Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Dems Set The Stage To Silence Election Integrity Groups When They’re Back In Power
The Federalist ^ | 18 May, 2026 | M.D. Kittle

Posted on 05/18/2026 9:04:22 AM PDT by MtnClimber

‘Taken together, you see a playbook not used since Elijah Cummings and the IRS targeting scandal days,’ PILF’s Logan Churchwell said.

Recent stinging redistricting losses not withstanding, Democrats at least outwardly remain confident about their chances to take back the House in November. And the left-wing legal apparatus is laying the groundwork to go to war on election-integrity warriors the minute they have a friendlier Congress to work with.

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has been tracking the left’s playbook as Democrats line up their targets for the next session of Congress.

“You are going to see a nationwide campaign,” Logan Churchwell, the foundation’s research director, told The Federalist in a recent interview. “Liberals are preparing for payback, assuming the political winds shift in their favor.”

There’s not much the minority party can do at the moment beyond political temper tantrums, but they’re looking to 2027 with ravenous eyes.

Eye on Their Prize

Historically, midterms have been unkind to the party in power at the White House. Democrats were feeling pretty cocky about taking back the House, maybe even the Senate — that is until their gerrymandering gambit blew up in their faces. A double whammy of Virginia Dems failing in their scheme to steal four congressional seats via a rigged redistricting plan and the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling ending racially gerrymandered districts has made the road to the House majority much more complicated.

And polling, always subject to change and generally suspect, suggests Democrats are stuck in their own mud. A You/Gov poll last week found 37 percent of respondents would vote for the Democrat in their district, while 34 percent would vote for the Republican. All things considered, that’s effectively a dead heat.

But there’s a whole lot of dissatisfaction in the middle. The poll found 29 percent are undecided, voting for candidate C, or taking a pass on voting in November.

And while many of its members may be clinically insane, the Democratic Party has a secret political weapon heading into November: majority Republicans in the Senate. Their leadership doesn’t seem all that interested in fighting for President Donald Trump’s agenda. And the president, too, has veered from some of his key agenda points in the minds of a lot of MAGA conservatives, not the least of which is his military intervention in Iran. There’s definitely disaffection there, and it could prove costly for Republicans in November.

And if Democrats win back the House, expect plenty of speed bumps for Trump, including the return of impeachment theater. His allies, too, will take a hammering from a Democrat majority.

‘A Long, Nasty Pedigree’

Investigation letters from congressional committee ranking members and Freedom of Information Act lawsuits reviewed by The Federalist tip off what House Democrats are planning when they’re back in power. They will weaponize every committee they can against the leaders of the election-integrity movement.

In December, the Democracy Defenders Fund, a leftist lawfare “nonprofit” led by former Obama administration diplomat Norm Eisen, filed a Hatch Act complaint against U.S. Election Assistance Commissioner Christy McCormick. Why? Because McCormick used the term “the left” in public remarks during the Oct. 29 Recent Progress in Election Security Roundtable hosted by the America First Policy Institute’s Secure Elections Center. The attack group accused McCormick of politicking by mischaracterizing the Democratic Party and communist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was campaigning for the position at the time, of being “proponents of voter fraud.”

“These remarks appear to constitute impermissible political activity ‘directed toward the success or failure of a political party [or a] candidate for partisan political office’ in violation of the Hatch Act,” the complaint to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel alleges.

But DDF edited McCormick’s remarks in an attempt to make its case, inserting the word “Democrats” at times when the EAC official was referring to the left in general, according to the Public Interest Legal Foundation. As PILF President J. Christian Adams noted at the time, DDF submitted the complaint to federal investigators with the certification that all their “statements made in this complaint are true, complete, and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.” Lying to the agency is a criminal offense.

Adams said McCormick’s comments about the left, particularly neosocialists like Mamdani, were true — and defensible.

“McCormick was correct: the ‘left’ has fought against efforts to keep aliens off voter rolls. Free speech is important and those who would weaponize the government against truth tellers have a long, nasty pedigree in world history. That’s who you are, Norm Eisen,” Adams wrote in the pointed statement.

