It’s Time to Pivot to 2026 Election Security

Democrats and other pro-democracy advocates are spilling gallons of ink and a profusion of pixels on the question of whether ending the government shutdown was a mistake or not. I argue that it won’t matter much, if at all, twelve months from now anyway – and it’s the 2026 election that our attention should be focused on right now.

After the most depressing year in American politics of my lifetime, the 2025 election results were like a defibrillator shock to a dying body. Landslide percentages obtained by Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill; the record turnout in New York; huge Democratic gains in the Virginia House of Delegates; winning three seats on the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court; lopsided results in obscure Georgia races, such as for the Civil Service Commission; and the success of California’s redistricting plan (a response to Texas’ naked gerrymander) all indicate that the electorate—unlike CEOs, partners at big law firms, college presidents, and media companies—is not surrendering to Trump. Following massive No Kings protests across the country, last week’s elections are a reminder that voters are the last defense against despotism.

Of course, these races should not be overinterpreted. Democrats tend to turn out in higher numbers in off-year elections than Republicans; the GOP nominee for Virginia governor was off-putting; and Democrats ran disciplined campaigns. But the biggest drag on Republicans has been something that felled Kamala Harris and isn’t expected to change significantly by this time next year: Prices remain high. Millions of non-MAGA voters supported Trump because they believed in his 2019 promise to restore the economy. Which he cannot do, and could not do, even if he refrained from the stupid tariffs that he delights in.

Over the past year, the question I’ve had the most difficulty answering is also the one I’ve been asked most often: What can I do, as a citizen, to counter this authoritarian drift? The No Kings rallies were a response. The 2025 elections were another. And now the next step is taking shape.

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Team Trump will certainly also attempt to rig the midterm elections while falsely claiming the election is rigged against Trump. They have already started. The mid-decade gerrymanders the president demanded of red states are a brazen attempt to skew election results. It is Trump’s style to openly commit acts of corruption, so that they appear almost beyond reproach.

A president who pulled every lever, wiggled every handle, and applied every kind of pressure imaginable, even inciting a riot, to prevent his successor from taking office deserves no doubt about what he might attempt in 2026. Let’s not forget that Trump has considered the possibility of using the military to confiscate voting machines in nearby states.

Still persistent about the “stolen” 2020 election, Trump is already posting on Truth Social that he has detected similar fraud in 2026: “No mail-in voting or “early” voting, yes to voter identification! he wrote. “Look at how totally dishonest California Prop Vote is! Millions of ballots are being ‘shipped.'” GET SMART REPUBLICANS, BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!!

The Justice Department sent “observers” to polling places in California and New Jersey, which may have been nothing or an attempt to deploy large numbers of federal officials to intimidate voters. Since 2020, Trump has successfully installed election deniers in key federal positions, including as attorney general, and created a new MAGA-influenced paramilitary force within ICE. It is not far-fetched to imagine ICE agents snatching people from lines and thereby deterring U.S. citizens who speak with an accent or are dark-skinned from exercising their right to vote. God knows, they’ve already taken a number of citizens in their unmarked vehicles and held them for hours.

Everyone can participate in the pushback. Fortunately, elections are local and state matters, not federal, which means the Trump administration has limited power to interfere with how votes are cast. However, don’t leave anything to chance. Register to become an election worker. The turnover rate has increased since 2020, with two in five election workers leaving their jobs. Contact groups concerned with election integrity, such as Protect Democracy, the Campaign Legal Center, the Brennan Center for Justice, the NAACP, the States United Democracy Center, Checks and Balances (especially if you have a law degree), or the Fair Elections Center. Contact your state representatives and senators to inquire about funding election security measures. File Freedom of Information requests like American Oversight did to find out whether the Trump administration is preparing military or other deployments around the time of next year’s elections.

We have witnessed what unified Republican control of government means over the past eleven months. Winning back the House, and who knows, maybe even the Senate, is now the whole game.

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