1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to publicly oppose any federal takeover of state election administration, regardless of party affiliation. This is not a partisan issue but a constitutional one that threatens the foundation of our democratic system. In a recent NBC interview, President Trump stated that the federal government should intervene in elections in "some areas" and suggested implementing "federal controls as opposed to state controls" in cities he claims have "extremely corrupt" elections, specifically naming Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. On a Monday podcast with Dan Bongino, Trump explicitly called for Republicans to "nationalize the voting" in "at least many, 15 places." These are cities that voted for Joe Biden in 2020, raising serious concerns about politically motivated federal intervention. The situation has escalated beyond rhetoric. The FBI conducted an unannounced search of a Fulton County elections office in Georgia last week, seizing hundreds of boxes of documents related to the 2020 election. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was present at this search and her office oversaw an unprecedented investigation in May into electronic voting machines in Puerto Rico, which also voted overwhelmingly for Biden. Former White House strategist Steve Bannon has publicly urged deploying ICE agents to polling sites for the November midterms and suggested Trump invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. The Constitution grants states the authority to administer elections. Federal takeover of voting processes in cities that happen to vote for the opposing party would fundamentally undermine this constitutional framework and set a dangerous precedent that any future administration could exploit. I urge you to speak out against these proposals immediately and work with colleagues across the aisle to protect state authority over election administration. Our democratic system depends on elected officials defending constitutional principles even when politically inconvenient.