🥊 Worried about the midterms? Here’s a playbook to prevent Trump from rigging them
Time to go on offense with elections.
This week we’ve got ideas for how to go on offense to protect elections…
Harassing elections workers? Lawyer up.
Federal troops 🙅♀️Polling sites
Maine can win the game of 🐔that Nebraska started.
But first, let’s talk about federalism as a style of combat.
When the Texas legislature announced last summer that it would pursue a mid-decade partisan redistricting project, a lot of people worried it would spell the end of Democrats’ chances in the midterms. But this isn’t the old days of Democrats fighting with one hand tied behind their backs: blue state leaders around the country laced up their gloves. California was the first to step up with its voter-approved redistricting plan (Prop. 50) for the state that sends the most representatives to Congress.
Upon taking office this January, Democrats in Virginia’s General Assembly followed suit. They moved quickly to pass new congressional maps designed to create a 10–1 Democratic-leaning delegation, advancing a constitutional amendment to allow mid-decade redistricting (now subject to a high-stakes legal battle). Governor Wes Moore (keep fighting, Wes!) in Maryland announced a similar plan in his state (though MD Senate President Bill Ferguson refuses to bring it to the floor). And just last week Colorado entered the redistricting ring, with the announcement of a drive to get redistricting on the ballot to net Democrats an additional three seats in 2028.
Republicans may have started this fight thinking it would be an easy win. They were wrong.
In a new essay in States Forum, Arkadi Gerney and Sarah Knight make the case that the 2025 redistricting fight marks a sea change for big-D and small-d democrats. Interbranch pushback to the Trump administration has been anemic in some cases and capitulatory in others. As Gerney and Knight explain: “These limp horizontal checks underscore the importance of the vertical checks of federalism and state power on an increasingly autocratic president. Over the past decade, growing ranks of scholars have revived an old idea: namely, that federalism can be a bulwark for democracy.”
Gerney and Knight point to the recent redistricting fight to argue that democracy defense requires Democrats to embrace federalism as a style of combat. A winning blue state strategy would use decentralized, adaptive, unconventional tactics to challenge an opponent that controls the traditional levers of national government power and treats its red state allies as puppets in its play.
California’s redistricting counterpunch was not an abandonment of democratic values. It was the protection of democratic viability. It was the recognition that in a world of asymmetric hardball, restraint by one side alone is not a virtue—it is surrender.
That’s true across threats, but the stakes are especially clear and high when it comes to free and fair elections.
Earlier this month, President Trump repeated his call to “nationalize” elections. His eyes may be bigger than his stomach, and a lot of legal and logistical challenges stand in his way. For one thing, more than 10,000 different election administration jurisdictions administer American elections under a patchwork of federal, state, and local laws. Quite a challenge to wrangle for an administration that has trouble legitimately appointing a U.S. attorney.
But rather than rely on the incompetence of the Trump administration to protect our elections, states need to use their jurisdiction over election administration to go on offense. Mid-cycle redistricting was just the opening move in Republican attempts to rig the midterms. All bets are off about what the GOP will do come November.
With Prop. 50, Governor Newsom and California Democrats’ sent a clear message: fuck around with elections and find out the power of blue states. Or, as VA State Senator L. Louise Lucas put it: “You all started it and we fucking finished it.” We have to double down on that aggressive vision. This isn’t a time for playing defense — it’s a time to press every advantage we have.
As always, we’ve got ideas.
THE PUNCH LIST
Blue state legislator? Adopt “trigger” protections to deter certification sabotage. Remember when Mike Johnson refused to seat a duly elected member of Congress for 50 days? (It happened in Minnesota, too.) What about all the saber rattling Republicans did in 2024 about refusing to certify election results? Time to get proactive. Here’s an idea: Establish an independent review board. Provide it a “trigger” emergency authority to allow your state to punch back with its own delays when and if the review board finds that another state (or Congress) has delayed or denied certifying or seating duly-elected members. One state’s credible threat to cancel out anti-democratic behavior with equivalent retaliatory action can work to deter the behavior in the first place.
Are you ME Governor Janet Mills? We have a separate “trigger” law idea for you. In 2024, Maine and Nebraska — the two states that divide their electoral votes by congressional district — got into a staring contest over Nebraska’s plan to abandon that system in favor of a winner-take-all approach. Maine made clear that if Nebraska moved, it would too. The threat worked, at least for now. Nebraska did not fold to pressure to change its system for 2024, but there’s no guarantee it won’t do so the next time Trump and the GOP set their eyes on the Cornhusker State. (Especially since the guy credited with blocking the Nebraska legislature from acting … is no longer in the legislature.) It’s time to codify Maine’s threat into law. Maine should pass a statute now to adopt a winner-take-all system the moment Nebraska does so. No more waiting around.
