Democrats are gearing up for a potentially close and contentious midterm election by hiring lawyers, building out a nationwide “voter protection infrastructure,” and deploying tens of thousands of election observers across the country.
The preparations include, for the first time, an internal Democratic National Committee litigation department designed to fight election-related legal battles as President Donald Trump and Republicans pursue their own sweeping election-integrity campaign ahead of November.
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The DNC team is led by director Dan Freeman, who previously spent 15 years as a trial attorney at the Justice Department. According to a DNC official, the DNC has a second full-time litigator in addition to Freeman and several other lawyers on staff.
The Elias Law Group is working litigation for the the DNC and its sister committees, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Democratic state attorneys general are also filing their own lawsuits in attempts to counter alleged election interference from the Trump administration, including a challenge to Trump’s order limiting mail-in voting.
Beyond the new litigation team, the DNC is also expanding its resources “to equip voters with the information they need to properly register and cast their ballots,” a DNC official explained. Those efforts include training and mobilizing thousands of “voter protection” volunteers and poll observers.
Furthermore, the DNC will operate a voter assistance hotline, monitored by DNC staff starting in October, and a voter resource hub, IWillVote.com, which has been in operation since the 2012 election cycle.
“The Democratic National Committee is expanding our voter protection infrastructure to defend Americans’ sacred right to vote and hold Trump and Republicans accountable in the courtroom for their attacks,” DNC spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez told the Washington Examiner.
“The Democratic Party currently has voter protection staff in more than 30 states, and we will recruit, train, and deploy tens of thousands of observers across the country this November,” Fernandez Hernandez added. “While Trump and his Republican allies attempt to restrict access to the ballot box, Democrats remain committed to ensuring every eligible voter has their voice heard.”
Republicans are preparing for their own Election Day legal fights. Trump announced last Friday that U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin would soon be leaving his post at the DOJ to work directly on Republican legal fights in the 2026 and 2028 elections.
RNC Chairman Joe Gruters told the Washington Examiner that the committee already has nearly 180 active “election integrity” cases across 37 states.
“The RNC has been working around the clock to secure the ballot box,” he said in a statement. “We’re staffed, battle-tested, and ready to respond to any Election Day issue in real time.”
Ally Triolo, the RNC’s communications director for election integrity, called the recent Supreme Court order that cleared one hurdle for the president’s mail-in ballot order “a vital step toward protecting our elections from far-left Democrats who want to cheat the system and open the floodgates to fraud.”
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“The RNC will keep fighting to secure our voter rolls, defend proof-of-citizenship requirements, and ensure American elections are decided by American citizens only,” she added.
The RNC has plans to operate hotlines in its 22 target states for voters to report Election Day issues, in addition to an online portal at protectthevote.com.
