How Senate Democrats can stop Trump from stealing the midterms

Writing in the Guardian, David Walbert warns that Donald Trump, having lost his mail-in ballot case, could turn to Congress itself to keep Republicans in control after November's midterms. The Constitution makes each chamber the judge of its own members' elections, so lawmakers have the last word on who is seated, whatever state officials or courts decide. Walbert says Trump could exploit that by sowing doubt about close races and letting House members settle the disputes on partisan grounds rather than on evidence. That would differ sharply from the 62 cases Trump and his allies lost in 2020 before judges.

The plan would depend on Republicans holding an initial House majority when the new Congress convenes on January 3, 2027, because that majority controls who else is sworn in. Federal law has the outgoing House clerk compile a roll of representatives-elect, and Jeffrey Toobin and retired judge Michael Luttig fear a loyalist clerk could falsify it. Walbert adds that even an honest clerk could leave off candidates whose elections are contested, since the statute lists only those whose credentials show they were regularly elected. Some commentators think courts would block any such maneuver, but he considers that optimistic. He cites a 150-year pattern in which partisan affiliation has nearly always predicted Supreme Court votes in disputes over presidential candidates' claims.

Summarized by PolitiKool from The Guardian’s reporting. Read the full story at The Guardian →