Do you know Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson? Tell him to get with the times. While states like California and Virginia have recognized that the time for unilateral disarmament is over, the message has not made it to Ferguson. Now, he’s the main obstacle standing in the way of Maryland’s redistricting effort and is asking Governor Moore to “move on.” We’ll pass on that suggestion.
Work for a state AG? Prosecute election laws — and encourage local prosecutors to do the same. Driven by increasingly violent threats and doxxing attempts, state election workers are resigning in droves. It’s time for state AGs to take the gloves off. Thirty-five states have criminalized intimidation and/or interference with election workers. If your state has one of those laws, broadcast your plans to enforce it. If your state doesn’t — get to work. (And while we’re at it, let’s make sure these laws cover doxxing too.) Election workers are key to free and fair elections. Give anyone considering threatening them a reason to think twice.
Does the thought of Stephen Miller make your skin crawl? Let’s make America First Legal crawl into court. Founded by Miller, American First Legal has built its name spinning fantasies around election fraud. The Ku Klux Klan also had a playbook to intimidate voters. Now, the Ku Klux Klan Act, specifically 42 U.S.C. 1985(3), makes it illegal to conspire to threaten or intimidate Americans in their support or advocacy for federal candidates. In 2024, a federal jury in Texas found a defendant liable under 1985(3) for his role in the “Trump Train” ambush of a Biden-Harris campaign bus. And if that violates the law? Then what about promoting false narratives about voter fraud that could be used to justify aggressive voter intimidation tactics? A trial in Georgia is about to test out a similar theory. Keep an eye on AFL. When they come for the midterms, hit them with the KKK Act.
Worried about immigration enforcement at the polls? Join the band of states passing and proposing legislation to ban ICE from the polls. With Steve Bannon threatening that ICE will be at the polls in 2026 — and Karoline Leavitt refusing to “guarantee” they won’t — states can’t leave anything to chance. Responding to this threat should be a coordinated effort. Look to New Mexico for an example, where a bill is moving through the Senate to ban federal troops from polling places. Or Pennsylvania, too, where legislation is moving to ensure that its prohibition of on-duty police officers being within 100 feet of a polling place also applies to federal troops.
Do you work in a Governor’s office? Gather the troops, and stand up your election security task force. With the federal government absent on election security, states have to fill the void. It’s time to set up an Election Security Task Force across state agencies. There’s a long menu of ideas for states to pull from: at minimum, states should build up cybersecurity support teams, require the use of secure .gov websites, establish steady funding for technology upgrades, expand physical security protections, and ensure robust postelection audits. And states should work together. Discuss best practices. Pool resources. Scenario plan. The task of protecting the election from federal interference — and replacing their support — is bigger than just one state. Cooperation is imperative.
THE FOUNDER AND CEO OF PUBLIC RIGHTS PROJECT HAS SOME THOUGHTS.
We pinged Jill Habig, the Founder and CEO of Public Rights Project, to ask about what’s at stake in 2026:
“It’s simple. Election administration this year will pit state and local governments against the feds. Federalism is what gives us a chance in that fight. If state and local leaders step up, they can make sure that every citizen has access to that bedrock of democracy: free and fair elections. There’s too much on the line to sit back and wait to see what shenanigans bad actors will try to play with our votes.”
FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE
🥊 Michigan won’t roll over on voter rolls: If we fight, we can win … and Michigan did just that. On March 10, a federal judge sided with Michigan, defeating a Trump administration attempt to force the state to hand over its unredacted voter rolls. The judge — a Trump appointee — ruled that federal law does not compel the disclosure and affirmed the state’s authority to protect voter privacy.
🥊 Fulton County calls out FBI raid: Fulton County is not shying away from the fight after the FBI showed up at its election headquarters and seized ballots. In a court filing demanding the federal government return its property, the County called out the federal government’s efforts as “designed to intimidate,” highlighting the “debunked and judicially adjudicated as meritless” claims underlying the government’s warrant. (Oh, and by the way? States don’t have to give the FBI the chance to do this again: federal law only requires states to retain ballots for 22 months following a federal election.)
Counter Punch is a collaboration between Salt River Valley Project and Evergreen Legal — two organizations that believe punching back is the policy playbook this moment demands. It’s how we fight a rigged system, make courage contagious, and deliver for people against the leaders holding them down.