On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) responded to a question on whether he thinks the 2026 midterms will be rigged by saying that “in many of the states where there will be competitive gubernatorial elections and certainly in the overwhelming majority of the states where the House will be decided, there are Democratic governors, Democratic attorney generals, and Democratic secretaries of state” “And I’ve got trust in those leaders to make sure that there are actual free and fair elections.” But he’d “be far more concerned…if we were looking at a situation where the fate of the House would be determined in states where Republicans are in charge” of things.
Host Ari Melber said, “Someone listening might say, wow, that sounds good, I hope Hakeem Jeffries is right, but what if he’s wrong, what if we’re actually past the point where we can just count on free and fair elections, when, as you know — and to be fair, you’ve spoken out about this, of course — the person in the office, he won lawfully, he won the Electoral College in what we know to be a free and fair election. But, previously, when he lost, he tried to subvert that. We had a convicted sedition. He then freed the sedition convicts, as everybody knows. And so, there’s great concern about, not a repeat of 2020, but a more effective version of it. And you’ve heard this concern. It’s not just random sort of activists or the most extreme sort of people worrying about it. James Carville, a longtime sort of centrist Democratic figure, said this about rigging the midterms.”
Melber then played clips of Carville saying, “I’d say your concerns are legitimate. I would never tell anybody that’s worried that, no, don’t you worry about that.” And “he’s going to try to do anything that he can, possibly, to try to extricate himself from what is almost certain to be a humiliating loss in October of — November of 2026. So, people should be worried, they should be vigilant, they should watch this.”
Melber then asked, “Is this a legitimate concern? And, if so, what are you doing about it?”
Jeffries answered, “We have to be incredibly vigilant to make sure that there are free and fair elections. I think we have to look at what’s in front of us. And, this year, of course, there are the off-year elections in New Jersey and in Virginia, we’ve got to make sure that the Democratic nominee, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) wins in New Jersey, the Democratic nominee, Abigail Spanberger, wins in Virginia. They’re both tremendous public servants, have served this country in a variety of different ways, including in the Congress. And then, of course, be prepared as it relates to the midterm elections. Now, the good news is, to the extent that there’s a silver lining in our electoral system, it is that we don’t have a national election system, it’s state by state by state. And, in many of the states where there will be competitive gubernatorial elections and certainly in the overwhelming majority of the states where the House will be decided, there are Democratic governors, Democratic attorney generals, and Democratic secretaries of state. I’d be far more concerned, honestly, Ari, if we were looking at a situation where the fate of the House would be determined in states where Republicans are in charge, because what we’ve seen –.”
Melber then cut in to ask, “So, you’re saying, to be clear, because it’s a patchwork, you’re saying you’ve studied this, and if there are Republicans trying to play games, they’re not actually overseeing the races that you think would control the House outcome?”
Jeffries answered, “That’s absolutely correct. There are seats in New York, seats in New Jersey, seats in Michigan, seats in California, seats in Wisconsin, seats in Pennsylvania, seats in Arizona, by way of example, that are going to determine, in large measure, who controls the House in the aftermath of the midterm election. Every single one of those states [has] Democratic governors, … Democratic attorney generals, Democratic secretaries of state. And so, that’s kind of the landscape that we find ourselves in. And I’ve got trust in those leaders to make sure that there are actual free and fair elections.”
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