Campaign Spotlight: GTFO
The TL;DR
The federal government has almost no constitutional role in running our elections. The Trump administration knows this. They just don't care. They've been trying to grab voter data, intimidate local election officials, and have openly called for nationalizing our elections — which is a fancy way of saying "let us pick winners, voters be damned."
The good news? The Constitution is pretty clear on this one. (Thank you, Article 1, Section 4). The even better news? State and local leaders are fighting back. But for them to keep fighting, they need to be re-elected in 2026 and 2027.
The Constitution called. It wants its elections back.
You don't need a law degree to understand the Elections Clause. You just need to be able to read:
"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of choosing Senators."
Notice who's not in there? The President. Not once. Not a little bit.
The Founders — who, it's worth remembering, had just lived through what happens when one executive gets too much power — were not about to hand the keys to elections to a single person in Washington. So they didn't. Elections belong to the states and, within limits, to Congress. The President gets to...vote. That's about it.
This decentralized design is also what makes our elections genuinely impossible to steal. Think about it: our elections are run by nearly 10,000 officials across 50 states and thousands of counties and municipalities. There is no single lever to pull, no single office to pressure, no single database to hack.
That's not an accident. That's the whole point.
So what has the administration actually been doing?
Trying to get YOUR voter data at any cost: Since Trump took office, this administration has been demanding private voter data from the states. Last winter, Attorney General Pam Bondi kicked it up a notch in Minnesota with a little mob-style negotiation — if the state handed over the voter data, *maybe* ICE could back off a bit.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said no — and basically told them to go jump in a frozen lake. That was the correct response.
Why does this matter? Your voter data is private. The federal government has no general legal authority to demand it. And using immigration enforcement as a bargaining chip to extract election data is not a policy — it's coercion.Sending the FBI to relitigate 2020: After election officials from both parties refused to hand over voter data, federal agents showed up in Fulton County, Georgia — yes, that Fulton County, the one at the center of the 2020 election denial universe — to seize records from the last presidential election.
The legal justification for this remains... vague, at best. What isn't vague is the message it sends to every local election official in the country: give Trump the election results he wants, or the feds will show up at your door.
Saying the quiet part out loud: If all that wasn't enough, Trump has now straight up called for nationalizing elections. Let's be clear about what that means: replacing the decentralized, locally accountable system that has protected American democracy for centuries with one that the federal executive controls.
For reference, here's what nationalization would actually do:
•Blow up the structural firewall that makes large-scale election fraud nearly impossible
•Replace locally accountable officials with federal ones who answer to the administration
•Hand one person in Washington enormous leverage over who gets to vote and how those votes are counted.
(Unconstitutional) Executive Orders: Trump is pressuring the courts to uphold a slew of unconstitutional executive orders on election administration. The chaos of his messy orders contributes to voter confusion and worsens a dangerous environment for election administrators. Already, security threats and heightened pressure from Washington are leading to high turnover rates while also making it harder to recruit (and retain) the people who actually run our elections.
These aren't dramatic moments — they're the slow drip of institutional erosion that causes long-term damage even when no one's paying attention. And, like we've said before — these executive orders aren't just damaging to elections; they are also unconstitutional.
Why state & local races matter for the 2028 presidential election race
Here's the thing the national political conversation keeps getting wrong: the midterms matter, yes — but the real action for protecting elections isn't in the House or Senate. It's in state courthouses, county offices, and secretary of state races that most people aren't paying attention to.
The officials and judges elected in 2026 and 2027 will directly determine:
Where and when you can vote in 2028
How ballots are counted and what counts as valid
Which legal challenges get filed — and which ones win
The certification process for the next presidential election
This is not hypothetical. This is already happening. The people who will certify the 2028 results are running for office right now. Some of them are running against people who believe the last several elections were fraudulent. The stakes of those races are not abstract.
Enemies of democracy have understood this for decades. They've built coordinated, well-funded infrastructure to win state and local races. The result is a map of secretaries of state, attorneys general, and state legislators who are primed to make election administration harder, not easier.
The solution isn't complicated. It's just work.
The good news: SLEA knows how to win
Before you spiral: the cavalry exists. The constitutional check on federal overreach in elections is our state and local officials — as long as they have the backbone to stand strong and the support they need to do so.
Yes, litigation helps. Yes, federal courts matter. But the most durable protection is having the right people in the right offices — people who know the law, respect it, and won't fold when a federal agency shows up with demands it has no authority to make.
Some of the races that will shape 2028 are obvious — governors, secretaries of state, and U.S. House seats. But many of the most important elections fly under the radar: mayors, county clerks, state courts, and local election boards. There are thousands of these critical, low-profile races across the country.
That's where SLEA comes in. We are dedicated to monitoring, investing in, and winning the most important state and local elections you've never heard of.
The budgets are small, and the impact is high. We can play and win in dozens of races for the amount of money it takes to move the needle in one federal race.
Hyper-local races receive little attention and attract fewer resources, so the opportunity for impact is enormous. Our model is to invest in smart programs where they exist, coordinate with partners on the ground, and only create our own program where needed.
A strategic, early investment can fundamentally shift the balance of power in election administration and oversight. We know where to direct resources, where dollars will go the furthest. In short: we know how to win more for less.
The federal government is going to keep pushing. The question is whether the people responsible for pushing back are in place when it counts.
The Race for 2028 Started Yesterday — Here's What You Can Do
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Check out this explainer from friend-of-SLEA Ben Sheehan and share it with your friends and family to help them understand the basics of state + local control over elections.
Learn more about the state and local candidates on your ballot.