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House Democrats are launching a new task force aimed at overhauling ethics rules and protecting access to the ballot, as the party seeks a sharper anti-corruption message against President Donald Trump ahead of the midterm elections.
The effort, announced Wednesday, is explicitly designed to test whether Democrats can replicate a strategy recently used in Hungary—after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was ousted by an opposition campaign carrying an anti-corruption message—and apply it to U.S. politics, where party leaders say they need messaging that cuts through. The task force also reflects Democrats’ interest in pairing campaign-ready themes with proposals they say could translate into policy.
Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the House Administration Committee and described as a longtime ally of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, will spearhead the effort. Morelle said Jeffries fears that Democrats are losing Americans’ faith and trust in government and institutions, citing the view that decisions are often made based on personal interests rather than public needs.
Morelle said the task force could include progressive and moderate members and could become a central element of Democrats’ messaging as they try to reclaim control of Congress from Republicans. Morelle floated a ban on stock trading for members of the executive branch, Congress, and federal courts. He also raised additional possible proposals that include a code of ethics and term limits for Supreme Court justices.
The task force includes a mix of prominent committee leaders and members from different wings of the party. Reps. Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin are on the panel, along with Reps. Greg Casar and Brad Schneider. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also a member, and party strategists said that diversity could either broaden support or complicate how Democrats focus their message and agenda.
Proponents of the strategy say the Hungarian opposition’s messaging succeeded in part because it was attention-grabbing rather than confined to traditional partisan hearings. Justin Florence, co-founder of Protect Democracy and one of the groups consulting with Democrats, said the Hungarian elections provide a model, including the need to prioritize a small number of themes. Florence said, in addition, that Democrats would face the challenge of too much to do unless they narrow their focus.
Ben Raderstorf, a strategist with Protect Democracy, said the anti-corruption message had to be “loud,” “colorful” and “engaging,” rather than “staid hearings,” arguing that the goal was to “break through attention cycles.” Democrats, he said, learned from the way the opposition spread its message during the campaign.
Democrats’ plans also build on a longer-running argument within their caucus that Trump’s second term has been uniquely corrupt. The White House has denied that characterization, and the task force’s message is expected to highlight what Democrats see as connections between Trump’s leadership and his family’s business activity, as well as what they describe as his transformation of the federal government.
The AP story cited that a little more than a year into Trump’s second term, his family’s Trump Organization has conducted deals in eight foreign countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Vietnam. The article also said the deals are ostensibly in compliance with the Trump company’s self-imposed rule not to do business directly with foreign governments, while noting that it is unclear whether that distinction matters in practice given how authoritarian and one-party states often operate in private business dealings involving a sitting president.
In response to Democrats’ corruption focus, the article quoted Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, saying: “President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public.” Kelly also said: “President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest.”
Rep. Nikema Williams, a task force co-chair, said the president is “actively meddling in our elections and attempting to impose a Jim Crow 2.0 era through intimidation and suppression.” She vowed the task force will “hold Trump accountable for his corrupt schemes, expose them to the American people, and present the alternative they deserve.”
Anti-corruption watchdogs and advocacy groups are watching for whether the messaging effort leads to concrete reforms rather than just campaign talking points. Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, said his group’s hope is that the effort becomes “broad” and “serious policymaking” rather than only “talking points,” and he said the goal is to address both what he calls the Trump administration’s “extreme abuses” and the “systemic rigging of the political process in Washington.”