Biden years preparing for the moment when their allies would have federal power again – and fanning the flames of Trump’s election denialism and promoting Christian nationalist rhetoric in the meantime. Because America First Policy Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we don’t know for sure who is funding it. The New York Times reported that Tim Dunn, a rightwing fracking billionaire who has given many millions to Republican causes, is one of its big donors. According to Open Secrets, Dunn has given at least $18 million to the rightwing PAC Jefferson Rising Fund and $5 million to Trump’s Make America Great Again Inc. super PAC.

In 2021, soon after America First Policy Institute was incorporated, one of its first actions was to give a $1 million donation to Citizens United. Yes, that Citizens United, the rightwing organization whose lawsuit against the Federal Elections Commission prompted the Supreme Court to issue its landmark and truly devastating decision that opened the floodgates to unlimited political spending, enabled billionaires like Dunn to dump millions into elections, and brought our country to the calamitous situation we’re in today. According to investigative reporting from Documented and The Guardian, in 2021, just before America First Policy Institute gave Citizens United that donation, the think tank had just received $1 million from Trump’s Save America Committee, a PAC. Then, Citizens United gave $1 million to a Georgia-based LLC called Cheeley Law Group, LLC, which describes itself as a “personal injury law firm,” for the purposes of “election integrity litigation.”

Remember, this was soon after Trump had tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia by pressuring elections officials. He was later indicted on four felony counts for those actions. In 2021, when that $1 million was moving between Trump allies, Cheeley was representing clients that invented fraud claims in Georgia, all part of a sustained and ultimately unsuccessful effort to overturn the election.

Put simply: It sure seems as though a Trump PAC gave $1 million to America First Policy Institute, which gave the money to Citizens United, which gave it to an LLC in Georgia that was trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.The organization served as a training ground where numerous current Trump Administration officials cultivated the policy goals they’re now executing – many America First Policy Institute alums are in major positions in the Trump Administration. One influential example: Robert T. Law is currently Under Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, meaning he oversees policies for agencies including ICE. He was America First Policy Institute’s Director of Center Homeland Security and Immigration for three years starting in 2022. There, he wrote all kinds of dispatches calling for punitive measures against immigrants, including Asylum Cooperative Agreements, which deport detained immigrants to third countries that aren’t their home country. Toward the end of his tenure, during the 2024 presidential campaign, Law was also a volunteer for the Trump transition team. And, look, the Trump Administration has reinstated Asylum Cooperative Agreements and is currently sending people to countries they’re not from and might never have even visited. That’s just America First Policy Institute’s influence on one corner of one issue.

Given the daily headlines, it’s easy to get numb to the influence of the ultrawealthy megadonors. But it should be shocking: An oil and gas billionaire funded the design of extreme policies while simultaneously spending millions to elect the presidential candidate, Trump, who would enact those policies not through the legislative process but through immediate executive orders, one man signing away our rights and protections with his pen. And many of those policies will be upheld because allied donors stacked the courts with rightwing ideologues. I end so many newsletters this way, but it’s always still true: The underlying problem is that we need to overhaul our campaign finance system so ultrawealthy donors can’t buy this level of influence.

Currently, Rep. Peltola is running for Senate to fix a broken system. Her agenda for Alaska will always be fish, family, and freedom. Her “Fix the Rigged System” agenda includes focusing on the self-dealing of DC people and proposing term limits. She’s running to bring about systemic change to the people of Alaska such as saving their fisheries, lowering energy prices, and building new housing Alaskans can afford. You can support her race here.

Americans are fed up with all the grift. The important thing to remember this year is that it’s not enough for Democrats to just run on how broken the system is. Everyone agrees, for different reasons. To win, Democrats must present clear plans about how they’re going to change it. Since Trump was elected again, Democratic candidates across the country have won big when they focused their campaigns on taking on big special interests and fighting for affordability.

That’s why we’re supporting a roster of anti-corruption champions across the country. Last week, ECU endorsed four candidates who committed to represent people, not special interests, by participating in our Unrig Washington campaign. Their platforms include clear reform agendas that include goals we share like banning Congressional stock trading and cracking down on dark money. And none of them take a dime of corporate PAC money.

ECU is supporting these candidates because if elected they’d be champions for anti-corruption legislation to get Big Money out of politics and steer this country back toward being a functional democracy. But the truth is, supporting candidates like these is also a way for Democrats to win more races across the country. Voters are angry, they want change, and they deserve better. And we can have better people representing us. It is possible, and we’re working on it.

I want to introduce you to some Unrig Washington candidates running for Congress. These candidates are all working to flip their districts from Red to Blue. That means they could decide who controls the House of Representatives.

