Democrats must “win by massive numbers” during November’s federal midterm elections because Donald Trump and his Republican allies are bound to try to sow doubt about the integrity of the results, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan said on Sunday.
El-Sayed’s comments on NBC’s Meet the Press came with the Democrats favored to win control of the House of Representatives during the ۳ November midterms – and polls show that the party could also win Senate seats in states that traditionally elect Republicans and gain a majority there, too.
Meanwhile, Trump has long baselessly maintained that the ۲۰۲۰ presidential election which he lost as an incumbent to Joe Biden was stolen by fraudsters.
He also gave a primetime speech in July in which he made unverified claims about Chinese interference in the election, and he fired members of an independent federal election commission.
When asked later by a rightwing broadcaster whether the president might declare a national security emergency pertaining to elections for the midterms, Trump ignited alarm among some observers by replying: “Let me just say, stranger things have happened, OK?”
The New York Times, meanwhile, reported that Trump had cast doubt on elections on ۴۴۰ days of his second presidency, which began in early ۲۰۲۵.
As such, on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, El-Sayed was asked whether Democrats needed to turn out in such numbers in November that the election would be “too big to rig” – as it had recently been put by former vice-president Kamala Harris, who lost the ۲۰۲۴ White House election to Trump.
“Donald Trump has already threatened to do what he did in ۲۰۲۰, which is deny the outcomes of an election,” El-Sayed said. “So, yes, we have to win by massive numbers.”
The Cook Political Report revised its predictions on Tuesday and declared that “A Senate Majority is Squarely in Democrats’ Sights”.
A recent New York Times and Siena University poll found Democratic Senate candidates leading in Alaska, Ohio and Texas, states that Trump won by double digits in ۲۰۲۴.
The poll showed El-Sayed leading Republican candidate Mike Rogers by five points.
El-Sayed on Sunday’s Meet the Press alluded to how Rogers had also claimed that a ۲۰۲۴ US Senate election which he lost to Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, was stolen from him – after first having conceded the race.
Rogers in November ۲۰۲۵ was reported to have said at events that a single van carrying fraudulent ballots in Detroit cost him the race against Slotkin.
“The guy … I’m running against insinuates that he didn’t actually lose,” El-Sayed said to Kristen Welker. “That’s the guy I’m running against right now.”
