Compare and contrast
At a November 3, 2010, press conference, then-president Barack Obama addressed his party’s poor performance in the midterm election, acknowledging he took a “shellacking.” Midterms are often a problem for the party in power and there was anger over some of his early policy initiatives from groups like the “Tea Party.” Still he took responsibility for the defeat, saying “The responsibilities of this office are so enormous … that sometimes we lose track of the ways that we connected with folks that got us here in the first place.”
The 2026 midterms show a different approach. There is a similar angry electorate and predictions of losses for the Republican majority. Unlike Obama, Trump is blithely ignorant of the country’s mood and is using his office to rig races in his favor. He encouraged Texas to do a partisan redistricting, leading to battles in numerous states (and both parties) to make the already gerrymandered electorate even worse. He used the FBI to raid the (Atlanta) Fulton County election office in a spurious effort to re-litigate 2020 loss and cast doubt on the integrity of the election process. He issued an executive order for the Postal Service to illegally inject itself into the mail-in voting process, which he considers corrupt— although he uses it himself.
As bad as this is, the worst may be ahead. If Republicans suffer significant losses in November, we can expect Trump to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the outcome. This mirrors his failed 2020 attempt, but he now has the machinery of government and a compliant Justice Department to do his bidding. Federal agents may try to seize ballots or disrupt voting based on a national emergency declared by the president.
Forewarned being forearmed, state officials are actively talking to local law enforcement about their options to respond to this threat. We can only hope.