Democrats Planning Their Own 'Stop The Steal' If They Don't Win The Midterms

After the 2020 presidential election, Democratic leaders spent years condemning President Trump's claims that fraud cost him a second term. They described his refusal to accept the results as an attack on democracy, and they pointed to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol as the consequence of his rhetoric.

Six years later, with Election Day one week away, many of those same Democrats have spent more than a year warning voters that Trump and Republicans intend to steal the 2026 midterms.

Journalist Mark Halperin, writing in The Free Press, reported that progressives have grown "so confident in a midterm blowout that they think Trump cheating is the only way they can lose." According to Halperin, that conviction leaves the Democratic base primed for "rage and disappointment" if the results fall short of a wave.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has used the word "rigging" to describe Trump's approach to the midterms, and CBS News anchor Margaret Brennan pressed him on it.

"Democrats were appalled when President Trump used language like that," Brennan said. "How do you justify using that now? Doesn't that undermine faith for voters you need to show up?"

In July, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats were preparing for interference from the president.

"We're anticipating the trouble he might create, the evil he might do," Schumer said. Sen. Adam Schiff of California made a similar prediction that month. "Trump intends to repeat his playbook from 2020, and attempt to deny any result he does not like," Schiff said.

Last month, Schumer told Semafor that only two things stood between Democrats and a Senate majority.

"It's 50-50. We're right on the edge of winning. Two things could have us lose. One, they steal the election. ... The second thing is money. They have obscene amounts of money," Schumer said. "All we need is enough to be able to answer the sh*t they're going to throw at us, and we're doing well there."

Democratic Party candidates have adopted the theme. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, told supporters earlier this month that Democrats need a margin large enough to withstand a challenge from the White House.

"We've got to win by massive numbers. Donald Trump has already threatened to do what he did in 2020, which is deny the outcomes of an election, and right now, he is president of the United States," El-Sayed said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has focused on voter registration lists, saying Trump is "going after the voting rolls, trying to purge those rolls."

Halperin wrote that concern about the period after Election Day now rivals concern about the vote itself among Democrats and members of the press.

"Democrats and much of the media are freaking out these days as much about what they fear will happen after the election as they are about what will happen in the election," Halperin wrote. "What's Trump up to? Is he going to play fair? Will he interfere with the results? Is he going to sabotage our fundamental democratic process?"

Halperin also laid out the administration actions that Democrats cite as grounds for their warnings.

"The Trump administration has been on the warpath, especially after failing to pass the SAVE America Act, pressuring states to turn over voter rolls, flirting with sending immigration officials to polling places, and preemptively involving administration officials in the election process," he wrote.

The SAVE America Act would have required documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, and a photo ID to vote. It had massive bipartisan support from voters, but Democrats in the Senate filibustered the legislation.

The Democratic warnings rest in part on polling that shows the party headed for a strong night. Generic ballot surveys favor Democrats, and many in the party expect gains in both chambers. However, even CNN data analyst Harry Enten has cautioned that the margins remain narrow, and that a polling miss on the scale of past midterm polling errors would leave Republicans in control of the Senate at minimum.

Last month, Enten took the final polling averages for every Senate race with a final margin of 5 points or less and found they were off by an average of 3.7 points.

"This, to me, is the big siren warning sign for Democrats right here. Because I know you feel like it's Lucy and the football," Enten said. "You've seen yourselves ahead before. And then Election Day, the votes are cast and counted, and the Republicans come out ahead."

If that pattern holds, Democratic leaders who have spent the past year insisting that if they lose it means the election was stolen will face their own test on whether to accept the results.