Democrats’ historic performance in the 2026 midterms was a direct repudiation of the politicians in Washington who have rigged the system to benefit billionaires and corporate special interests at the expense of working families. Tuesday’s election was the biggest change election since the Watergate scandal, and it’s no coincidence that both were defined by a backlash against corruption.
End Citizens United (ECU) saw early on that voters did not trust either party to tackle the rampant corruption in Washington. Through extensive research, polling, and focus groups starting in January 2025, ECU identified a critical opportunity. Voters already connected corruption in Washington to their economic struggles, and they were looking for candidates to take on the rigged system.
ECU gave candidates a clear anti-corruption agenda to run on. Instead of waiting to see if campaigns would find their own way to the issue, ECU moved aggressively to fight corruption and connect that corruption directly back to the costs voters were facing.
Unrig Washington: The Largest Anti-Corruption Coalition of the 2026 Cycle
In September 2025, ECU launched Unrig Washington. Candidates who joined made three public commitments: refuse no corporate PAC money to their campaigns, support banning congressional stock trading, and help get dark money out of elections.
In under a year, ECU brought together over 300 Democratic candidates to join this effort.
ECU’s early bet on anti-corruption paid off as Democratic candidates across the country consistently made the issue a major part of their campaigns. Democratic challengers put Republican incumbents on defense over corruption in debates, interviews, town halls, and paid media, while making their own commitments to reform front and center. Through polling, we gradually saw them gaining ground on voter trust metrics as this messaging flooded every medium.
The coalition includes candidates in the most competitive battlegrounds, and it united Democrats across the spectrum, from progressives to centrists, and longtime incumbents to first-time challengers.
By the numbers:
306 candidates joined Unrig Washington campaign
151 Unrig Washington candidates advanced to the general election
At least 100 members of the incoming 120th Congress reject corporate PAC money; a tenfold increase since ECU launched the pledge during the 115th Congress
Nearly 60% of the DCCC Red to Blue challengers, the core of the House battlefield, were members of Unrig Washington
Over 50% of expected House districts flipped by Democrats are Unrig Washington candidates
On Tuesday, that strategy proved to be wildly successful. Voters across the country sent a clear wake-up call to Washington that corruption comes with a political price.
Corruption and Cost of Living Were Top Concerns
Long before corruption began appearing in national polls as a top voter concern, ECU was urging Democrats to run on fighting corruption. ECU’s April 2025 polling and focus group research showed that targeting congressional Republicans’ corruption instead of focusing on Trump offered Democrats a stronger argument. ECU then followed that effort with another national battleground poll showing how voters connected Washington corruption to rising costs.
In the April 2026 poll ECU commissioned, 58% of respondents reported being a direct victim of government corruption. Beginning in June 2026, ECU Education Fund polling consistently showed voters ranking corruption and the cost of living as their top two concerns leading up to the election. Over 90% of voters described government corruption as a “serious problem” in every single one of these tracking polls.
External polling found similar results closer to the election. For example, the October CNBC All-America Economic Survey found government corruption topping the list of voters’ most important issues at 36%, compared with 34% who cited the cost of food and groceries. Similarly, Fox News released a pre-election poll showing corruption as a leading concern among voters, ahead of inflation, healthcare, and other key issues. On Election Day, the AP Voter Poll found that government corruption and the cost of living were the two most crucial issues that determined how Americans voted.
ECU Took the Fight Against Corruption to Battlegrounds
ECU worked directly with Unrig Washington candidates to develop and amplify their anti-corruption messages with 56 town halls and events across the country, over 75,000 miles traveled, 63 Substack Live interviews, and extensive earned media. From Maine to California and everywhere in between, ECU took the Unrig Washington message on the road all year and helped candidates put the issue front and center.
ECU also promoted a national conversation through its Kick Out Corruption tour in partnership with Stand Up America. Hundreds of people attended these events to hear from leaders in the movement to change our political system: Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, and Maryland Governor Wes Moore. The tour focused on how government corruption has fueled rising costs and made politics unresponsive to everyday people.
Unrig Washington Candidates Delivered the Biggest Upsets
The results on Election Day demonstrated the electoral strength of the Unrig Washington messaging. 22 of the 35 biggest House and Senate flips outside of redrawn districts came at the hands of Unrig Washington candidates, and a total of 26 of them so far have flipped previously-held Republican seats.
In Kentucky’s 6th District, Zach Dembo won a seat Republicans had carried by 26 points in 2024 — and he nearly won with double digits. In Iowa’s 2nd District, Lindsay James flipped a district Republicans had won by more than 15 points in 2024. In Virginia’s 1st District, Shannon Taylor flipped a district Republicans had won by nearly 13 points in 2024. The list goes on. These victories are undeniable proof that candidates who run on an anti-corruption agenda can compete and win in places Democrats never imagined were possible.
The Mandate For Reform
The anti-corruption coalition’s success on Tuesday will radically reshape the incoming Congress. At least 100 members of the incoming 120th Congress will be rejecting corporate PAC money, shattering the previous record and marking the largest coalition of lawmakers to ever make that commitment.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected a Republican Congress that delivered tax breaks for billionaires and corporations while working families suffered from rising costs. They replaced them with candidates who explicitly promised to challenge this corrupt system. The incoming Democratic majority has a mandate to turn those promises into legislative action.
Corruption is tied to economic well being. It resonates with all voters, Democratic, Republican and Independent. The new majority in Congress should make fighting corruption its signature goal. Every other policy emanates from an anti corruption stance.
The main problem, John Roberts and his “onservative” (?!) cohorts