00:00As lawmakers meet with constituents during the August recess, many Democrats are focusing on the impacts of the Republicans' so-called one big beautiful bill.
00:11But the Brennan Center for Justice argues that the midterm elections will also test the strength of our institutions because for the first time, candidates will face a new adversary, the federal government itself.
00:26Here to explain, President and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, Michael Waldman.
00:33The Brennan Center, of course, is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that focuses on improving systems of democracy and justice.
00:41Michael, thank you for joining us this morning.
00:43So let's just start simply.
00:46What are the concerns you see heading into next year's midterms?
00:51How is the federal government going to be an adversary?
00:52Well, this is a new and dangerous thing.
00:56For the first time, we see a concerted drive by the Trump administration to undermine the 2026 election.
01:03A lot of this is illegal and it is emphatically not normal.
01:08We've seen, for example, the demand by President Trump that you need to produce a passport to be able to register to vote.
01:16The dismantling of the federal election security agencies, unprecedented demands that states turn over voter rolls and voter lists to doge.
01:27You know, what what could go wrong?
01:29Things like that.
01:30It's becoming clear this is a concerted strategy.
01:33And as the election comes closer, we can see more and more of it.
01:37So elections are obviously administered on the state level.
01:39What sort of pressure, though, beyond what you've said, could could this White House and the Republican Congress that's been pliant to pretty much anything the executive branch wants to push on these state houses that concerns you?
01:52Well, you're exactly right.
01:53It's important that folks know the Constitution gives states the ability and the duty of running these elections.
01:59And Congress can pass laws.
02:00But the president and the executive branch have a very minimal role, at least are supposed to.
02:06Right now, what you see, for example, is the president going to the Justice Department and in a speech to the employees there demanding that there be prosecutions of election officials and things like that.
02:17It's these kinds of threats.
02:19State election officials of both parties over the last few years have been really strong.
02:24They have worked hard together to make sure that the elections have been secure and accurate.
02:29And despite all the pressure they have been, this is something new that they're facing, these new demands for information.
02:36And state election officials need to stand firm.
02:39Yeah, Michael, obviously this is a nationwide issue.
02:42And yet we've seen more concerted efforts in certain states, especially swing states, particularly Georgia, where Republicans there in control of the election system have managed so far to stand up to Donald Trump and to his pressure campaigns.
02:57Do you have any specific points of concern?
03:00Is Georgia part of that?
03:02You know, right now it just feels like a five alarm fire.
03:05It's hard to kind of know where to train your attention.
03:07What are the specific states that you're most concerned about right now?
03:12And how have those election officials been holding up thus far?
03:16Well, I think we can expect that the states that are the swing states, the states that are closely divided states, are going to be the most direct targets of a lot of this kind of stuff.
03:26You see demands of states to purge their voter rolls, often of voters who are entirely eligible.
03:32That's even happening in Georgia.
03:34But we remember in 2020 that Brad Raffensperger, at a key moment, the Republican secretary of state, stood up.
03:42Donald Trump's attorney general, when he was pushed to undermine the election, responded famously with a barnyard epithet.
03:50One of the worries now is that the officials Trump has in place at the Justice Department, at the FBI, are not people who are going to stand up,
03:58but who've been propagating a lot of these election conspiracy theories.
04:04So we can see a lot of this in the states you would expect where the election is going to be determined.
04:09And President Trump, of course, still insists that he won the 2020 election.
04:12And we should note beyond your report, the zero manning we just talked about in Texas,
04:15that redistricting also calls into question the fairness of potentially next year's elections.
04:20The important new report from the Brennan Center for Justice, available online to read.
04:25President and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice, Michael Walden.
