Republicans Have a Midterm Strategy: It Starts with Trying to Stop Democrats from Voting

Lawmakers have introduced 26 bills in 15 states

The question of the year is whether voters are going to check President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ power in November’s midterm elections. Since Trump retook office last January, Democrats from New Jersey to Virginia to Mississippi have won Republican-leaning and toss-up elections, as voters have sent a clear message that they’re done with this administration’s relentless chaos and corruption.

But there’s nothing subtle about Republican attempts to hold onto power by any means necessary. So now, Trump is openly threatening Americans’ ability to vote, claiming he’s going to “nationalize” elections, and using the specter of non-citizens voting, which is not a real problem but a convenient scapegoat for a party that doesn’t have much beyond white nationalism to unify its base. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress have introduced multiple bills that would prevent many eligible citizens from voting.

There’s another maneuver to keep an eye on: Republicans in Congress might be talking about it, but GOP state lawmakers are already moving ahead and passing laws to limit how Americans can vote.

One major, alarming, coordinated state-level strategy that deserves attention: State lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced 26 bills that would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, according to Voting Rights Lab. That may sound like a simple requirement, but it’s not. Requiring that kind of documentation makes it dramatically harder for many people to vote.

When I previously spoke to Christina Harvey, executive director of Stand Up America, she pointed out that the requirement to prove citizenship would especially disenfranchise women and rural voters. Harvey cited a report by the Center for American Progress that showed that heightened ID requirements just to register to vote would mean millions of eligible voters needing to drive very long distances to try to secure a passport or other documentation to prove eligibility.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, over 21 million American citizens of voting age don’t have a valid passport, naturalization papers, or birth certificate with their current name on it. Harvey says the majority of those Americans are married women. Those Americans who need to get their documents updated before November would have to pay out-of-pocket for the associated expenses, including the $165 to apply for a new passport and $130 to renew one. In states that have passed anti-voter bills, these fees are now essentially a poll tax. We all also know that running that kind of bureaucratic errand takes time and likely time off work. Republicans are trying to sell these voter suppression bills by whipping up fear about non-citizens, but the truth is that they make it harder for many women who are citizens to vote.

The state-level bills are modeled on national bills Congress has been considering, including the so-called SAVE America Act, which has made headlines in recent weeks. The SAVE America Act and its spinoffs are probably too extreme to pass in Congress; that’s how undemocratic they are. America First Policy Institute, a rightwing thinktank founded and run by former advisors to President Trump, has been promoting the legislation.

America First Policy Institute’s stated organizational mission is to promote Trump’s policy goals. Its staff has helped author and promote numerous executive orders that Trump has signed. What better way for America First Policy Institute to push its policy agenda than making sure that Republicans hold Congressional power after November? With a win this November, GOP Congressmembers can keep cheering on Trump as he continues signing executive orders that dismantle our rights and hand the country over to industry barons, Christian nationalist extremists, and billionaires hellbent on getting whatever will make them even richer even faster. It all works hand and glove so that the ultrawealthy can keep their guy in power.

The state-level versions of the SAVE Act are moving even quicker. Florida, Utah and South Dakota have already passed their own versions of the ultra-bureaucratic citizenship documentation requirement to vote. On one hand, this is more of the same: There’s nothing new about state-level Republicans rigging voting to keep themselves in power. Florida originally moved from a Democratic stronghold to swing state to epicenter of American authoritarianism because years ago Florida Republicans experimented with partisan gerrymandering there. Once they had their lock on the statehouse, Republicans could keep rigging the maps and voting laws in their favor. Then the GOP did the same thing in states across the country, with consequences that are now all too familiar.

For years, state capitols have been the venue for the fiercest fights over Americans’ ability to vote. After the Citizens United decision enabled a spending spree, Republicans took over statehouses across the country in 2010, and they started pushing hundreds of voter suppression bills. During the 2010s, Republicans executed a coordinated effort to restrict voting, with hundreds of model bills being introduced and often passed across the country. Since Trump began promoting the Big Lie, Republican state lawmakers have been eager to oblige. According to Stand Up America, between 2021 and 2024, at least 19 states passed at least 79 laws that limited how eligible Americans could vote.

But we can’t allow ourselves to get lulled into a false sense that we’ve seen this before (even if we’ve seen versions of this before). It goes without saying that the stakes of 2026 midterm elections couldn’t be higher. And these burdensome requirements could very well prevent many eligible Americans from voting. As Republicans in Congress fail to get their extreme legislation passed, it’s important to remember that their allies in the states are getting work done for them.