Democratic group unveils list of most corrupt 2024 candidates
Sen. Ted Cruz, who is the subject of an FEC complaint, is prominently featured.
End Citizens United, a political action committee committed to eliminating big money in politics, unveiled its list of the 12 most corrupt Republicans in Congress on Wednesday.
The list includes three senators and nine members of the U.S. House of Representatives, all of whom are up for reelection in November.
“The politicians on the Most Corrupt list epitomize everything that is wrong with Congress,” said End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller. “They shamelessly abuse their positions of power for personal gain and have effectively put a price tag on elected office.”
Here’s who made the list:
- Sen. Rick Scott of Florida
- Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri
- Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas
- Rep. David Schweikert (AZ-01)
- Rep. Juan Ciscomani (AZ-06)
- Rep. Mike Garcia (CA-27)
- Rep. Kevin Calvert (CA-42)
- Rep. Ryan Zinke (MT-01)
- Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (NH-07)
- Rep. Anthony D’Espositio (NY-04)
- Rep. Mike Lawler (NY-17)
- Rep. Marc Molinaro (NY-19)
The list is accompanied by a website that includes bullet points for each lawmaker, outlining both the private interests that fund their campaigns as well as ethically questionable highlights from their careers.
The page on Cruz, for example, goes into detail about the senator’s podcast, which is produced by iHeartMedia. Seemingly to circumvent laws prohibiting senators from having multiple income streams, iHeartMedia makes ad revenue payments to Cruz’s super PAC instead of Cruz himself. The PAC has collected more than $630,000 as a result.
The arrangement could violate campaign finance laws. End Citizens United filed an FEC complaint against Cruz in April.
The page on Calvert details how the representative has taken more than more than $5 million from corporate PACs throughout his career and cast multiple votes to slash corporate taxes.
Collectively, the lawmakers on the list have taken $30 million from corporate PACs.
End Citizen’s United says it will be working to convey these facts to voters and the media in the runup to Election Day.
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