Anti-Corruption Democrats Flipped the House and Senate

TO: Interested Parties

FROM: End Citizens United

RE: Anti-Corruption Democrats Flipped the House and Senate

DATE: November 6, 2026

Overview: A Trailblazing Anti-Corruption Agenda

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. 

The Republican trifecta’s corruption gave Democrats an opening, but 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. 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. That would become central to the Democrats’ message and give candidates a clear agenda to run on.

In September 2025, ECU launched Unrig Washington, a national program for federal candidates committed to taking on corruption and demonstrating their independence from special interests. Candidates who joined made three public commitments: no corporate PAC money to their campaigns, ban 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.

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.

Unrig Washington: The Largest Anti-Corruption Coalition of the 2026 Cycle

When many in the Democratic Party were conducting post-mortems for the 2024 election, ECU was already making the case that Democrats needed to confront Washington corruption and connect the influence of corporate and billionaire donors to economic concerns. That insight shaped the organization’s strategy for the entire cycle. Voters were fed up with a political system that puts wealthy donors and corporate interests ahead of working families, and they wanted candidates to do something about it. ECU saw an opportunity to make anti-corruption a rallying issue for the party to retake power in Washington.

 ECU turned that argument into action with Unrig Washington, a program that brought together over 300 Democrats around three commitments: rejecting corporate PAC money, supporting a ban on congressional stock trading, and fighting to end dark money. It was the largest coalition in progressive politics this cycle, and the most candidates ever running without taking corporate PAC money in their campaigns. 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

The Anti-Corruption Playbook Was Everywhere

Across the country, Democratic candidates used the Unrig Washington messaging in paid media, debates, interviews, and events. They connected Washington corruption to rising costs, attacked Republicans for taking corporate PAC money, and highlighted how their opponents were getting rich off of congressional stock trading. These were the same arguments ECU’s research had identified as politically salient and urged candidates to run on.

 According to Bloomberg Government, through September 28, 2026, $94 million was spent on TV ads that mentioned corporate influence — more than double the amount spent in 2024 and triple the amount in 2022. And according to Punchbowl, $117 million had been spent on TV ads leaning into banning congressional stock trading through September 29, 2026.

 Click here to watch a compilation of candidates running on anti-corruption

Corruption Was a Top-Two Voter Concern, Linked Directly to the Cost of Living

Long before corruption began appearing in national polls as a top voter concern, ECU was urging Democrats to recognize its significance and run on it. 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. In an open-ended question about why they felt that way, people cited tangible problems like the rising cost of prescription drugs and the loss of Medicaid and SNAP benefits.

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.

 Unrig on the Road: Taking the Fight Against Corruption to Battlegrounds

On top of daily staff-to-staff support, 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.

This new class of reformers builds on nearly a decade of ECU’s work to change who gets elected and what they fight for once they arrive. The original No Corporate PAC pledge in the 2018 cycle helped elect a group of lawmakers who made anti-corruption a legislative priority, laying the groundwork for the For the People Act and Freedom to Vote Act. Unrig Washington has expanded that coalition and renewed the push for reform.

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.

Conclusion

The 2026 election demonstrated the political significance of an argument End Citizens United has pushed Democrats to embrace for over a decade. Candidates are strongest positioned to win when they tie kitchen table issues, like the economy or health care, to corruption in government. They have to demonstrate independence from the special interests they are running against, draw a clear contrast with their opponents, and show how political corruption affects people’s lives.

Tuesday’s results validated this argument. Democrats flipped both chambers in spectacular fashion, with Unrig Washington candidates delivering some of the biggest upsets of the election and winning in ruby-red territory. 

The incoming Congress has a historic opportunity to prove to the American people that Democrats are the party of anti-corruption. That starts with banning congressional stock trading, fighting the influence of corporate special interests, and cracking down on dark money.