Trump has the midterms in his sights. We must be vigilant [View all]

Trump has the midterms in his sights. We must be vigilant
The president and his “big, beautiful bill” are unpopular. But that doesn’t guarantee electoral defeats

By Heather Digby Parton
Columnist
Published July 7, 2025 11:33AM (EDT)


(Salon) With last week’s passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” followed by Donald Trump’s elaborate signing ceremony on July 4, media chatter has turned to how the legislation might affect the Democrats’ prospects in the next year’s midterm elections.

Polling shows the bill is very unpopular, building some confidence among Democrats that they will be able to exploit the advantage typically enjoyed by the minority party in the midterms and at least win the House of Representatives. And with North Carolina GOP Sen. Thom Tillis’ abrupt retirement in response to Trump’s threats to take him out if he refused to vote for the bill, even winning the Senate looks somewhat less remote than it did before last week.

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But remember: Trump is a man with an unprecedented track record of trying to overturn elections. There was a time when many Americans thought his behavior following the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was so egregious that he should be prosecuted and, at the very least, never be allowed near elective office again. Those days are long past, and Trump’s return to the presidency has emboldened him.

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All of this was foreshadowed by Project 2025, which laid out plans to create unprecedented federal interference in the way elections are managed. Based on Trump’s behavior and how closely he and the administration are following the Project 2025 blueprint, it’s not paranoid to expect, at minimum, court challenges to midterm election results in races that would shift the balance of power. And I wouldn’t bet too much money on the courts being as straightforwardly dismissive as they were the last time. If they are, the Republicans will appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court — just as they do everything else these days — and we might not know who won until the 2028 presidential election is already underway. ........................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/07/07/trump-has-the-midterms-in-his-sights-we-must-be-vigilant/