In today’s edition … It’s worth watching where Trump is traveling … We ask you about a midlife sabbatical … but first …
A message centered on the cost of corruption
Voters often think all politicians, from both parties, are corrupt. But this year, Democrats believe things may be different.
“People do not feel good about the economy,” said Scott Colom, a district attorney in Northeast Mississippi and Democrats’ Senate nominee in the state. “That’s why the corruption [matters to voters]. When you’re struggling, and you feel it, you pay attention to the fact that somebody is actually making money.”
Democrats across the country are coalescing around a closing message in the midterm elections that accuses Republicans of flagrant corruption, tying the attack to the billions President Donald Trump has made during his second term and arguing that, unlike in the past, this issue is costing voters money.
The president made more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency alone in 2025. Over one dozen companies with investment funds tied to Trump’s sons amassed $3.2 billion in federal contracts, loans and investments. And Trump says his son recently paid back the well-connected Russian businessman who funded his wedding celebrations.
Voters’ feelings that politicians are corrupt have grown more prevalent in recent years. Nearly 90 percent of U.S. adults said corruption was widespread in government, according to a Gallup poll released this month, a 10-point jump from last year.
But the difference in Democratic messaging this year is that the party is linking headlines about the Trump family’s growing wealth with the way people feel like costs are hurting them every day.
“Trump’s corruption has really put the issue front and center,” said Lauren French, a spokesperson for the Senate Majority PAC, the top Democratic super PAC focused on taking back the legislative chamber. “What we are seeing is if the 2018 elections were a response to the chaos of Trump 1, these elections are about the corruption of Trump 2.”
The focus has been particularly pronounced in Senate races, where French’s group has advised political operatives nationwide to “amplify” their focus on corruption by tying it to rising costs.
In a strategy memo sent to operatives this week, and shared first with this newsletter, the super PAC reports that its research shows voters believe “corruption is a problem that personally raises their own costs, and the top reason by far is that it drives up the price of everyday goods: gas, groceries, utilities, housing.” The group advises candidates to keep costs front and center while focused on corruption, but suggests labeling Republicans as “corrupt politicians” while linking their opponents to what voters view as Trump’s own self-dealing.
The group has put this strategy behind the tens of millions they plan to spend on ads this cycle.
In New Hampshire, the group is hitting Senate nominee John Sununu for “selling out” as a lobbyist, arguing the Republican “got rich” while voters “paid the price.” In North Carolina, the super PAC is hitting Republican Michael Whatley for lobbying for Chevron, Exxon and Duke Energy. “He got rich lobbying for big oil, while they jacked up prices on you,” says the narrator in one ad. And in Ohio, a voter in one ad talked about her struggles to pay all her expenses before tying Republican Sen. Jon Husted to First Energy, an Ohio-based electric utility company at the center of one of the state’s largest bribery trials.
“Enough with corruption. Enough with lying politicians like Jon Husted,” the voter says.
Republicans have tried to hit back against this messaging. The National Republican Senatorial Committee directed its candidates to accuse Democrats of hypocrisy when they “claim the moral high ground on corruption while engaging in the same behavior they condemn” and to argue Democrats and their families enrich themselves through public service all the time.
And Senate Leadership Fund, the Republican super PAC focused on the Senate, has hit Democratic Senate candidates like Maine’s Troy Jackson and New Hampshire’s Chris Pappas on corruption, too.
“Democrats like Chris Pappas, Sherrod Brown, and Roy Cooper are decrying corruption to distract from the self-enrichment schemes they’ve pursued while in office,” said Bernadette Breslin, a spokesperson for Senate Republicans’ campaign arm.
Defend the Vote, a progressive PAC focused on protecting voting access, has driven much of this messaging. The group began briefing top Democrats in Washington and candidates in competitive House races last year on why they should prioritize a message linking affordability to corruption. But the focus has only increased in recent weeks, said Adam Bozzi, a Democratic operative and Defend the Vote adviser.
“It’s unavoidable,” Bozzi said, observing how this idea they began pushing last year is now in ads and talking points nationwide. “People are fed up, they have had enough and they don’t trust the system.”
