Donald Trump may have hinted at a desire to cancel the midterm elections this year, but doing so isn’t quite that easy. That hasn’t exactly quelled fear that the president could attempt it anyway – and some worry the administration’s military assault on Iran could be the impetus.
As former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene put it, doing so would be “insane.”
“Trump doesn’t seem to care about the midterms,” podcaster Shannon Joy wrote on X Sunday. “Who wants to bet he’ll declare a ‘national emergency’ because of Iran (or some other manufactured crisis) and try to cancel the elections in November?”
“Yeah I could see it,” Taylor Greene wrote in response. “INSANE.”
Trump introduced the idea of cancelling midterms while speaking to House Republicans in January.
“They have the worst policy,” he said in his remarks at the Kennedy Center. “How we have to even run against these people — I won’t say cancel the election, they should cancel the election, because the fake news would say, ‘He wants the elections canceled. He’s a dictator.’ They always call me a dictator.”
At present, Trump does not have the legal authority to cancel midterm elections. Elections are carried out by volunteers and staff at the local and state level, a fact that would further complicate Trump’s ambition as each person — thousands of people — would be required to comply.
If anything, election officials are more committed to ensuring the process is fair, balanced and legal. David Becker, the executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, told Votebeat that thousands of election officials have attended his monthly information sessions, and many have affirmed a strong committement to the process.
“Every single one of them is committed to putting on the best election they possibly can,” Becker said. This is true even when the idea of carrying out midterm elections doesn’t seem popular with the current administration. He added, “They are getting it done,” he said. Becker also told Votebeat that if necessary, “they will band together and do it themselves.”
There’s also precedent to refer to. In 2020 Trump appeared to hint that the year’s elections could be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a suggestion that was met with disapproval from Republicans and Democrats.
