The 2026 Election Could Be a Game Changer—Advocates Are Prepared to Fight

Since Donald Trump was elected to his second presidential term, he has inflicted significant harm, successfully enacting over half of the policies outlined in Project 2025, a 900-page conservative blueprint authored by the Heritage Foundation. Many of these policies will take decades, if not longer, to undo. But with competitive congressional races across the country, the 2026 midterm election has the opportunity to be a game changer, particularly because the sitting president’s party historically loses congressional seats in the midterms.

Trump is aware of this, and has vocalized his desire to protect his party’s power. In a January interview with Reuters, he lamented the fact that he was likely to lose power during the midterm elections and stated, “When you think of it, we really shouldn’t even have an election.”

While no one has the power to cancel an election, advocates have raised concerns that the Trump administration will attempt to influence the midterms to preserve the Republican majority. That’s partially why voting rights groups are working to ensure a safe and secure election.

Preparing to Fight on the Legal Front

Since at least 2025, policy organizations and voting rights groups, including the Brennan Center for Justice, have been raising alarms about potential attempts by the Trump administration to subvert the 2026 midterm election.

“This is an unprecedented power grab that no administration has asked for before, and no court has ever authorized.”

For instance, noting the fact that Trump was the first president to attempt to overturn the results of a federal election, Jasleen Singh, senior counsel focusing on democracy at the Brennan Center, wrote in an expert brief that the Trump administration might attempt to influence the 2026 election by:

• attempting to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems
• targeting or threatening to target election officials and others who work to keep elections free and fair.
• supporting people who undermine election administration; and
• retreating from the federal government’s role of protecting voters and the election process.

“It’s very important for voting rights groups on the ground to make clear to voters what the actual rules are and what the limits of the president’s authority is to make changes,” Dan Vicuña told NPQ. Vicuña is the senior policy director for voting at Common Cause, a national voting rights watchdog group based in Washington, DC.

Vicuña pointed to the Department of Justice (DOJ)’s attempt to collect voting rolls from the states, including voters’ personal identification like driver’s licenses and social security numbers, as an example of the Trump administration’s overreach.

“This is an unprecedented power grab that no administration has asked for before, and no court has ever authorized. They’re claiming legal authority to do this, but there really is none there,” he said.

While at least 10 states have complied with the DOJ’s order, most have refused. The Trump administration has sued more than 20 states for refusing to comply. Common Cause has filed nationwide lawsuits in an effort to protect those who are particularly at risk, including recently naturalized citizens.

As Vicuña explained, recently naturalized citizens are at risk of being targeted because the Trump administration is likely to attempt to cross-check voter rolls against federal databases that were not designed to assess voter eligibility. Advocates are concerned that people may be incorrectly identified as noncitizens and thrown off the voter rolls, since those federal systems’ information on citizenship status may not be up to date.

Vicuña highlighted cases in California and Oregon that have already made it to a judge, and the DOJ lost its argument in both of them. He is expecting decisions in other states to follow suit. Like many across the country, he is monitoring events in Fulton County, GA, where the FBI recently raided the election office and seized election records from 2020. Advocates view this as a clear attempt to undermine local election control under the guise of preventing voter fraud.

Actions like this make it even more critical for groups like Common Cause to ensure no election tampering is happening as the midterm elections near. Vicuña noted the case of Tina Peters, a former elections clerk in Colorado, who in 2024 was sentenced to nine years in prison for providing access to the county’s election system to an unauthorized person with ties to prominent proponents of false claims of election fraud.

“It’s going to take a lot of energy on the legal front, on the public education front from advocates, to make sure that the election runs smoothly and people can cast a ballot that counts,” Vicuña said.

Confusion During Primary Elections

Indeed, though investigations are ongoing, in the wake of last week’s primary election, the NAACP is calling attention to the “documented confusion and interference that turned away hundreds of eligible voters, Black voters in particular” in Texas.

The group notes that the state saw record voter turnout, with more than 2.5 million people participating in early voting and high voter turnout on Election Day. There was also significant confusion due to the fact that in two major counties—Dallas and Williamson—voters could not cast their votes anywhere in the county as they had been able to do for years prior. That is because, citing unfounded voter fraud claims, the local Republican Party opted against using the countywide voting system. State law requires both parties to agree to use the system.

