The New Yorker: Corruption on the Ballot
arah Chamberlain, the president and C.E.O. of the Republican Main Street Partnership, was observing a focus group of MAGA voters in Colorado in late August when she first started to hear a surge of complaints about government corruption. Chamberlain’s organization is dedicated to electing House Republicans—it began with a moderate orientation but has been adjusting to the new world of Trump voters—and she was in the state to help insure that the MAGA faithful would turn out in close races. At that meeting of voters and at subsequent ones, Chamberlain recalled, “we didn’t prompt them. It just came up.” She added, “They are tired of watching their members of Congress get wealthy, and they’re struggling to fill their gas tanks.”
The polls would soon reflect the same angry sentiment, across the ideological spectrum. Most strikingly, a Fox News poll released in mid-October found that “corruption in government” was voters’ top concern—above inflation, gas prices, and health care. Eighty-eight per cent said that they were “extremely” or “very” concerned about it. Corruption “has steadily gained in importance on the list of the most critical issues facing the country,” Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said. “I never remember corruption as an issue being as important as it is now.”