Bill Hill is running to flip Alaska’s At-Large House District. The district is currently represented by Republican Nicholas Begich, who received $4.67 million in special interest spending on his behalf in the 2024 election, including $437,000 from Elon Musk’s America PAC. Begich has introduced a resolution stripping Biden-era protections from the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, voted for the Republican megabill that cut roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid and gave another $75 billion to ICE, and he has introduced legislation to protect crypto – while reportedly owning $750,000 worth of Bitcoin.

Hill is a complete contrast. He is a lifelong Alaskan who grew up in a small village called Bristol Bay, home of the largest salmon run in the world. He’s also worked union construction jobs in rural Alaska, from building houses, working on remote health clinics and canneries, and on a crew that installed the sewer system in the Bristol Bay Borough. Hill spent nearly 25 years working as a teacher, a principal, and a superintendent. And he’s running a campaign focused on unrigging the system so that it works for everyday Alaskans.

“Working people won’t have our fair shake until billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share,” he wrote in his policy platform. “One in every six dollars spent in the 2024 election cycle came from the bank account of a billionaire. When billionaires buy elections, they also buy the people they’re getting elected. We need to overturn Citizens United and take action to stop billionaires from buying elections.”

Matt Maasdam is running to flip Michigan 07. The district is currently represented by Republican Tom Barrett. While in Congress, Barrett voted to defund healthcare, supported attacks on Social Security and Medicaid, and dragged his feet on releasing the Epstein files. Barrett also ran an ad with a wrong election date in a Black-owned newspaper, after which prompted an ethics investigation. The Cook Political Report calls this race a toss-up, so this is one of Democrats’ opportunities to flip the House that deserves our attention. We’re supporting Maasdam for this seat, who is running his campaign on fighting corruption.

Maasdam is a former Navy SEAL who served overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and the Pacific. He was then chosen to serve as President Barack Obama’s Military Aide. Maasdam understands that when billionaires and corporate lobbyists pour money into politics, ordinary people get drowned out. That’s why he rejects corporate PAC money and stands up to the special interests that are raising the cost of health care, undermining working families, and putting their own pocketbooks over people. Matt served our country for over 20 years in the Navy and knows what it takes to fight the toughest challenges. We are proud to endorse him and look forward to helping him win.

Jamie Ager is running to flip North Carolina 11. This district was recently redistricted and is currently represented by Republican Chuck Edwards, who profits from McDonald’s franchises while voting for the largest cut to SNAP food benefits in history. According to American Bridge, Edwards also opposed expanding Medicaid in North Carolina, and more recently voted for Republicans’ megabill that cut Medicaid programs that 143,000 North Carolinians in his district rely on for health insurance. Trump has endorsed Edwards as a “MAGA Warrior.”

We’re endorsing Jamie Ager, a fourth-generation farmer, who is aligned with End Citizens United’s mission to get Big Money out of politics. Watch Ager talk about how Congress has to fight corruption within itself. As Ager said: “It’s an honor to be endorsed by End Citizens United and to stand up against greedy special interests. Working people in North Carolina are struggling to make ends meet because corporations and billionaires hold too much power over elected officials. We need to root out this corruption and refocus on serving everyday people by lowering costs, making quality health care more accessible, and investing in our communities. I’m grateful to work with End Citizens United to bring ethics and transparency into our campaign finance system.”

Lindsay James is running to flip Iowa 02, now represented by Republican Ashely Hinson, who is running for Senate. Now that it’s an open race, there’s a shot that Democrats can win back the seat. In the upcoming Democratic primary, ECU is proud to endorse James.

James is a pastor, one of the growing number of clergy who are running for Congress as Democrats across the country. And like many Democrats this campaign cycle, James is running on making life more affordable for everyday Americans. James was moved to run for Congress after seeing Republicans gut healthcare in their 2025 mega-bill. She’s campaigning on expanding insulin, so that Iowans can get the life-saving medicine without facing financial ruin; protecting mobile home residents from predatory corporate landlords looking to price-gouge hardworking families; champion affordable housing and mental health care, advocating for policies that strengthen communities from the ground up. James is the kind of fighter who speaks directly to people’s needs, and she’s the kind of anti-corruption fighter we need in Congress.

The path to win the House runs through districts like these. Each of these champions is showing how Democrats across the country can use their commitment to anti-corruption values to talk to everyday Americans who are fed up with this Republican oligarchy.

The real cost of any war is the lost lives and the grief of survivors. When in March the United States attacked a packed school in Iran, 168 people died, including over 100 children. As I write this, an estimated 3,000 people have been killed across the Middle East. According to NBC News, Israeli-U.S. strikes have killed 1,900 people in Iran; 1,200 people have died in Lebanon; 19 people have died in Israel. Thirteen United States servicemembers have been killed. As the Trump Administration has deployed 2,000 marines and paratroopers to the Middle East, thousands more Americans now have to worry about the safety of their loved ones.