As a result, voters were only able to vote at their assigned precinct on election day. The NAACP contends that confusion sprang from the fact that the Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson failed to adequately update the state’s voting website with new precinct maps ahead of the election. Unless these and other issues are meaningfully addressed, widespread voter confusion is likely in the general election as well.

“What happened in Texas is a warning to the entire nation. Voters who showed up, stood in line, and did everything right were turned away because partisan officials chose conspiracy theories over countywide voting systems that worked without problems for years,” wrote NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson in the organization’s statement.

Monster Voter Suppression

For Ashley Marshall, the cofounder and senior director of Forward Justice, a nonpartisan law, policy, and strategy organization focused on the South, public education is key to the voting process. Forward Justice is part of a coalition of groups in North Carolina working to provide an election protection infrastructure.

Marshall shared with NPQ that in the early days of the 2026 primary election, many North Carolina voters were left confused after receiving a notification in the mail from the State Board of Elections. The letter, sent to over 240,000 voters, asked them to verify their identity; many recipients thought the letter meant they needed to re-register to vote, which they did not.

Forward Justice immediately sent out information over social media informing voters that the letter they received would not impact their voting registration or ability to vote.

North Carolina has long been a key state in the fight for voting rights. After the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder eliminated key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, state Republicans passed what was then considered to be the worst voter suppression law in the country.

Dubbed by some the “monster voter suppression bill,” the 2013 legislation implemented a strict voter ID law, eliminated same-day registration during early voting, drastically cut early voting days, and cut provisional ballots for out-of-precinct voting. It was struck down in 2016 after a federal court ruled that it had “targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision.”

Still, since then, there have been attempts to put mechanisms in place that would make it harder for people to vote safely and securely.

When North Carolina’s voter suppression bill was first passed, young people—particularly those on college campuses—spoke out, knowing they would be among those most impacted. Now, they find themselves impacted again—this time by poll closures on their college campuses.

Ahead of the primary elections, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (A&T), the largest HBCU in the country, was among several colleges to lose their early voting site on campus after the Republican-led state Board of Elections voted to remove it. This is particularly detrimental because young people have the potential to be a crucial vote in the election, but many do not have their own transportation to drive to a polling location.

Noting how detrimental this legislation would be, Forward Justice is asking people to call their elected officials and sign petitions opposing the SAVE Act.

Despite students writing letters, protesting, and even filing a lawsuit to save their voting site, it was removed, with the judge presiding over the case writing that reopening the polling place close to the election might “cause confusion.”

“I think we’ve seen the blueprint for what voter suppression across the nation can look like in North Carolina,” Brian Kennedy, a senior policy analyst for Democracy North Carolina, told Democracy Docket.

Opposing the SAVE Act

Young voters and voters of color are also likely to be disproportionately impacted by the SAVE Act if it is enacted.

First proposed in 2025, the SAVE Act would require Americans to present proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. Advocates say that it would make it harder for millions of Americans to vote. The SAVE Act recently passed the House of Representatives and is expected to be heard in the Senate soon.

Noting how detrimental this legislation would be, Forward Justice is asking people to call their elected officials and sign petitions opposing the SAVE Act.

“We are…working with our partners to continue to advocate and let folks know these restrictions are unnecessary, and [that] it is really trying to restrict people’s right to vote unnecessarily. It’s frustrating that this is what our administration is doing. We’re not making it easier for folks, we’re making it harder,” Marshall said.

Additionally, Marshall says that Forward Justice is watching for any efforts of voter intimidation at the polls, especially as the general election nears, acknowledging concerns that arose during the primary election after a flash-bang was set off about 150 yards from an early voting site in Aberdeen, NC.

Witnesses said they heard a loud blast before officers were able to locate the device, which appeared to have been thrown from a passing vehicle. Though no one was injured, it served as a reminder of the increasing need for safety and security at polling sites.

Marshall adds that it is critical for elected officials and others in power to speak up and affirm people’s right to vote safely and securely.

“These are some of the instances where we need our officials to come on record to say that folks have the right to vote in this time and there’s a mechanism to protect and safeguard everyone’s right to vote,” she said.