Since the beginning of the year, Democracy Docket has expanded its newsroom to keep pace with the all-out assault on democracy under Trump’s second administration. Starting today, I will be sharing a weekly roundup every Sunday, spotlighting some of the most important stories our reporters and contributors have covered, the ones you may have missed but need to know about.
Let’s start with the darkest possibility. As Jim Saksa reported last week, Democrats and election experts are increasingly worried that Trump may try to use the military or law enforcement to interfere with elections in 2026 and 2028, something he has openly floated before. One policy analyst even warned Jim that Virginia’s gubernatorial election, which begins voting next month, could serve as a test run for Trump’s broader plans.
New:
At a Gateway Pundit conference, former Trump attorney Peter Ticktin said he “wouldn’t be very surprised” if there’s “an emergency called” before the next election, as “it’s necessary.”
“And with that emergency, we’re going to be able to turn the tide.” www.mediamatters.org/voter-fraud-…
— Alex Kaplan (@alkapdc.bsky.social) August 26, 2025 at 4:52 AM
Adding fuel to those fears are fresh remarks from perhaps the most influential anti-voting activist in the country. Matt Cohen shone a light on comments from Cleta Mitchell, a longtime Trump ally who played a central role in his failed 2020 coup attempt.
On a right-wing podcast, Mitchell suggested that Trump might declare America’s supposedly “porous” election system a threat to national sovereignty, a claim she believes could justify invoking “emergency powers” to take control of federal elections going forward.
Mitchell’s words were not whispered in private; she said them publicly, on a podcast available to anyone. While Matt keeps a close eye on the far-right anti-voting movement, it is striking and deeply troubling that such threats to democracy are being made openly while most major news outlets remain silent.
As our founder Marc Elias asked this week: “How is it that only Democracy Docket is covering this unfolding authoritarian takeover?”
Meanwhile, Trump and the GOP are not waiting until 2028. Their immediate focus is a nationwide gerrymandering strategy designed to lock down power ahead of 2026.
In August, Jen Rice, who knows the Texas legislature inside and out from her years at the Houston Chronicle, chronicled the Republicans’ push to add five extra GOP seats through mid-decade redistricting.
Last week, she unearthed past racist remarks about immigrants made by a key state senator driving the effort. After Jen’s reporting spread widely online, the senator offered an apology on the Senate floor.
But Texas is just the beginning. Republicans are already turning their attention to the Show Me State, where their redistricting efforts target Kansas City’s Black community in a bid to squeeze out yet another House seat. Jen is tracking every move.
Finally, Matt has tackled another pressing question: Why is the Trump administration demanding states’ voter registration data? Election officials worry it is part of a scheme to selectively misuse the information to support false claims of widespread illegal voting.
“I think what they’re really trying to do is find, or fabricate, data to justify their conspiracy theories,” Oregon’s secretary of state told Matt.
And if that is not enough to raise alarms, there is also a fresh legal attack on the Voting Rights Act looming on the horizon. We will be covering that story in detail next week, according to democracydocket.
