Democrats are raising concerns about Trump’s interference in the midterm elections. The White House calls it “fear-mongering”

If history is a guide, Republicans have a good chance of losing control of the House in 2026. They have only a narrow majority in the chamber, and the incumbent party usually gives up seats in midterm elections.

President Donald Trump, whose loss of the House midway through his first term led to his two impeachments, is trying to prevent history from repeating — and doing so in ways that his opponents say are aimed at manipulating next year’s electoral landscape.

He has mobilized his party to redraw congressional maps across the country to create more conservative-leaning House seats, an effort that may ultimately backfire on him. He has directed his administration to target Democratic politicians, activists, and donors. Democrats worry that he is flexing his muscles to interfere in the midterm elections in a way that no administration has ever done.

Democrats and other critics point to how Trump has sent the military into Democratic cities over the objections of Democratic mayors and governors. They point out that it prompted the Department of Homeland Security to be so aggressive that its agents at one point handcuffed a Democratic U.S. Senator. Some warn that the Republican-controlled Congress may fail to choose winning candidates if Democrats regain the majority in the House of Representatives, recalling Trump’s efforts to remain in power even after voters rejected him in 2020, which led to the violent attack by his supporters on the US Capitol.

Regarding potential military deployments, Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, told the Associated Press: “What he’s going to do is send those troops there, and keep them there for the duration of the next election, because guess what? If people are afraid to leave their homes, they’re probably not going to leave their homes to go vote on Election Day. And that’s how he stays in power.”

The army to the polls or to create fear?

Democrats issued similar ultimatums just before the November election, but no significant incidents occurred. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a frequent Trump opponent who also warns of a federal crackdown on voting in 2026, predicted that masked immigration agents would show up at polls in his state, as voters were considering a ballot measure to counter Trump’s redistricting campaign.

Read more: Opponents of Trump-backed redistricting in Missouri file petition to force at-large vote

No such incidents occurred in November, and a measure to redraw congressional lines in California in response to Trump’s efforts elsewhere won a landslide victory.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said concerns about the midterms come from Democratic politicians who are “fear-mongering to score political points with the extreme left wing of the Democratic Party that they are courting ahead of their doomed presidential campaigns.”

She described their concerns as “baseless conspiracy theories.”

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wells, denied that Trump was planning to use the military to try to suppress votes.

“I’m saying that’s categorically not true, and it’s not going to happen. It’s just wrong thinking,” she told Vanity Fair in an interview published earlier in December.

Dan Freeman, litigation director for the Democratic National Committee, said he has seen no indication that Trump will send immigration enforcement agents to polling places during the midterm elections, but he is concerned.

He said the Democratic National Committee has filed public records requests to try to learn more about any such plans and is drafting legal arguments it could file if Trump sends armed federal agents to the polls or otherwise interferes in the election.

“We don’t take their word for it,” Freeman said in an interview.

States, not presidents, administer elections

The November election may not be the best indicator of what may lie ahead. They were spread out in a handful of states, and Trump showed only modest interest until late fall when the Justice Department announced it would send federal observers to California and New Jersey to monitor voting in a handful of counties. It was a bureaucratic move that had no impact on the vote, even as it alarmed Democrats.

Alexandra Chandler, legal director for Defend Democracy, a group that has clashed with Trump over his role in the election, said she was relieved by the lack of drama during the 2025 vote.

“We have a lot of positive signs we can look forward to,” Chandler said, citing not only a quiet election, but also GOP senators’ resistance to Trump’s demands to abolish the filibuster and widespread resistance to Trump’s demand that TV host Jimmy Kimmel lose his job over his criticism of the president. She noted that “there are limits” to Trump’s power.

He watches: Capehart and Gorman talk about Democrats’ election win and Trump’s push to end the filibuster

“We will have an election in 2026,” Chandler said. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

Under the Constitution, the president has limited tools to interfere in state elections. Congress can help set the rules for federal elections, but states run their own election processes and oversee the counting of votes.

When Trump tried on his own to revise election rules with a sweeping executive order shortly after his return to office, the courts stepped in and blocked him, citing no constitutional role for the president. Trump later promised something else, perhaps targeting postal ballots and voting machines, but that has not yet materialized.

Requesting voter data from DOJ ‘should scare everyone’

However, there are many ways the president can cause problems, said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, California.

Trump has unsuccessfully pressed Georgia’s top elections official to “find” enough votes to declare him the winner there in 2020, and could try similar tactics in Republican-controlled states in November. Likewise, Hasen said Trump could spread misinformation to undermine confidence in vote counting, as he routinely did before the election.

Hasen pointed out that this is difficult to do in unbalanced competitions, as happened in many competitions in 2025.

“The concerns about Trump meddling in 2026 are real, not trivial,” Hasen said. “It’s also unlikely, but these are things people should be careful of.”

One administrative move that has election officials concerned is a federal request from the Justice Department to obtain detailed voter data from states. The administration sued the District of Columbia and at least 21 states, most of which are controlled by Democrats, after they refused to hand over all information requested by the Justice Department.

“What the Justice Department is trying to do is something that should scare everyone across the political spectrum,” said David Pecker, a former voting rights lawyer at the Justice Department and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. “They are trying to use the power of the executive branch to bully states into turning over highly sensitive data — date of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, the holy trinity of identity theft — and handing it over to the Department of Justice for who knows what good it will do.”

“Voter Protection” vs. “Election Integrity”

Voting rights lawyers and election officials have been preparing for the midterm elections for months, trying to ensure there are ways to counter misinformation and ensure state election systems are easier to explain. Both major parties are expected to campaign heavily on the mechanics of voting: Democrats are ramping up what they call “voter protection” efforts to police problems while Republicans are focusing on what they call “election integrity.”

Freeman, the Democratic National Committee’s litigation director who previously worked in the Justice Department’s voting division, said his appointment this year was part of a larger effort by the Democratic National Committee to bolster its internal legal efforts ahead of the midterm elections. He said the commission is working to close loopholes in Voting Rights Act enforcement typically covered by the Justice Department, including telling states they cannot illegally purge citizens from their voter rolls.

Interest in the group’s training has “exploded” in recent weeks, says Tina Barton, co-chair of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, a coalition of law enforcement and election officials that advises jurisdictions on de-escalation and how to respond to emergencies at polling places.

“There’s a lot at stake, and this is going to bring up a lot of emotions,” Barton said.

Associated Press writers Mark Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Julie Carr Smith in Columbus, Ohio, and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.