While you may feel like this year’s midterm elections took us by surprise, a handful of House Democrats have been preparing for this moment for years. One of the consequences of January 6 and subsequent attempts to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential victory was that congressional Democrats realized they could no longer count on the US elections to go smoothly. As a result, there is now significant infrastructure to track and respond to election disputes as they arise. Democrats just hope they don’t miss anything.
Several lawmakers have expressed concern about the upcoming vote and attempted to reinforce what they see as vulnerabilities.
“The Justice Department has been anything other than a bulwark. They’ve been an aggressor and they continue to try to disrupt and throw, frankly, spaghetti at the wall,” said Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.). “But I think we’re prepared. I know we’re prepared, and we’re watching and monitoring every move they make.”
Over the past year, the administration has sought to restrict postal voting, thought about deploying ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers at polling places, and much more. The expected wave of lawsuits and election challenges is keeping Democrats and local officials up at night.
As I noted last weekMarc Elias, a Democratic elections lawyer deeply involved in the party’s planning process for responding to the disputes, said he expects the Trump administration to use the same type of flood-the-zone strategy that the president and his allies used after losing the 2020 election. “Those will be defeated,” Elias said.
Democrats are already working to get ahead of these anticipated maneuvers, which will put them in a better position to face other, less predictable challenges that could arise on or after Election Day. Trained Congressional staff are being sent in races where rogue Republicans or election officials might try to challenge unfavorable results. They will serve primarily as observers, taking contemporaneous notes and recording testimony that could prove useful in court if the results are challenged. Even though Democrats have recruited nearly three hundred staffers for these positions, where they are ultimately sent will depend on which races are having the most problems.
“I think it will be an expanded list beyond what we would typically do,” said a senior Democratic official on the House Administration Committee. “We could be somewhere between sixty or seventy districts. »
Morelle, who is the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, has repeatedly expressed confidence in his team’s ability to prevail over whatever the administration throws at it. Over the summer and into the fall, Morelle conducted parallel hearings to review preparedness efforts and take stock of resources in high-pressure districts across the United States.
But lawmakers are also feeling a little nervous about the possibility that the federal government use intimidation tactics at polling places and at ballot drop-off locations for postal voting. And they’re not just wondering if ICE agents introduce yourself in the polling stations.
Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) told reporters that “ICE deployed and even visible, even if it is outside the 200-foot perimeter” of a polling place or high-traffic ballot drop-off location, could intimidate key voters.
“There is credible fear among U.S. citizens who might be of Latino or Asian descent,” Takano said. “People might have legitimate fears of being apprehended by ICE.”
While voting is underway in many states, the Trump administration has already started to get involved by filing a lawsuit. trial in the Alaska Senate race, arguing that voters might not understand the difference between the two Dan Sullivans.
That’s the argument in a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department, saying Alaska should delay certification of its results in case incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses the race to Democratic challenger Mary Peltola by a margin less than or equal to the number of votes received by the other Dan Sullivan. A federal judge the trial was acceleratedsupported by the DSCC campaign and Peltola; it could be rejected later this week.
Beyond House Democrats’ official efforts to prevent interference in the midterms, Democratic-aligned groups like Indivisible are collect names mobilize election observers and protesters in key states in case of shenanigans.
While public polls generally indicate that Democrats will do well next week, a blue wave is emerging. it’s not safe. Regardless, the general feeling among Democrats is that major blue victories are imminent, and most Democrats in Congress believe the president and his supporters are responding to this narrative by preparing to fight to prevent it, by any means necessary, from becoming a reality.
Over the past week, Press pass has done revealing reporting on the super PAC formerly known as “Democrats for Mike Rogers.” Our most striking conclusion is that the organization is not actually made up of Democrats; rather, it is an astroturf operation financed by GOP megadonors and contract for services with Companies connected to MAGA.
On Saturday, the group tried to show definitively that it was a grassroots operation after all by holding a get-out-the-vote rally in Detroit. The event included a rap performance, free food and a bounce house. Could an astroturf organization do *this*?they practically dared to ask journalists.
The answer to this question is, Yes. A source sent photos of the participation in this gathering/concert/rebound event, and I am sending them to you in turn.
I guess the “Democrats for Mike Rogers” were all out of frame, laughing too.
Yesterday marked fifty-nine years since former Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) A-4 Skyhawk crashed over Hanoi, Vietnam. North Vietnamese forces captured and tortured him for more than five years.
McCain’s story and refusal to break up despite years of abuse is probably familiar to Press pass readers, but my favorite account is in this famous profile of McCain written during the 2000 presidential campaign by David Foster Wallace.
After detailing McCain’s cinematically terrifying descent into a lake, his capture, and the subsequent beating, Wallace prompted readers to think seriously about how they might act if, like McCain—the son and grandson of four-star admirals—they were offered the chance to return home earlier than expected, in place of the prisoners of war captured before him. In vintage DFW style, it’s both serious and hilarious.
Imagine how your most basic and overriding self-interest would have screamed at you in that moment, and all the ways you could rationalize accepting the offer. Can you hear it? If so, would you have refused to go? You just can’t know for sure. None of us can. It’s hard to even imagine the pain and fear in that moment, let alone know how you would react.
But you see, we know how this man reacted. That he chose to spend another four years there, in a dark box, alone, typing codes on walls for others, rather than violate a Code. Maybe he was crazy. But the fact is that with McCain, we feel like we know, in a proven way, that he is capable of devoting himself to something more than his own self-interest. So when he says that phrase in his speeches in early February, you might get the sense that maybe it’s not just candidate bullshit, but with this guy, maybe it’s the truth. Or maybe both truth and bullshit: the guy wants – wanted – your vote, after all.
Read the complete submission of the 2000 campaign trail has rolling stone. It is a long document, so I recommend that you print it for more comfortable reading. (You can also read this story in the pages of Wallace’s collection of essays Consider the Lobsterwhich is worth having on your shelf but can also be found in virtually every American public library.)
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