“I am deciding whether I’m going to committee or a meeting based on whether I have to meet with individual donors,” one House Democrat, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told NOTUS. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Illinois) told NOTUS. She recalled how she often had to prioritize making calls over knocking on doors when she was a first-time congressional candidate who’d sworn off corporate money. Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts made the leap away from taking corporate money in 2018 after he was sworn in as the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee. “It does two things: It creates an overreliance on their influence in the first place,” Lee said of corporate money.