What was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doing in the lead up to this war? According to a report from the Financial Times, Hegseth’s broker was trying to invest in millions of dollars worth of defense contractor mutual funds — whose value is tied to companies like RTX, Lockheed Martin, and Palantir, all of which potentially stood to gain from the current war. The trade didn’t go through. But these allegations follow a clear pattern for senior Trump Administration officials.

As we wrote previously, the newly confirmed Department of Homeland Security Secretary bought defense contractor stocks right before the U.S. invasion of Venezuela. Just because it’s becoming routine doesn’t mean we should get used to it: There is no world wherein the United States Secretary of Defense should have a personal financial stake in deploying more troops to conflict zones and bombing more people.

It gets worse. In a perverse new logic, Republicans in Congress are considering risking more American lives to fund Trump’s military campaign against Iran. Those American lives will not be risked in jet planes or battlefields but here, at home, because Congress is considering making cuts to healthcare spending to pay for the Trump Administration’s war.

Citing the costs of the war, Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX), chair of the House Budget Committee, has resuscitated an idea to make deep cuts to healthcare spending that Republicans originally floated last year, when working on the budget bill that ultimately cut $1.1 trillion in healthcare spending. Arrington’s proposal uses the pretext of fighting fraud and abuse — the same pretext Republicans have used against social safety net spending for decades and that Elon Musk used to justify DOGE taking a sledgehammer to everything from USAID to climate science programs. Since Arrington’s proposal is still an idea, we don’t yet know the particulars. But given that Republicans are reportedly searching to come up with $200 billion, there would have to be significant cuts to healthcare to make a dent in the costs of the ongoing war.

This revelation comes after both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance vowed during the 2024 campaign that they would not involve American troops in foreign wars, an extremely popular position with the American public after more than 7,000 Americans died during the forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite the Trump/Vance promise of “no new wars,” Trump was so committed to “Operation Epic Fury” that he never asked Congress for approval to start this war.

We’ve likely just begun to feel the global disruption the war has already caused. Ten countries have taken retaliatory attacks from Iran. Already, as Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, the major passageway for oil tankers, global oil prices have risen quickly. In the United States, gas prices have spiked as much as 30%. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development anticipates that inflation in the US will be at 4.2% in 2026 and it cites the war as a major reason for rising costs.

Even if we look at the situation completely cynically, which is appropriate when considering this Congress, Republicans have self-interested reasons to reign in Trump and discourage him from continuing this completely illogical, let alone immoral, warpath. Another foreign war and ever-higher gas and grocery prices aren’t going to help Republican incumbents get reelected. But Congressional Republicans are so committed to fealty to Trump and his destruction that they blocked legislation that would have limited Trump’s war powers.

Last month, for El Pais, Carlos Manuel Alvarez wrote about Trump’s bragging threats that once he’s through with Iran, he can do whatever he wants to Cuba and observed that there’s something clarifying about “the level of shamelessness [which] destroys the rhetorical refuges of minor political actors, who have nowhere to hide.” In other words, because Trump is so openly cruel and callous, his allies can’t hide behind the usual political language and pretexts to keep up an appearance of civility or decency.

When reading about Republicans’ proposal to fund a deeply unpopular and destructive war with money allotted for Americans’ healthcare, I was reminded of that observation. In this case, Congressional Republicans have nowhere to hide. It’s right out in the open that they consider everyday people expendable.

But there’s nothing subtle about Republican attempts to hold onto power by any means necessary. So now, Trump is openly threatening Americans’ ability to vote, claiming he’s going to “nationalize” elections, and using the specter of non-citizens voting, which is not a real problem but a convenient scapegoat for a party that doesn’t have much beyond white nationalism to unify its base. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have introduced multiple bills that would prevent many eligible citizens from voting.

There’s another maneuver to keep an eye on: Republicans in Congress might be talking about it, but GOP state lawmakers are already moving ahead and passing laws to limit how Americans can vote.

One major, alarming, coordinated state-level strategy that deserves attention: State lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced 26 bills that would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, according to Voting Rights Lab. That may sound like a simple requirement, but it’s not. Requiring that kind of documentation makes it dramatically harder for many people to vote.

