Wednesday evening, Issue One brought together nearly two dozen Republican and Democratic champions for democracy to ring in the 116th Congress and capture this unique moment for political reform. Attendees included former, sitting, and incoming members of Congress who campaigned on and support fixing America’s broken political system.
Three Congressional Reformers Caucus Co-chairs (CRC), Reps. Ken Buck (R-CO), Mike Gallagher (R-WI), and Derek Kilmer (D-WA), spoke about how critical Issue One’s bipartisan work is as the members of Congress rise to the challenge of reducing the influence of money in politics and returning accountability to Washington. Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD), a member of the CRC, said he will continue the fight for political reform and work with other CRC members to make big changes in the next Congress.
Other sitting and incoming members of Congress in attendance included Jack Bergman (R-MI), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Ben Cline (R-VA), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Mark Green (R-TN), Elaine Luria (D-VA), Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), and Bryan Steil (R-WI).
Many from Issue One’s ReFormers Caucus (RFC) also gathered. RFC Co-chairs, Amb. Tim Roemer (D-IN) and Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), both talked about how supporting the causes championed by Issue One is both “good policy and good politics.” They were accompanied by former Reps. Charlie Bass (R-NH), Jim Jones (D-OK), Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Glenn Nye (D-VA), Chris Shays (R-CT), and Lee Terry (R-NE).