Like the ‘IRS Targeting Scandal Days’

In February, the ranking members of three House committees launched an investigation into a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employee accused of improperly handling Social Security data. The lawmakers sent letters to more than a dozen nonprofit election-integrity groups. They accuse the advocates— including PILF, the America First Legal Foundation, the Election Integrity Network, and True the Vote, of being “anti-voting” organizations. The Democrats are seeking documents related to the “use of government data derived from SSA or any federal agency to conduct election monitoring in U.S. states.” And they want “all agreements that bear the signature of any member of the U.S. DOGE Service or SSA.”

In a March response, Churchwell disabused the ranking members of their flawed characterizations and off-the-mark documents grab.

Last month, the leftist Democracy Forward Foundation sued the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division seeking records from the EAC on “election subversion activities.” What is “election subversion”, according to the foundation? Filing lawsuits demanding states with perhaps much to hide to turn over voter roll information for the DOJ’s investigation into whether noncitizens and other ineligible voters are registered. The group demands communications with individuals and groups associated with “election denial” — a catch-all descriptor invented by groups like Democracy Forward to attack election integrity efforts.

-------------------SNIP --------------------


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: electionfraud

Click here: to donate by Credit Card

Or here: to donate by PayPal

Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794

Thank you very much and God bless you.


1 posted on 05/18/2026 9:04:22 AM PDT by MtnClimber
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

More lawfare if the democRATs take the house and Senate.


2 posted on 05/18/2026 9:04:36 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

It’s going to be a nightmare. Hopefully they don’t get majority in either parts of Congress.


3 posted on 05/18/2026 9:06:29 AM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

When they get total control again, hello DC and San Juan as new states (4 senators and ? congresscritters), pack the Supreme court, pack all the federal judges that the stinking RINOs have yet to fill, do away with the constitution and bill of rights (total gun ban), open that border so wide that Spanish will become the predominate language of the USA, Chinese second, Arabic third, and maybe English fourth. This Republic will no longer be. We are outnumbered.


4 posted on 05/18/2026 9:10:23 AM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Bible speaks truth! Don't believe it, you do so at your own peril. You'd better be right!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator

We win in November and we’re good for 2 years. It’s still up to the state legislatures I do believe and if we’re winning the redistrict war we should be ok. Just ask the 5 senators in Indiana Want’s me-can’t...


5 posted on 05/18/2026 9:12:34 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RetiredArmy

It would be tantamount to a declaration of war on half the country. I don’t think this will end well for them.


6 posted on 05/18/2026 9:14:42 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Why has Norm Eisen not been treated to a slew of investigations and lawsuits since Trump came to office? He and Mark Elias should have been the top two targets of Republican lawfare. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.


7 posted on 05/18/2026 9:40:40 AM PDT by FLT-bird
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Sidebar Moderator
It would be tantamount to a declaration of war on half the country. I don’t think this will end well for them.

They're declared war before, most recently during OCVID and Biden's comatose reign of terror for four years. What punishment happened to the DEMs then? I must have missed it.

8 posted on 05/18/2026 9:50:03 AM PDT by CatOwner (Don't expect anyone, even conservatives, to have your back when the SHTF in 2021 and beyond.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: FLT-bird
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Yes, especially since they have both been involved in sedition.

9 posted on 05/18/2026 9:52:57 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: RetiredArmy

Don’t fret! We have John Thune, we’ll be fine. /s


10 posted on 05/18/2026 9:56:34 AM PDT by chickenlips (Neuter your politicians)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Which is why we need go stop them from ever getting back in power.


11 posted on 05/18/2026 11:02:14 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: chickenlips

Thune sucks. Worthless twit.


12 posted on 05/18/2026 12:35:02 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Bible speaks truth! Don't believe it, you do so at your own peril. You'd better be right!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Sidebar Moderator

It’ll end in a civil war, friend, simple as that. A bloodshed that the commies will call in their friends from China, Russia, and the muzzie terrorists to assist them.


13 posted on 05/18/2026 12:36:55 PM PDT by RetiredArmy (The Bible speaks truth! Don't believe it, you do so at your own peril. You'd better be right!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: CatOwner

“ They’re declared war before…”

Not like this.


14 posted on 05/18/2026 5:26:24 PM PDT by Sidebar Moderator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MtnClimber

Bkmk


15 posted on 05/18/2026 5:54:21 PM PDT by sauropod
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson