'Red-alarm fire': State AGs 'running war games' to protect the midterms from Trump

Following a series of double-digit election victories in late 2025 and early 2026, Democrats are feeling increasingly optimistic about their prospects in this year's midterms. But Democratic elections attorney Marc Elias is worried about legal maneuvers that President Donald Trump and his allies are likely to make as November draws closer, and he warns that far-right "War Room" host Steve Bannon should be taken seriously when he calls for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to "surround the polls" on Election Day.

In an article published on February 23, Politico's Lisa Kashinsky reports that Democratic state attorneys general are ramping up their legal game plan for the midterms and are preparing for the worst.

"Democratic attorneys general are bracing for President Donald Trump to interfere in the midterm elections — and war-gaming how to stop him," Kashinsky explains. "The party's top prosecutors have been strategizing for months about how to counter a series of increasingly extreme scenarios they fear could play out this fall. They have huddled in hotel conference rooms and over Zoom meetings to run tabletop exercises anticipating the president's moves and choreographing responses."

Kashinsky adds, "They're preparing for the administration to potentially confiscate ballots and voting machines, strip resources from the postal service to disrupt the delivery of mail ballots, and send military members and immigration agents to polling locations to intimidate voters. They're readying motions for temporary restraining orders to preserve election materials and remove armed forces from voting sites."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta warns fellow Democrats against underestimating Trump.

Bonta told Politico, "(Trump) wants to continue to have his party prevail, seemingly by whatever means necessary. So we have to be ready for that, sad and tragic as it is."

Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown, similarly, described MAGA Republicans' remarks on the midterms as a "red-alarm fire that people need to take very seriously."

Brown told Politico, "He will try anything….. (So) we have to just sort of think creatively about: If you were the president and you were trying to invalidate an election or undermine an election, what are the oddball, ludicrous, unconstitutional theories that you might advance?"

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