Maura Sullivan launches anti-corruption campaign as Trump rakes in billions

Maura Sullivan’s new “Unrig Washington” platform lands as Democratic candidates in the NH-01 primary make ethics, dark money, and Trump-era self-dealing central issues in the race.

As Donald Trump’s family hauled in more than $800 million from crypto sales in the first half of 2025 alone — while his administration has torn through ethics guardrails that once purported to restrain presidential self dealing — efforts to rein in unchecked GOP corruption are taking center stage in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District primary.

That backdrop is where Democratic candidate Maura Sullivan launched her new “Unrig Washington” platform, casting it as a response to a political system warped by insider influence, special interests, and public officials using their offices for private gain.

Sullivan’s plan calls for banning congressional stock trading, barring corporate PAC donations, increasing transparency in political spending, strengthening ethics rules for government officials, imposing a lifetime lobbying ban on former members of Congress, bolstering oversight of the White House and executive branch, enforcing a code of conduct for the U.S. Supreme Court, and creating term limits for federal judges.

She said the corruption in Washington has created dual-realities for the nation: one where money talks, and one for everyone else.

“The American Dream has not been real for too many Granite Staters for too long, and a big part of that is because of the corruption in Washington.” Sullivan said in an interview.

“Today, there are two systems in America: one for the wealthy and well-connected, and one for everyone else. But there are real structural changes we can make that level the playing field. My plan would make sure politicians can’t profit from public office and that the rich and powerful play by the same rules as everyone else.”

The timing is hard to miss. Since returning to office, Trump scrapped a Biden-era ethics order for executive branch appointees and moved quickly against independent watchdogs. Early in his second term, his administration fired roughly 17 inspectors general across federal agencies, a move that drew bipartisan alarm and later prompted a federal judge to conclude the firings were likely unlawful, even though the court declined to immediately reinstate the dismissed watchdogs.

At the same time, Trump’s second term has brought a fresh wave of conflict-of-interest alarms tied to his family’s crypto empire and the continuing overlap between the presidency and his private business interests.

But Sullivan is not the only Democrat in the NH-01 field making anti-corruption efforts a priority.

Stefany Shaheen has also tried to stake out an anti-corruption message of her own, pairing attacks on Trump-era abuses with calls for more accountability in government.

In recent public comments, she has argued that corruption is not an abstract Washington problem but a live issue playing out inside the administration right now, pointing to recently-removed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure as an example of public office being used for self-promotion and waste.

In a video posted to X, Shaheen said Noem’s firing was overdue but that it is not enough, arguing the public deserves answers about a reported $220 million ad campaign featuring Noem and tax dollars used for her luxury air travel. 

Christian Urrutia has made “Getting Money out of Politics” a named plank of his candidacy and has framed his broader campaign around taking government out of the hands of insiders and the billionaire class.

State Rep. Heath Howard has said government should work for ordinary people, “not corporate PACs,” while Hampton Selectwoman Carleigh Beriont has made banning congressional stock trading and getting dark money out of politics a core part of her campaign. She highlights that her campaign takes no corporate PAC money. Sarah Chadzynski also has argued Washington is too often controlled by corporate PACs and corrupt special interests.

Sullivan’s move now appears designed to go further than the rest in her field by packaging those themes into a broader structural reform agenda that reaches beyond Congress and into the executive branch and the courts.

That contrast is becoming more central as Democrats in the race compete to show who is most willing to confront corruption as an unifying issue, while Republicans have largely refused to seriously challenge Trump’s increasingly brazen ethical baggage.

Even as watchdogs and ethics experts have raised repeated concerns about Trump-linked crypto ventures and foreign money flowing into family-connected businesses, Republicans have mostly treated those issues as background noise or defended them outright.

The result is a political moment in which Democratic candidates are increasingly talking about stock trading bans, ending dark money, and ethics enforcement not as abstract good-government ideas, but as a direct answer to a Republican Party that has normalized presidential self-enrichment and institutionalized indifference to it.