Trump Moves to Centralize Federal Election Control Ahead of 2026 Midterms — Courts Block Key Orders

The Trump administration this week escalated its campaign to assert federal control over the 2026 midterm elections, directing the DOJ to demand comprehensive voter files from all states, pursuing a national voter database, and issuing executive orders on election administration — at least two of which have been blocked by federal courts. The administration fired both Democratic members of the Election Assistance Commission and the sole Republican member subsequently resigned. Courts have ruled that the Constitution gives states, not the president, authority over election administration — and multiple federal judges have blocked specific DOJ demands for state voter data, finding the demands unconstitutional. For in-house counsel and international clients with US operations, the legal implications are primarily data governance and election-year political risk: the DOJ's demand for comprehensive voter data files (which in most states include address, date of birth, and in some states partial SSN or other identifiers) raises both privacy compliance questions and the broader business risk of operating in a political environment where election integrity is actively contested. Law firms advising clients on US regulatory risk and government relations should build a 2026 midterm political risk model that accounts for the possibility of contested results and elevated executive-branch institutional instability in November and beyond.