For more than a year now, I’ve been picking the brains of many sources throughout election administration, legal nonprofit and Democratic political circles to see what they’re doing about final move that Republicans will try to pull if and when they lose the midterms.
Some folks are prepared; others are not. Probably many more just aren’t talking about their preparations to me, or maybe any reporters. Bottom line: the lawyers who’ll end up fighting Republican challenges to elections — which are explained in great detail today at Zeteo with my colleague Asawin Suebaeng — are probably ready to go. I think they’ll have to be, because I don’t think there’s any way we get out of January, when the House forms itself, without Republicans trying to pull some bullshit like they did on January 6, 2021.
Election challenges have been fairly common in our history, with more than 600 of them occurring since the 1st Congress convened in the spring of 1789. When the 120th forms next year, I think we’ll see more challenges.
That’s because perhaps that biggest part of being a Republican in the Year of Our Lord 2026 is refusing to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. As such, if and when Democrats win enough races in November to take control of the House, Trump cultists in the House GOP caucus will effectively have no choice but to say Democrats stole the election.
They’ll follow Trump’s lead in saying the election was stolen, which he’ll have to claim in order to help Republicans cling to power in the House — and perhaps the Senate, which Democrats may have a shot at taking.
Why does Trump, firmly in his lame duck years and clearly more concerned with his many renovation projects than anything remotely related to policy, care who controls Congress? Because if Democrats win the House, they’ll provide a modicum of checks on Trump’s runaway executive power. Hell, they might even impeach him again, or otherwise hold him accountable for the many and obvious crimes and impeachable offenses he and his cabinet commit on a near-daily basis.
I encourage you to read today’s report on the doomsday scenario at Zeteo, which is the first in a series of stories we’re cranking out called Start the Steal. Later today, we’ll lay out the many, many ways that Trump and Republicans are trying to interfere in the midterms — and overturn the will of the American people in order to cling to the power they need to protect an out-of-control president.
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I’m a paid subscriber. Why can’t I access this post? If this Substack is just used to promote another, then it’s not a valuable news source for me.
I’m also a paid subscriber and can’t access the stories on Zeteo. I’m frankly confused about what a paid subscription means here. Disappointing.