When I previously spoke to Christina Harvey, executive director of Stand Up America, she pointed out that the requirement to prove citizenship would especially disenfranchise women and rural voters. Harvey cited a report by the Center for American Progress that showed that heightened ID requirements just to register to vote would mean millions of eligible voters needing to drive very long distances to try to secure a passport or other documentation to prove eligibility.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, over 21 million American citizens of voting age don’t have a valid passport, naturalization papers, or birth certificate with their current name on it. Harvey says the majority of those Americans are married women. Those Americans who need to get their documents updated before November would have to pay out-of-pocket for the associated expenses, including the $165 to apply for a new passport and $130 to renew one. In states that have passed anti-voter bills, these fees are now essentially a poll tax. We all also know that running that kind of bureaucratic errand takes time and likely time off work. Republicans are trying to sell these voter suppression bills by whipping up fear about non-citizens, but the truth is that they make it harder for many women who are citizens to vote.

The state-level bills are modeled on national bills Congress has been considering, including the so-called SAVE America Act, which has made headlines in recent weeks. The SAVE America Act and its spinoffs are probably too extreme to pass in Congress; that’s how undemocratic they are. America First Policy Institute, a rightwing thinktank founded and run by former advisors to President Trump, has been promoting the legislation.

America First Policy Institute’s stated organizational mission is to promote Trump’s policy goals. Its staff has helped author and promote numerous executive orders that Trump has signed. What better way for America First Policy Institute to push its policy agenda than making sure that Republicans hold Congressional power after November? With a win this November, GOP Congressmembers can keep cheering on Trump as he continues signing executive orders that dismantle our rights and hand the country over to industry barons, Christian nationalist extremists, and billionaires hellbent on getting whatever will make them even richer even faster. It all works hand and glove so that the ultrawealthy can keep their guy in power.

The state-level versions of the SAVE Act are moving even quicker. Florida, Utah and South Dakota have already passed their own versions of the ultra-bureaucratic citizenship documentation requirement to vote. On one hand, this is more of the same: There’s nothing new about state-level Republicans rigging voting to keep themselves in power. Florida originally moved from a Democratic stronghold to swing state to epicenter of American authoritarianism because years ago Florida Republicans experimented with partisan gerrymandering there. Once they had their lock on the statehouse, Republicans could keep rigging the maps and voting laws in their favor. Then the GOP did the same thing in states across the country, with consequences that are now all too familiar.

For years, state capitols have been the venue for the fiercest fights over Americans’ ability to vote. After the Citizens United decision enabled a spending spree, Republicans took over statehouses across the country in 2010, and they started pushing hundreds of voter suppression bills. During the 2010s, Republicans executed a coordinated effort to restrict voting, with hundreds of model bills being introduced and often passed across the country. Since Trump began promoting the Big Lie, Republican state lawmakers have been eager to oblige. According to Stand Up America, between 2021 and 2024, at least 19 states passed at least 79 laws that limited how eligible Americans could vote.

But we can’t allow ourselves to get lulled into a false sense that we’ve seen this before (even if we’ve seen versions of this before). It goes without saying that the stakes of 2026 midterm elections couldn’t be higher. And these burdensome requirements could very well prevent many eligible Americans from voting. As Republicans in Congress fail to get their extreme legislation passed, it’s important to remember that their allies in the states are getting work done for them.

Lt. Gov. Stratton’s victory came despite an overwhelming financial disadvantage against Rep. Krishnamoorthi, who raised $30.5 million – second only to Sen. Jon Ossoff among Democrats this cycle – and went on TV early. In addition to that, the crypto industry’s main super PAC, Fairshake, spent $9.9 million explicitly to stop Lt. Gov. Stratton, making its single largest investment in the 2026 cycle.

End Citizens United endorsed Lt. Gov. Stratton in November 2025 and worked with her throughout the race, including through ECU’s Unrig Washington program, a public commitment to refuse corporate PAC money, ban congressional stock trading, and end dark money in politics. That platform became a major part of her campaign. Lt. Gov. Stratton ran on a message voters couldn’t ignore: She was the only major candidate in the race who refused to take money from the special interests she was running against.

Every dollar spent to defeat her became proof of exactly the problem she was running to fix. Voters moved to her camp in the final weeks and gave her the surge of momentum she needed to win, despite trailing in the polls for most of the campaign and being considered an underdog on Election Day, because the race ended up being fundamentally litigated on money in politics.

The Illinois Senate Race: A $35 Million Battlefield

The open-seat race to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin was among the most expensive Democratic primaries in modern Illinois history. More than $92 million in TV ad spending flowed into Illinois’s contested primaries overall, and the Senate race alone accounted for more than $55 million, according to AdImpact.

In the Senate race, Rep. Krishnamoorthi built a commanding financial advantage and led in virtually every public poll from the start of the race. The crypto industry had an obvious interest in the outcome: Retiring Sen. Durbin was one of Washington’s leading critics of cryptocurrency, and Fairshake’s parent groups, backed by Coinbase, Ripple Labs, and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz (who also gave $6 million to MAGA Inc.), wanted a friendlier replacement.

