|
Her case in point is the six-month battle in North Carolina to defend Justice Allison Riggs’s November election to the state supreme court. Riggs’s Republican opponent, Judge Jefferson Griffin, spent six months attempting to get thousands of votes disqualified. Griffin finally conceded in May. But the Riggs campaign had to spend at least a million dollars in legal fees and the state Democratic Party spent more.
This is a preview of things to come in 2026. The relative good news is that most contestable seats are in blue or purple states, where elections and voter registration will be relatively honest. But at least eight close House races are in states that Republicans control or partly control, including districts in Iowa, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.
In addition, Trump will continue to use executive orders to try to weaken voting rights. In March, Trump issued an order usurping state control over voting procedures, requiring that voters show proof of citizenship. This was blocked by two federal district courts, but the recent Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. CASA, overturning nationwide injunctions by lower courts, leaves the Trump order in limbo.
Democrats may also be weakened by dark money, of the sort that originates with the crypto industry or pro-Zionist PACs, aimed at taking out progressive Democrats, who often have a better shot against Republicans in the general election.
And finally, there are the structural disadvantages that force Democrats to win in places like Ohio and Iowa that have shifted to the right in order to win a Senate majority. The wave of discontent with Trump policies might make that achievable but it’s going to be difficult.
An honest referendum on Trump’s policies would be bad news for Republicans in 2026. It will take a huge amount of organizing to overcome the structural biases and the potential margin of theft. |
