President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-WY) in Washington, D.C., on June 24, 2026. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
A new theme is emerging in midterm campaigns: they're talking about rampant corruption in Washington.
The Washington Sun (formerly NOTUS) noticed that campaign ads are starting to pop up on both sides of the aisle, though predominantly among Democratic candidates attacking other lawmakers and the president for corruption.
A few weeks ago, a Gallup poll indicated that while economic issues continue to be top of mind for voters — whether it's the economy, inflation, gas prices, housing affordability or grocery costs — behind those is the concern that the government has become pay-to-play.
In New Hampshire, former Sen. John Sununu (R) is being forced to defend allegations that he's "cashing in" on his Senate seat after he went to work for a lobbying firm as a "senior policy advisor" following his loss in 2008. His opponent alleges that he has been “helping big pharma and big oil make billions, while we pay the price.”
The pro-Sununu crowd then attacked Rep. Chris Pappas, who is married to a former policy lawyer for Amazon. Pappas' husband also registered as a lobbyist 11 years ago and worked for Amazon for four years, until 2019.
It's just one example out of "dozens," the Sun reported.
“We’re seeing more of these kinds of ads than ever before,” said GOP pollster Robert Blizzard. “It’s across every age group, income level, a feeling that they’re getting screwed but the stock market is somehow high, so the frustration with politics-as-usual, the assumed corruption that goes along with that, is at a fever pitch.”
It comes amid reports that President Donald Trump is cashing in on his presidency, making 28,700 stock trades from his inauguration until June 2026. Trump is also raking in cash from his cryptocurrency venture. His sons are buying into companies that are then given lucrative government contracts.
Still, it isn't only Trump that is name-checked in the ads. The ads follow the theme of a politician taking donations from special interest groups and making policies that hurt voters because they're being paid to do so. Meanwhile, all other politicians or watchdogs refuse to call them out.
“Trump, and his corruption, is baked in on everything, which is why the corruption piece is so good,” a one Democratic consultant working with congressional races said. “You can link it directly to the candidates, and not make our ads just be about being anti-Trump.”
A Democratic pollster explained, “They pushed it too far and pushed it past where normal voters are willing to put up with it.”
Strategists are seeing an opening on the issue for the first time because voters are frustrated seeing a corrupt system while they're struggling to get by.
Democratic pollster Angie Kuefler has conducted her own corruption-related research, finding that voters don't merely want Democrats to pledge to stop GOP corruption; they want it across the board.
“As the candidate, you have to make clear that you’re going to take on corruption in both parties, including your own, and then you have to tie that corruption to costs going up for the voter, because what changes voting behavior is demonstrating the impact on them,” she told the Sun. “Tying a bad, corrupt politician to rising costs is a double whammy, one-two punch, that connects to both the problem in politics and to their pain.”
The Sun obtained a research memo on the matter for a Democratic super PAC saying that 52 percent of voters indicate the “most harmful” corruption likely involves “special interests, billionaires … acting within the law” to elect politicians who then owe them.
"A third of those polled said criminal acts by individual politicians were more harmful than the influence of special interests," the report said.