This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.

Ask voters in the country’s most competitive congressional districts what’s wrong with America, and you’ll hear two answers. First, everything costs too much. Second, the government is corrupt. 

Ask them which party will actually fix those problems, and you’ll get a shrug.

Corruption now ranks as a top-tier concern alongside cost of living and threats to democracy. Yet, the parties are essentially tied on the question of who will clean up our government — with nearly half saying they trust neither one. That’s the uncomfortable finding from Change Research across 62 battleground districts and an alarm bell in the months leading up to the 2026 midterms.

While the nine-point edge Republicans held on “taking on government corruption” last year is entirely gone, not a single point transferred to Democrats. Yet, momentum is building as a growing wave of leaders embrace an anti-corruption message this cycle. There’s Florida Congressman Maxwell Frost as one example, who has repeatedly spoken out against billionaire-backed companies driving the housing crisis and requiring consumers to subscribe to what they once owned outright. Then there’s those running for Congress like Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who has endorsed a wealth tax on multi-millionaires to “restore balance to an economy that has left working........

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