Lt. Gov. Stratton was outspent 7.5 to 1 on the campaign side, but from the start, she had something her opponents couldn’t match: a clear, authentic reform message grounded in her refusal to take corporate PAC money and her commitment to the Unrig Washington platform.

In all, more than $10.3 million in outside spending was directed against Lt. Gov. Stratton’s candidacy, per FEC filings. Fairshake accounted for nearly $9.9 million of that total, the crypto PAC’s single largest investment of the 2026 cycle. Progressive Values Illinois spent an additional $197,726 opposing Lt. Gov. Stratton, The Impact Fund spent $183,622, and Protect Progress spent $119,644. Every dollar of it failed.

End Citizens United’s Support

ECU’s involvement in this race wasn’t a single moment, it was a through-line. ECU made an early bet on Lt. Gov. Stratton before the race took shape, worked with her campaign on the reform platform that defined the contest, connected her with the grassroots network that fuels reform politics nationally, and stood with her on the ground in Chicago when the crypto PACs were spending at full volume.

The Early Bet: ECU Endorses in 2025

ECU endorsed Lt. Gov. Stratton in November 2025 before most major players had made a decision in the race.
The timing was intentional. By endorsing early, ECU established Lt. Gov. Stratton’s reform credibility at the exact moment when donors, activists, and journalists were first sizing up the candidates. It signaled to the reform community: this is our candidate. That signal held through despite the more than $10 million in crypto PAC attacks.

The Platform: Unrig Washington Gave Voters a Clear Choice

An endorsement alone doesn’t win races. What turned ECU’s early bet into a major part of a winning campaign was the Unrig Washington platform that Lt. Gov. Stratton became an early member of and ran on throughout the race. Candidate that join Unrig Washington:

• Refuse Corporate PAC Money: Reject all contributions from corporate PACs. Elected officials’ priorities must be the people, not powerful corporations or special interests.

• Ban Congressional Stock Trading: Support legislation to prohibit Members of Congress from trading individual stocks. Public office is a place to serve, not to profit.

• Crack Down on Dark Money: Fight to end undisclosed political spending by supporting legislation to expose secret donors, increase transparency, and fix the FEC.

Lt. Gov. Stratton’s refusal to take corporate PAC money wasn’t just a talking point, it was a verifiable fact that voters, journalists, and opponents could check. That made the contrast with her opponents impossible to ignore.

Building the Case: ECU Substack Conversation, February 2026

In February, with the primary six weeks out, ECU hosted a Substack conversation with Lt. Gov. Stratton that gave her a direct line to 135,000+ members of ECU’s grassroots donor and activist network on Democracy.News. Lt. Gov. Stratton used it to make the case in her own words about why dark money corrupts democracy, what Unrig Washington means in practice, and what she would fight for in the Senate. For ECU’s donors and supporters, people who give specifically because they believe reform candidates can win, the conversation was evidence that Lt. Gov. Stratton was the real thing: A candidate who had lived these issues as Lieutenant Governor and could make the argument compellingly to voters. It brought ECU’s national donor network into the race at a moment when Lt. Gov. Stratton needed both resources and visibility.

Closing Strong: The Chicago Rally with Sen. Warren, March 16

Two days before the election, ECU President Tiffany Muller took the stage at a GOTV rally in Chicago alongside Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Fairshake’s ads were running at full volume. Muller’s message to the crowd was direct: Lt. Gov. Stratton was the only candidate in the race not taking a dime from corporate PACs, and the PACs pouring money in to stop her were doing so to protect their own power. She asked voters if they were going to let special interests buy the race. They answered on Election Day.

Later in the rally, Sen. Warren framed the stakes for the crowd, and for the country: “Right now, Illinois is the test ground for whether or not our democracy survives. They are the test case for whether or not they get to buy the candidate they want. I’m here because I’m hoping you will say: ‘Illinois is not for sale!’”

How $10 Million in PAC Attacks Became a Campaign Asset

Fairshake’s strategy backfired specifically because of the Unrig Washington model. Lt. Gov. Stratton had spent months building a clear, public record: no corporate PAC money, no exceptions. That made every attack ad a demonstration of the problem she was running to fix. The PAC spent $9.9 million opposing Lt. Gov. Stratton.

But a second, more subtle strategy emerged alongside the direct attacks: Fairshake’s affiliated PAC, Protect Progress, also spent money supporting Rep. Robin Kelly, a calculated attempt to boost Kelly’s vote share and split the Black vote between the two Black women in the race. That strategy also failed.

The result: every dollar Fairshake spent became evidence for Lt. Gov. Stratton’s central argument. The crypto industry had entered the race because Dick Durbin had been its chief critic in the Senate. Voters understood exactly what was at stake.

