‘every Possible Pretext’: State Officials Say Trump Is Pushing The Bounds Of Election Administration

Top bipartisan election officials from around the country are growing increasingly alarmed by what they see as President Donald Trump's unprecedented push to interfere in the midterm elections.

A series of recent moves — from his administration’s requests for access to state voter rolls to a surprise FBI raid at a Fulton County election office — have solidified those concerns, with more than a dozen election officials from both parties telling POLITICO they fear Trump is laying the groundwork to undermine results still months away.

“Everything we lived through in 2020 was the beginning — not the end — of this multi-year effort to dismantle democracy in America,” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat who is also running for governor, said in an interview. “We're seeing it play out now in reaching a fever pitch in really extraordinary, unprecedented, scary ways.”

Trump’s incursion into state election proceedings was on stark display at last week’s meeting of secretaries of state in Washington, a typically staid, bipartisan event that turned into a political spectacle at times — with Trump and his administration looming large.

As the election officials gathered, the FBI was executing a search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia, elections office in search of ballots from 2020. Dozens of states are locked in active litigation with the Justice Department over its unprecedented request for voter rolls, and officials were pleading with the administration to halt its deployment of ICE agents to Minnesota, which the Trump administration tied to the state’s voter rolls. And just after the conference, Trump said Republicans should “nationalize” and “take over” elections.

“The concern that I have is that the Trump administration seems to be looking for every possible pretext to try to seize control in some way,” said Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, another Democratic gubernatorial hopeful who has been a vocal critic of the administration’s deployment of immigration officials.

While Democrats were more outspoken, the concerns were not limited to just one party. Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican and her state’s chief election official, pressed a senior White House aide at the conference about the harsh criticism coming from the administration over the DOJ’s voter roll push.

“The things that have been said publicly, frankly, are quite appalling,” Henderson said to White House Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Jared Borg as several of her colleagues and reporters looked on, referencing comments from the Department of Justice attacking states for not complying with its request for voter rolls across the country, a move that has confused — and frustrated — many state election officials.

The DOJ “pretty much slandered all of us to publicly claim that secretaries of state are not doing our jobs and that the federal government has to do it for us. Not OK,” Henderson said during a question-and-answer session.

West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner, another Republican, echoed Henderson’s rhetoric surrounding the voter roll push in an interview.

“What is it that the federal government thinks that they can do that we're not already doing?” Warner said. “I mean, elections are left to the states in the U.S. Constitution.”

Still, some Republican secretaries of state applauded the Trump administration's involvement in state election proceedings.

“I really appreciate the accountability and the oversight from the Trump administration in making sure that the law has been, was, and will be followed,” said Wyoming GOP Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who represents one of 11 states that have voluntarily turned over their voter rolls to the DOJ.

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon defended the administration’s request for voter rolls in a statement, saying “clean voter rolls and basic election safeguards are requisites for free, fair, and transparent elections.”

“The DOJ Civil Rights Division has a statutory mandate to enforce our federal voting rights laws, and ensuring the voting public’s confidence in the integrity of our elections is a top priority of this administration,” she continued.

A White House spokesperson also dismissed concerns from election officials about the deployment of ICE agents, which some Trump allies have pushed for. “ICE is focused on removing criminal illegal aliens from the country, who should be nowhere near any polling places because it would be a crime for them to vote,” spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

While members of both parties sharply rebuked the Trump administration’s foray into elections — from the request for voter rolls to the FBI raid in Fulton County — they maintain that they still trust the election system overall.

That somewhat paradoxical dynamic has put Democrats in a bind: They are forcefully defending election integrity — and have faith in the system — while casting doubt on an administration they believe is doing everything it can to cling to power after the 2026 midterms.

“I trust American elections. I trust American elections in Kentucky and Tennessee and South Dakota, just like I trust them in California, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said in an interview.

Still, Fontes said, “we have a new set of threats to our election,” threats that come from what he calls “an administration that is totally unhinged, totally undisciplined, and is willing to sacrifice the entire Republic and what we stand on for no really good reason.”

“If the president himself genuinely believes that we should have a free and fair election in 2026 he needs to come out and say so,” Fontes said.

It all comes at a precarious time for election administration across the country, as droves of officials leave the field amid increased scrutiny and sometimes outright threats.

In many ways, last week’s conference of secretaries of state was emblematic of the tension playing out for these officials as they navigate an administration increasingly involved in election administration.

At one point, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Attorney General Pam Bondi and National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard were all scheduled to speak — an unprecedented move for a conference that rarely draws Cabinet-level officials.

The officials’ planned appearance immediately riled up Democrats, some of whom quickly planned to boycott the appearance. Gabbard has come under sharp scrutiny in recent days over her involvement in last week’s FBI raid in Georgia — a move that concerned Democrats and numerous state election officials who say it falls far outside the purview of her role as director of national intelligence.

And although the Cabinet officials’ visit was eventually canceled — for reasons that still remain unclear — it put the tensions between Democratic and Republican secretaries on full display. Democrats were notified they would be allotted only three questions as a caucus, they said, and all their inquiries would be vetted and read by the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, Mississippi Secretary Michael Watson, a Republican.

Benson, the Michigan Democrat, said she planned to tell the officials that their rhetoric placed her at risk and ask Bondi specifically how the DOJ would protect officials who have come under fire. But with all questions set to go through Watson, she felt partisanship had taken hold of the conference.

“We aren’t children,” Benson told POLITICO just before the meeting was canceled, adding later: “How's the Republican secretary of state of Mississippi going to ask that question on my behalf?”

Even though election officials are maintaining their faith in this year’s midterms, many told POLITICO they are taking active steps to prepare for the possibility of interference from the federal government — likening such moves to how they would prepare for events like a flood or a fire.

“Although I'm not yet predicting federal interference in the November election, I feel a responsibility to plan for that possibility,” said Minnesota Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon, noting that his office is working with officials from other states on possible scenarios.

The difference, however, is where the threats are coming from, said Fontes, the Arizona Democrat.

“Trying to protect voters is not new," he said, "we've got new kinds of threats, unfortunately, this time around, the bad guys are inside the castle so we just got to try a little harder.”

Dana Nickel contributed to this report.