Bozzi acknowledged that negative views about politicians are always “baked into” voters’ minds, but that Trump’s impact on how Americans view corruption has “seeped out” beyond political circles and people “are so fed up.”
“If people weren’t suffering right now, corruption feels harmless, but people are seeing their own situation getting worse, and they are connecting the dots on their own,” Bozzi said.
This messaging has also linked disparate factions of the Democratic Party, too.
Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House leader from New York and likely next House Speaker if the party takes back the chamber this year, recently told the Associated Press that there is a “cost to the American people of the out-of-control corruption.”
“If folks have been stealing from the American people, shortchanging the American people or screwing over the American people, we are going to hold the crooks accountable,” Jeffries said, previewing the kind of oversight Democrats plan to implement if they take the majority.
Meanwhile, Rahm Emanuel, the moderate former Chicago mayor considering a presidential bid in 2028, told Semafor in June that “corruption as part of the affordability narrative is more chess, where affordability alone is more checkers.” Earlier this year, a memo by progressive Sens. Chris Murphy, Adam Schiff, Tina Smith and Elizabeth Warren pushed Democrats to link the need to unrig the system by fighting corruption.
“There is a clear consensus in our party for a relentless focus on affordability this year and beyond. We agree,” they wrote. “But it would be a mistake to embrace an affordability agenda that fails to confront the billionaires and corporations making it impossible for hardworking Americans to achieve and afford a middle-class life.”
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From across the newsroom
- How Trump’s sweeping changes are remaking Washington, from Aaron Steckelberg, Leslie Shapiro and Dan Diamond.
- Trump is selling an AI ‘Golden Age’ as fears about perils spiral, from Ian Duncan.
- Homelessness stubbornly persists even as U.S. cities spend more to end it, from Tim Craig and Chris Hacker.
- Senate passes a sweeping college sports bill. Here’s what it would change, from Rick Maese.
- Men accused of U.K. air base plot freed on bail as officials probe any Iran links, from Greg Miller.
- Trump dined with the Anthropic CEO who called for AI slowdown, from Cat Zakrzewski.
- Andrew Bailey, No. 2 at FBI, resigns in latest shake-up at bureau, from Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck.
What I’m watching
Trump’s midterm travel is ramping up, and it is fascinating to see where the president is going.
Trump will travel to Oklahoma on Thursday, Alabama on Friday and Ohio on Saturday, three states that Republicans have dominated in recent years.
Trump’s travel to those states, rather than political battlegrounds such as Wisconsin, Michigan or Maine, suggests Republicans around him understand he is more effective at turning out the base in deep-red areas than at convincing skeptical voters elsewhere.
He also told reporters in the Oval Office yesterday that he plans to travel to Iowa soon, a state he won by 13 percentage points in 2024.
“I’m going to come to Iowa,” he said after Rep. Ashley Hinson, the Republican Senate nominee in the state, praised him. “We are going to a great rally, and we will all be there together.”
Hinson’s involvement in the rally would be particularly noteworthy because the congresswoman did not attend an event headlined by Vice President JD Vance earlier this month.
Trump’s money is going everywhere to help Republicans. Groups tied to him have reserved more than $130 million in advertising in recent weeks and are expected to pour in more.
But where Trump travels in the coming weeks will be worth watching.
In your local paper
Rough Draft Atlanta: Panda diplomacy is alive and well. Two pandas have arrived in Atlanta from China, one of the few accomplishments from the recent summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Maryland Matters: Maryland’s so-called flush tax could be cut in half in 2030, reducing the billions the tax has raised on houses connected to public sewage systems. Advocates are looking to extend it, arguing a tax on flushes has helped clean the Chesapeake Bay.
Minn Post: The cyclospora outbreak earlier this year has made food safety a key political issue in some battleground races.
Send a reply
I read this piece about a midlife sabbatical with great interest! Have any of you tried a so-called midlife sabbatical? Would you recommend it? If you are thinking about it, what are your concerns? And even if you haven’t taken one, what do you think about the trend? Let me and your fellow Early Brief readers know at [email protected].
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