Republican Corruption Creates Major Midterm Liabilities for GOP Senate Candidates

Bloomberg: “Combined with the rising cost of living, corruption is shaping up to be a major campaign battlefront in races that will determine control of the U.S. Congress.”

HuffPost: “A massive bribery scandal involving an Ohio utility company, a House ethics investigation into hiring a former chief of staff’s girlfriend in Georgia, a generous plea deal for a well-connected sex offender in Texas. The GOP candidates in both Michigan and New Hampshire made fortunes traveling through the revolving door”

With less than three months until the midterm elections, new reporting highlights how Democratic candidates are taking on corruption, which is “shaping up to be a major campaign battlefront.” 

Across the country, voters are expressing anger and concern about “the elite and the wealthy… and those close to power getting ahead or benefiting” while hardworking Americans “can’t even pay their rent and their healthcare in the same month.” 

As warning signs continue to mount for Republicans, polling finds “voters tilted toward associating the Republican Party with corruption,” and voters now ranking “government ethics and reform” high among issues they care about.

Here’s what they’re saying about how Republican corruption has become a political liability for the GOP:

HuffPost: Bribery, Sex Crimes And Stock Trades: Republicans’ Corruption Problems Go Beyond Trump

• President Donald Trump’s corruption scandals are well-documented: his family’s cryptocurrency company; his acceptance of a Qatari-owned jet to serve as Air Force One; the delayed opening of a bridge between the United States and Canada to help a campaign donor. 
• Democrats plan to run against these scandals in November, but as their candidates and incumbents return to their districts for August recess, the party’s hopes of winning back control of Congress’ upper chamber may rest on reminding voters about local-level scandals and everyday Washington corruption GOP Senate candidates have engaged in rather than the industrial-scale self-dealing in Trump’s White House. 
• This isn’t to say those scandals are small. There’s a massive bribery scandal involving an Ohio utility company, a House ethics investigation into hiring a former chief of staff’s girlfriend in Georgia, a generous plea deal for a well-connected sex offender in Texas. The GOP candidates in both Michigan and New Hampshire made fortunes traveling through the revolving door. 
• From Georgia to Alaska, the party’s nominees are counting on being able to turn voters’ belief that widespread corruption in Washington is contributing to higher grocery, healthcare and energy costs down into votes against the individual Republicans they’re facing in November. 
• “This is something that can mobilize voters at the primary level and especially at the general election level, when you’re bringing in those swing voters,” said Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), who has pushed Democrats to run harder against corruption. “That message appeals to people who are not just diehard tribal political voters, but to people who have real concerns about both parties and are uncertain about who to vote for.” 
• The attacks are clearly part of the Democrats’ broader strategy. Shortly before Congress left for the August recess, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation which would combine existing anti-corruption agencies into one Anti-Corruption Bureau and give citizens and state attorneys general the ability to sue government officials who defraud the public. 
• “We see a new grift every day,” Schumer said during a speech introducing the legislation at the National Press Club. “But the scheme is always the same. Trump profits, Americans pay.” 
• For both Sen. Jon Ossoff and state Rep. James Talarico, inveighing against corruption is a key part of their political identities, with their broadsides against Trump and the broader political system key to their viral popularity among liberals. 
• Both have also been gifted opponents who make for target-rich environments. […] Rep. Mike Collins, the target of the aforementioned House Ethics investigation […] made a fortune in the trucking industry and has backed policies helping it. Talarico is running against state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who handed out the plea deal to a sex offender, faced an indictment on securities fraud charges and was once impeached by the Texas House of Representatives. 
• What’s notable is how even comparatively moderate Democrats are joining in: In one of Rep. Chris Pappas’ first ads in New Hampshire’s Senate race, he slams his Republican opponent, former Sen. John Sununu for voting for tax cuts for the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries before making “$35 million” working for them. 
• “In Washington, I’m taking on this kind of corruption,” Pappas says. 
• At a campaign appearance last week, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper attacked former RNC Chair Michael Whatley as a “longtime lobbyist for big oil and utility companies” and pointed out his opponent owned stock in Duke Energy. 
• “He’s been fighting for them for years,” Cooper said while campaigning in Vance County. 
• The line of attack is also expected to be prominent in Maine, where the party is trying to convince voters longtime Sen. Susan Collins has changed over her decades in Washington […]. Troy Jackson’s campaign is highlighting Collins’ marriage to a longtime lobbyist, and the reward she received at a “lobbyist prom” this year. 
• And in Michigan, [Democrats are] slamming Rogers for his post-congressional activities. 
• “Mike Rogers stayed in Washington, cashed in on the favors he did for big special interests, pocketing millions from corporations doing business before his old committee,” a male narrator says. “Rogers got so rich he bought himself a Florida mansion, complete with two luxury yachts.” 
• Rogers’ opponent, […] Abdul El-Sayed, is ready to level similar attacks. He’s holding a press conference on Wednesday to attack Rogers. The topic? The Republican’s “pattern of corruption and serving corporate special interests.”

Bloomberg Government: Trump Opponents See Opening to Make Corruption a Midterm Issue

• Combined with the rising cost of living, corruption is shaping up to be a major campaign battlefront in races that will determine control of the U.S. Congress.  
• Polling suggests voters are eager to see lawmakers take on conflicts of interest and self-enrichment by leaders, including a president whose personal wealth has surged since he returned to office last year. 
• “This issue is popping in a different way this cycle than it has in previous cycles,” said Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United, a group that backs Democrats who support campaign finance reform. 
• Voters are concerned about “both the corruption that they see with the elite and the wealthy getting ahead, and those who are close to power getting ahead or benefiting, at a time when they feel like they can’t even pay their rent and their healthcare in the same month,” said Melissa Toufanian, managing director at Navigator Research. 
• Senator Jon Ossoff…has made graft a central focus of his reelection campaign. “The Mar-a-Lago mafia has taken American corruption to spectacular new heights,” he said in a recent speech. 
• James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate in Texas, has also focused on the issue. “Once we defeat the most corrupt politician in America, we can defeat this corrupt system,” he wrote on X on Wednesday.

The Washington Post: Democrats toughen their midterm message: ‘Hold the crooks accountable’

• When Pew Research Center asked registered voters earlier this month what issue they would most like to hear congressional candidates in their districts talk about, economic ones — unsurprisingly — dominated. But “government ethics and reform” came in second.

Puck News: The Art of the Self-Deal

• Corruption has been creeping up as a concern for voters in the second Trump administration. In December of 2024, just before Trump’s inauguration, only 8 percent of Americans named “political corruption” as the biggest issue facing the country, according to our polling partners at Echelon Insights. At the time, voters were more anxious about the cost of living, jobs, the state of democracy, and immigration.  
• One year later, however, the corruption number had crept up to 14 percent. Today? Echelon’s most recent survey, out this week, finds that 17 percent of voters name political corruption as the biggest issue facing the country, putting it behind only the cost of living. 
• Overall, voters tilted toward associating the Republican Party with corruption (42 percent) more than the Democratic Party…

Axios: Dems weaponize Epstein in anti-GOP midterm ads

• Several top Democratic candidates in the midterms are airing scathing ads linking their Republican foes to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal — betting that the Trump administration’s reluctance to release the Epstein files still resonates with voters. 
• Democrats are mostly focusing on high prices, health care and Trump’s war against Iran, but some also are trying to tie Republicans to the late sex offender as part of a broader message accusing the GOP of protecting the corrupt elite. 
• Trump has previously dismissed economic concerns, assuring voters that prices will come down and that affordability is an issue made up by political rivals to hurt his administration and the GOP.