The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) announced the finalists for the sixth annual Democracy Awards, CMF’s program recognizing non-legislative achievement and performance in congressional offices and by Members of Congress.
“Americans usually only hear about Congress when something goes wrong. The Democracy Awards shines a light on Congress when it does something right,” said Bradford Fitch, CMF’s President and CEO. “These Members of Congress and their staff deserve recognition for their work to improve accountability in government, modernize their work environments and serve their constituents.”
The 2023 Democracy Awards finalists announced on May 16, 2023 by category are:
Constituent Service
Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) – who created a “Business Crawl” listening tour to visit and support local businesses during pandemic shutdowns; conducted opioid roundtables; facilitated the Rural Business Summit; and convened an annual Conservative Climate Summit.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) – who conducts town halls with constituents, both in-person and virtually, including "Drive-Thru Dusty Town Halls,” with the congressman addressing constituents on the back of a pick-up truck, answering constituent questions as a safe alternative to meet with constituents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) – who established a casework metrics system that are shared in a memo each week with office staff and the senator. Since 2009 35 percent of case opened are constituents who contacted the office multiple times for assistance.
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) – who in less than four years in office has closed nearly 5,000 constituent cases, recovered millions of dollars on behalf of constituents, and hosted almost 20 virtual workshops on a variety of topics for solving problems in working with executive branch agencies.
“Life in Congress” Workplace Environment
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) – who, among other novel practices, limits his after-hours calls and emails to staff to only the most time sensitive matters.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) – who created a robust time-off policy. Staff receive 30 days of total paid leave per year - 15 days of vacation + 15 days of sick leave which can be used for Mental Health Days at any point during the year, in addition to 1-2 weeks of office closure in the last 2 weeks of December.
Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) – who, having been sworn in at the height of the pandemic in 2021, created a telework policy that empowers staff to coordinate schedules so that the office remains staffed, and every staffer can periodically work from home. The office also immediately provided lightweight laptops, iPads and iPhones, so every staffer can easily continue working outside of the office, whether from home or other locations.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) – whose office rewrites manuals and documents and revisits goals often. They created a continuity of operations plan at the beginning of the pandemic and update it quarterly. The office conducts staff retreats both virtually and in-person, and does performance reviews annually, as well as weekly check-ins between managers and their staff.”
Constituent Accountability and Accessibility
Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) – who regularly holds in-person and telephone town hall meetings on general issues and specific topics including: the Senate filibuster, inflation, gun reform, infrastructure funding in Illinois, and a meeting on his decision to vote in favor of impeaching President Trump.
Rep. John Curtis (R-UT) – who has held more than 300 constituent service or town hall-style events since coming to Congress in 2017.
Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) – who instituted a policy of never leaving a town hall meeting until the last constituent attending has had an opportunity to ask a question.
Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) – who holds regular themed small meetings with constituents over meals, naming them "Breakfast with Barry," "Burgers with Barry," and "Buffet with Barry."
Methodology:
CMF created a detailed process to identify and recognize the best congressional offices. House and Senate personal offices self-nominated in late 2022/early 2023 using an online questionnaire. In early 2023, CMF followed up with offices to conduct interviews and assess the office's adherence to the established criteria using a detailed checklist to determine a list of nominees that would advance to the Selection Committee phase of the process.
In July, a Selection Committee comprised primarily of former Members of Congress and former congressional staffers will select two winners (one Democrat and one Republican) for each category using the nomination forms, interview notes, and supporting material provided by the office.
Details on the finalists’ accomplishments can be found here. Winners for the staff and Member Lifetime Achievement Democracy Award will be announced at a later date.
The Founding Partner for the Democracy Awards is the Bridge Alliance, which provided a generous grant to launch the program. Bridge Alliance is a diverse coalition of more than 100 organizations committed to revitalizing democratic practice in America.
The Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 1977 dedicated to strengthening Congress and building trust in its work with and for the American people. CMF works to revitalize Congress as an institution; promotes best practices in congressional offices; and helps Congress and the people they represent engage in a constructive and inclusive dialogue toward a thriving American democracy.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.