As Trump Escalates Dangerous Rhetoric & Voter Suppression Efforts, Leader Schumer, Senate Democrats, & Top Elections Experts Continue Work To Combat Key Election Threats

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Senate Democrats' Election Protection Task Force, and key election experts stress tested responses to several key threats to the 2026 midterms.

Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Democrats' Election Protection Task Force convened with key election experts including Marc Elias of the Elias Law Group, Ian Bassin of Protect Democracy, Skye Perryman of Democracy Forward, Vanita Gupta with NYU School of Law, and election law expert Norm Eisen to stress test Congressional responses to potential election threats. Building on a productive meeting last month, the Senators and experts discussed threats to the 2026 midterms, including federally coerced mass voter purges, federal presence at polling locations, and federal law enforcement intervention.

President Trump has made life worse for the American people, sending prices for food, fuel, housing, and health care skyrocketing with his reckless war and failed agenda. Instead of working to bring down costs and rein in corruption, he's turned his focus to rigging the upcoming midterms. Last week, Trump brought his election delusions mainstream with an incoherent primetime address. And for months, Trump has said he'll deploy an "election integrity army" to polling places across the country. Already, he's started trying to rig the election by making it harder to vote by mail, seizing state voter rolls, and regularly threatening nonpartisan election workers.

Senate Democrats refuse to allow this subversion of democracy to go unchecked and are strategizing to ensure that our elections in November remain safe, secure, free, and fair.

This was the second "war games" strategy session that Senate Democrats' new Election Protection Task Force held this summer, building on one held in June.

Below is a transcript of Leader Schumer's remarks before the meeting:

We all know that Donald Trump wants to steal America's elections, plain and simple. And Democrats won't let it happen. We are looking at every very way to prevent him from stealing the elections. He's desperate. He's made life harder, more difficult for Americans. He wants to steal the election because he knows he can't win the election. Our job is to stop it. And so, we are doing many things. This month we're talking about Trump's corruption.

But one of the things we are doing is a tabletop exercise where some of the experts on election reform will challenge us with certain scenarios that Trump might use. We're looking at things he would do to undo elections before Election Day, on Election Day, and after Election Day. And we had one tabletop exercise three, four weeks ago. And it greatly strengthened our knowledge and ability to anticipate what he might do and how to thwart him. That's what we're doing here today. And whatever he does, we will be ready to respond.

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