Why It Matters: The Unrig Washington Proof of Concept

The 2026 Illinois Senate primary is more than one race. It is proof that the Unrig Washington model works. An early endorsement, an anti-corruption platform, and a grassroots reform infrastructure can power a candidate past even the most lavishly funded opposition.

The American Prospect summed up the night bluntly: an “absurd $92 million” was spent across Illinois’s contested primaries. Money did not fully dictate results. The crypto industry, which claims to have not lost a single primary race in 2024, lost two on Tuesday. Its biggest loss was Lt. Gov. Stratton’s victory.

As Fairshake itself acknowledged in defeat, the industry still has $221 million to spend in upcoming 2026 races. ECU is already engaged in those fights.

What Comes Next

Lt. Gov. Stratton is a heavy favorite in the November general election in deep-blue Illinois. If she wins, she will become the third Black woman concurrently serving in the Senate, a historic milestone that Lt. Gov. Stratton herself wove into her reform argument throughout the campaign.

End Citizens United will continue to stand with Lt. Gov. Stratton through November and into the Senate. More broadly, this race is a model for the 2026 cycle and beyond. Voters across the political spectrum, especially Independents and swing voters, are hungry for candidates who will actually do something about a rigged system. Illinois proved that the Unrig Washington platform is not just good policy. It is winning politics.

Mullin has used his Senate seat to enrich himself. On December 29, 2025, just five days before the Trump Administration invaded Venezuela, Mullin – a current member of the Senate Committee for Armed Services – purchased stock in the major defense contractor Raytheon and in the oil companies Chevron and Conoco Phillips.

A few days later, Mullin went on CNBC and told viewers that the U.S. government’s invasion of Venezuela would be positive for Chevron “because there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for the company and for their shareholders.” For Mullin, that was already true: The shares that he’d purchased just before the invasion had already increased in value. The same thing had happened last year, when Mullin bought multiple defense contractor stocks ahead of Israel’s 12-day conflict with Iran in June.

Mullin has traded some $24 million worth in stocks in the last three years. Many of those shares are for defense contractors and other businesses with government contracts. Just as Israel-Iran tensions were escalating, an analyst for the watchdog Capitol Trades described Mullin’s trades as: “These aren’t generic long-term plays. They’re tightly timed trades that preceded a geopolitical event with major market impact.” According to their analysis, as of early March, Mullin’s February 2025 purchase of shares in L3Harris Technologies Inc., a defense contractor, has returned 82%. There’s no escaping the fact that Mullin made well-timed, highly profitable trades while sitting on Congressional committees that gave him privileged access to inside information.

The pattern of self-enrichment appears to continue as Mullin is poised to take over DHS: Last month, Mullin bought stock in multiple military contractors, including VSE Corp., which signed a new contract with the DHS in February. Mullin also recently bought between $15k and $50k of stock in Stride Inc., a for-profit educational company that reportedly has been tapped by DHS to operate a school at an ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas, where families are reportedly being held in abysmal conditions. Mullin also holds shares in Microsoft, Amazon, NVIDIA, and other major tech companies that have ongoing contracts to provide the surveillance apparatus to ICE. If confirmed, Mullin would have the power to determine the fate of all of those deals.

End Citizens United opposes Congressional stock trading. Public servants should serve their constituents, not their personal financial portfolios. This view is shared by the American people. According to a 2023 University of Maryland survey, a staggering 86% of Americans support a ban on Congressional stock trading.

If Mullin does take over DHS, the stakes will keep getting higher. Last year, Republicans in Congress allocated ICE an unprecedented $75 billion in additional spending, which the agency is spending on roving patrols of masked agents who have killed two American citizens, and every single day arrest our neighbors in their homes, workplaces, at schools, and in the streets. ICE is now trying to rapidly acquire massive detention centers around the country so it can imprison thousands more in what it calls its “long-term detention solution.” And the friend of Trump who is set to oversee that enormous budget – and the imprisonment of thousands of people – is someone who has shown he has no scruples when it comes to making a buck for himself.

If confirmed, Mullin could easily enrich himself with insider knowledge about which companies are about to get fatter ICE contracts. Worse still, he could make decisions about how ICE agents operate and what conditions are like in detention centers – including where children are being detained – based on what will be best for his stock portfolio.

Even by the standards of the Trump Administration and its endless grift, that is an abomination. We cannot let someone as openly corrupt as Mullin have the responsibility of overseeing $75 billion in taxpayer dollars and an ICE agency already known to be corrupt and dangerous. Senators must oppose Mullin for DHS Secretary.

