Is anti-corruption the Democrats' secret weapon in 2026?

Iowa hasn't been seen as a battleground state in quite a while. After voting for Barack Obama twice, in 2008 and 2012, the Hawkeye State has steadily shifted to the right, handing its electoral votes to Donald Trump in three consecutive presidential elections. But with their party's nominee for Governor surging in the polls, Democrats are hoping that may change this year. And there's one big reason why that might be more than just wishful thinking.

Last week, Rob Sand, the Democratic candidate for Governor and current State Auditor, released his first television ad of the campaign. It wasn't about Trump, or democracy, healthcare, or even the economy. It was about corruption.

"Call me old-fashioned, I'd say stealing is bad," Sand, the current State Auditor, declares in the ad's opening. "That's why I locked up corrupt public officials…and as state auditor, uncovered record amounts of misspent tax dollars."

The ad was well received by some in the online political class. "'I'm gonna jail politicians' is a genius platform to run on," one progressive YouTuber posted on X. "Non-zero chance this guy becomes president one day," added a Democratic strategist. “I think this guy has the special sauce,” said another. 

While anti-corruption messaging has long been central to Sand’s political persona, corruption as an issue rarely gets much airtime in DC. On the left, there are relatively few organizations dedicated to it compared to those focused on healthcare, abortion, immigration, or climate change. Yet, poll after poll shows that it is a major motivating factor for voters when they cast their ballots. 

The numbers are actually pretty striking. According to the Yale Youth Poll's Spring 2026 survey of nearly 3,500 registered voters, corruption ranks as the second most important issue for voters aged 18-34, behind only the cost of living, and above healthcare, democracy, housing, and the environment. A January 2025 YouGov survey found that members of Congress top the list of all professions Americans view as most corrupt — and that two-thirds of Americans believe a member of Congress would actually accept a bribe if one were offered. Another survey found that Americans are more worried about government corruption than they are about international terrorism or weakening Democracy.

Within the national midterm context, issues of corruption are everywhere you look. It's one of the reasons the Epstein files have dominated the news cycle for the past year, why a congressional stock trading ban has attracted support from members of both parties, and why there has been increased attention and backlash against candidates' coziness with well-funded lobbying groups, from AIPAC to the AI, online gambling, and crypto industries. On top of that, the president’s own self-dealing and the perception of corruption among members of his administration have dominated headlines. Voters think the system is rigged, and they see their politicians doing the rigging. 

"The American people disagree on almost everything. One thing we tend really not to like is people that are cheating,” says Daniel Lobo-Lewis, co-founder of the Political Integrity Project, which tracks corporate influence in politics. 

Iowa's Sand isn't the only prominent midterm candidate pushing anti-corruption messaging. In what may be one of the most compelling test cases for the strategy, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is running to unseat first-term Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania's 8th Congressional District by hammering him on stock trading. Bresnahan campaigned in 2024 on a promise to ban congressional stock trades, then made more than 600 of them after taking office. "There is a generational problem in this region about public corruption, and sadly, Rob Bresnahan represents that same type of behavior," Cognetti said at a March news conference. The race is already expected to be one of the most expensive House contests in the country, and the DCCC has called Bresnahan's trading "a scandal of his own making."

In Georgia, Senator Jon Ossoff, the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent on the 2026 map, has made anti-corruption a cornerstone of his reelection campaign. He's leaned hard into attacking MAGA Republicans on corruption issues, branding himself on his website as “a relentless investigator exposing corruption and the abuse of power.”

From Maine to Texas to Alaska, other Democrats have followed suit, attacking the establishment in Washington for rigging the system against the little guy, while enriching themselves. 

It's a huge opportunity for the party out of power in Washington, but here is where the story gets complicated for Democrats: as recently as last summer, polling by End Citizens United found that voters view Democrats as more corrupt than Republicans by a five-point margin. That's a wild finding, given the daily chaos emanating from the Trump administration and Capitol Hill. It's also not that surprising, considering the party in Washington is led by the likes of Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, who has the distinction of being nicknamed “AIPAC Shakur.” The party's other most visible congressional leader, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has become an internet meme for her perceived corruption: there’s an entire app designed for regular investors to mirror her stock trades.

“Listen to some of these next gen candidates. All of them are talking about corruption,” Run for Something founder Amanda Litman told me last month during a conversation about first-time candidates. “And they're talking explicitly about corruption in our own party, because many normal people see what Trump is doing and Nancy Pelosi's stock trading as one and the same."

Aside from its leadership, you don't have to look far to find other glaring instances of corruption among congressional Democrats. In a battleground Congressional seat in South Texas, the DCCC is enthusiastically backing Rep. Henry Cuellar for re-election, describing him on its website as "a steadfast Democrat and a proven bipartisan leader,” even after Cuellar was indicted on money laundering, conspiracy, and bribery charges. In Florida, Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick was found guilty of 25 ethics violations by a bipartisan House panel, including allegations that she funneled $5 million in government disaster relief funds into her own congressional campaign — yet party leaders have so far declined to call for her resignation or expulsion (That could change this week.) And last year, amid the release of the Epstein files, Rep. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands was revealed to have been texting the disgraced financier in real time during a committee hearing, receiving coaching on what questions to ask, after previously accepting thousands of dollars in campaign donations from him.

While these instances don't exactly inspire confidence that a Democratic majority in Washington would seriously tackle corruption, the political opportunity is undeniable. The voters most animated by this issue — young, disenchanted, and increasingly checked out — are exactly the voters Democrats need to win back this November and in 2028, and the candidates who can credibly make this argument are the ones willing to call out their own party, not just the other side. 

The challenge is whether the people running the Democratic Party are capable of getting out of their way. "I personally don't think the Democratic party can win in a big way without this being a central issue,” says Lobo-Lewis. “There's no credibility on corruption right now. And without that, we will not be able to win the necessary majorities to get systemic change."

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