October 29, 2026
Arne Baker Acting Inspector General Office of Inspector General U.S. Department of State SA-06, Suite L600 2201 C Street NW Washington, DC 20522-060
Re: Request for preliminary inquiry into reported use of voting history and political contributions in Foreign Service promotion decisions
Dear Acting Inspector General Baker:
The Steady State is an organization of more than 450 former national security, intelligence, diplomatic, military, law enforcement, and homeland security officials. We respectfully request that the Office of Inspector General open a preliminary inquiry into public reports that Department officials asked Foreign Service officers under consideration for promotion how they voted and whether they had made political contributions. According to these reports, the answers were treated as conditions of eligibility. We have no independent knowledge of these events, and this referral is based on public reporting.
Reported Facts
• On October 22, 2026, The Washington Sun reported that the Department asked some Foreign Service officers up for promotion who they voted for in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 presidential elections.
• The same report states that senior Department officials made clear that only candidates who voted for President Trump would be eligible for mid- to upper-level Foreign Service roles. It also states that candidates were told their campaign donation history would be examined and that any donation to Democrats would be disqualifying.
• The report is based on six current and former Department officials. Three of them spoke directly with individuals who were asked the questions.
• A Department spokesperson initially declined to comment to the Sun on the voting-history questions. In a later addendum to the same report, the Department said it rejects “this absurd premise that individuals are being asked about their political affiliations, and even more so for promotions.” The Department’s Principal Deputy Spokesperson described the reporting as a “false narrative” on X, adding that the Department’s approach “emphasizes the critical importance of service, integrity, and policy alignment across the Foreign Service. It is not about partisan behavior but rather about executing the President’s vision for foreign policy.”
• Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott told the Daily Beast that employees complaining to the press “shouldn’t have, and can’t be, trusted with sensitive information.”
Applicable Law
• 22 U.S.C. § 3905 requires that personnel actions for career members of the Foreign Service be made in accordance with merit principles. It also requires that members be free from discrimination based on political affiliation and from any personnel practice prohibited by 5 U.S.C. § 2302.
• 5 U.S.C. § 2302(b)(1)(E) and (b)(3) prohibit discrimination based on political affiliation and the coercion of political activity.
• 18 U.S.C. § 610 makes it a crime to intimidate, threaten, command, or coerce, or attempt to do so, any federal employee to engage or not engage in political activity, including voting or making or refusing to make a political contribution.
Reported statements that contributions to one party would disqualify candidates from advancement may bear on § 610 to the extent they pressured employees about current or future political activity. Whether they did is a question for investigation.
This Office has addressed similar allegations before. In ESP-19-05 (August 2019), it reviewed allegations of politicized personnel practices in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, including the vetting of career employees’ political affiliation.
Related Request
We are aware that Democracy Defenders Fund asked this Office and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel on October 26, 2026, to investigate these same reports. This referral was prepared independently. In addition to an investigation, it asks this Office to secure relevant records, to examine whether employees faced threats or adverse treatment connected to reporting misconduct, and to report any reasonable grounds to believe a criminal violation occurred to the Attorney General under 5 U.S.C. § 404(d).
Requests
We respectfully request that the Office of Inspector General:
1. Open a preliminary inquiry into whether Department officials asked career Foreign Service members or career candidates about their voting history or political contributions, and whether officials evaluated performance and policy execution or instead used personal voting and donation history as eligibility criteria. We ask that the inquiry identify which personnel process was involved (promotion, assignment, or selection for senior positions), the dates and offices responsible, and witnesses with firsthand knowledge.
2. Take steps to ensure the prompt preservation of relevant records since January 20, 2025, a period that would cover the development and implementation of any such practice, and the suspension of routine deletion of those records. These include interview guidance, question lists, notes, selection and panel instructions, candidate scoring and disposition records, any searches of donation or voting history, and communications about candidates’ voting history or political contributions, including emails, texts, messaging-application communications, and official business conducted on personal accounts or devices.
3. Examine whether employees received threats, instructions, or adverse treatment connected to reporting suspected misconduct to this Office or to Congress, or to cooperating with investigators.
4. If this Office develops reasonable grounds to believe that a violation of Federal criminal law, including 18 U.S.C. § 610, has occurred, report it to the Attorney General as 5 U.S.C. § 404(d) requires.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Respectfully,
Steven A. Cash Executive Director, The Steady State