There’s the cartoonish corruption like Trump’s gilded White House ballroom and Qatari jet. There’s the incomprehensible fact that the first six days of the current U.S. war with Iran cost taxpayers $11.3 billion. Then there’s all the quieter and yet nonetheless harmful corruption playing out in government contracts, agency appointments, policy decrees, and the like. It didn’t just magically happen that Lee Zeldin’s EPA decided that it was going to stop regulating greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles as it gears up to deregulate even more.

That’s why it’s so incredible that ProPublica, the formidable nonprofit journalism outlet, has just released 3,196 documents related to President Trump and 1,500 of his appointees. ProPublica’s database is based on public records and is searchable in multiple ways, so anyone can look and see the Trump Administration’s myriad conflicts of interest.

I highly recommend checking out the information. The corresponding ProPublica article describing the outlet’s motivation for publishing the database is also worth a read.

The database, with all its thousands of names and numbers, shows very clearly: It’s not just that there are Trump officials who are enriching themselves from side gigs with white nationalist groups or with timely Palantir stock purchases, etc. What’s really disturbing is how many current Trump Administration officials are taking part in that normalized corruption. Nepotism, revolving door hires, stock trades related to industries officials oversee, in this Administration, it’s all the norm, not the exception.

The grift isn’t just with Trump and his kids — it’s pervasive. What stands out to me?

• Many Trump officials in senior positions are obscenely rich and have conflicts of interest with their government and business positions. The richest is Deputy Secretary, Department of Defense Stephen Andrew Feinberg, with a reported $2 billion in personal assets. ProPublica lays out Feinberg’s stunning conflicts of interest as the Department of Defense is planning a multi-billion-dollar project to build a Golden Dome for America defense shield, and at least four of the companies awarded contracts so far are owned by the private equity firm founded by Feinberg.

• Many Trump Administration appointees hold stocks and other assets in contractors with current business with Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security. Many officials own assets in the very industries they’re tasked with overseeing, including industries that supply apparatus to the military and ICE.

• Many Trump appointees — including officials overseeing the cryptocurrency industry — hold cryptocurrency investments. According to ProPublica’s reporting, more than 200 Trump appointees or their spouses collectively reported owning between $175 and $340 million in cryptocurrency.

• Many senior Trump officials have been paid by rightwing news and new media outlets and organizations that promote white nationalist rhetoric. Turning Point USA, for example, has paid Lee Zeldin and Pete Hegseth to speak. The database is full of other examples.

• Many senior Trump Administration officials take income— often in significant sums— from the same think tanks and advocacy organizations that are currently lobbying the government with extreme policy proposals. The Heritage Foundation, the organization behind Project 2025, has recently paid numerous Trump appointees, for example John L. Ratcliffe, the director of the CIA. Ratcliffe also lists in his financial disclosures that on or before December 2024 he received $180,000 as co-chair for American Security at American First Policy Institute. Examples go on and on.

• Many senior Trump officials have profited as consultants for major businesses that benefit from the Trump Administration’s rapid deregulation of industry and contracting with specific vendors. Ratcliffe, for example, has also been a consultant for Blackstone and several major tech companies, oil and gas industry companies, and defense contractors. This, too, seems to be the norm, not the exception.

There are so many more dots to connect. We already know, as Virginia Canter, who served as an ethics lawyer in four previous administrations, told ProPublica, “Ethics is in the toilet.” But it’s something different altogether to be able to search for the names of agency officials, rightwing think tanks, and major government contractors and see the conflicts of interest presented right there, with dates and numbers. It’s definitely worth searching and reading what you find.

Worse, a bulk of the funds were largely untraceable dark money and the majority of the donations supported the rival Republican candidates, incumbent Senator John Cornyn, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Representative Wesley Hunt. A mindblowing $64 million was reportedly spent to support Cornyn’s bid to stay in office. It’s extra obvious what a giant waste of money that is now that none of the Republican candidates surpassed the 50% threshold Texas requires, so Cornyn and Paxton will campaign again for a runoff election on May 26th just as was predicted before the $128 million was spent.

Except, of course, if a Republican candidate wins in November, Cornyn or Paxton will know which businesses and tycoons he owes big favors, so in a way, the millions in spending has already done its job.

The Democratic primary winner, State Rep. James Talarico, proves that candidates can run vigorous, high-profile campaigns – and win – without relying on corporate PAC donors. Talarico is centering his campaign on a strong anti-corruption agenda. He joined End Citizens United’s Unrig Washington program, committing to voters that he won’t take corporate PAC donations, he’ll support a Congressional stock trading ban, and will advocate for legislation to crack down on Dark Money. And everywhere he goes, he calls out how, “Billionaires aren’t just buying yachts and jets – they’re buying political power, and they’re using that power to rig our political system.”

With Talarico as the Democratic nominee, there couldn’t be a sharper contrast between what Texas Democrats and Republicans are offering. Democrats are running a former middle school teacher and Presbyterian seminarian who is clear-eyed about how Big Money distorts every aspect of American life, from education to healthcare to the cost of living (you can split a campaign contribution between Talarico and End Citizens United here).

To understand what that means, first we have to look at how the Texas primary is layered with multiple forms of flagrant Republican corruption. First, these midterm races are happening in the context of a transparent, anti-democratic power grab by Republican Party leaders – the exact kind of rigging the system that Talarico is campaigning against. Remember last year, when Texas Republicans pushed through a gerrymander of their Congressional maps that they explicitly said was a favor to President Trump so that the GOP could retain power in this year’s midterms?

Texas Republicans’ gerrymander specifically diminished the power of growing Black and Latino voter blocs. According to Democracy Docket, “Even though minority groups make up 60% of the Texas population – and accounted for 95% of the state’s growth in the most recent Census – the new map slashes the number of congressional districts where they can elect the candidate of their choice from 34% to 21%.” All eight of the Congressional districts affected by the Republican gerrymander were majority-minority districts.

Then there’s Paxton, Texas’s Attorney General who will face Cornyn, the incumbent Senator, in the runoff. For years now, the state of Texas has been a primary testing ground for numerous forms of envelope-pushing, authoritarian-style Republican maneuvers. Look at how Paxton has handled abortion, for example.

In 2021, Texas enacted a six-week abortion ban that incentivized citizens to become bounty hunters who sued people for illegally accessing abortion. The law was unconstitutional on its face given that Roe was still the law of the land. Paxton was the state attorney general at the time, and it was his office that defended the law. In just one example of his extreme positions, this year, Paxton has decided to use his position to sue a nurse practitioner who lives in Delaware for the alleged crime of mailing medical abortion pills to patients. Meanwhile, Paxton also used his office to defend Texas Republicans’ recent gerrymander that explicitly disenfranchised voters.

Paxton has his own record of criminal allegations that spans almost twenty years. He’s been accused of enriching himself through state contracts and committing securities fraud. The FBI investigated him for abusing his office to cover up an extramarital affair. In 2020, four attorneys who were fired from his office sued him for violating state whistleblower protections. In 2022, the State Bar of Texas sued him for making false claims about election results. And in 2023, apparently finally fed up, the Texas state legislature –run by Republicans – held an impeachment trial against him. And yet, he might become the Republican nominee for Senate.

For his part, Cornyn has voted in line with Trump’s agenda 99% of the time, which includes, of course, supporting last year’s Republican megabill that dramatically slashed Medicaid while also dramatically increasing funding for ICE. Paxton’s fraud allegations and authoritarianism doesn’t make Cornyn less extreme: Cornyn is also an emblem of corruption.

Want to know more about how Cornyn could raise tens of millions just for a primary? He’s on the Senate Committee on Finance, which is supposed to regulate financial firms. But over the years he’s received millions upon millions from the financial sector and ultrawealthy financiers he’s supposed to oversee.

There’s no question whose side Cornyn is on. According to Open Secrets, the business whose employees gave Cornyn the most in contributions between 2019 and 2024 was Apollo Global Management, the hedge fund that is run by Marc Rowan, a major GOP donor, which stands to make serious profits from many Trump Administration decisions. During that timeframe, Cornyn’s second largest set of contributions came from employees of Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest asset managers, which has repeatedly lobbied Congress to keep loopholes that profit Wall Street financiers at the expense of American workers. In those same years, Cornyn also received $1,413,365 from the oil and gas industry – probably because he sits on the Finance Committee’s energy subcommittee. No surprise, he’s voted to expand coal, cut environmental protections, and expand tax cuts for billionaires.

Enter Talarico. He has also received campaign contributions – at least $7.4 million in the first weeks of 2026 alone, according to The Texas Tribune – but his money comes from everyday people, including Texans in every single county in the state. His campaign has said that it’s not going to unilaterally disarm, and, given the current reality of our broken campaign finance system, unfortunately candidates need money to run a viable campaign. The real question is who candidates are taking money from, and therefore who they’re going to be accountable to once they’re in office. Talarico’s campaign said that among other donations they have raised small-dollar contributions from 290,000 individuals (you can join them by splitting a donation between Talarico and End Citizens United here).

Last year, End Citizens United released research that showed that voters in swing districts perceived Democrats as just as corrupt as Republicans. To have a fighting chance of retaking Congress during the approaching midterms, the research suggested that Democrats had to run candidates willing to loudly distinguish themselves from corporate interests and the same-old cynical, transactional politics. On Tuesday night, Talarico told a crowd of supporters, “We have shattered grassroots fundraising records, all without taking a dime from corporate PACs. This is a people-powered movement to take on this broken, corrupt political system.” That should give you hope for November.