Larson Blasts Unconstitutional Trump Order to Nationalize Elections
East Hartford, CT – Today, House Social Security Subcommittee Ranking Member John B. Larson (CT-01) condemned President Trump’s unconstitutional executive order to nationalize voting by empowering Trump appointees at the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Department of Homeland Security to decide who is eligible to vote in all 50 states. This comes after a bombshell court filing earlier this year, where the Trump Administration admitted that ‘DOGE’ staff at SSA signed a data-sharing agreement with an outside political group to use SSA data to overturn election results.
“When President Trump called to ‘nationalize’ our elections, it was because he knew that a free and fair election would rebuke his cost-raising agenda that has failed the American people,” said Larson. “He and his allies have already tried to use Social Security data to overturn election results – refusing to even testify under oath about their scheme or allow whistleblowers to come and testify themselves about these privacy breaches. The president’s latest order would empower his political appointees to abuse your personal records and determine who is eligible in all 50 states – turning agencies like Social Security into extrajudicial arbiters of your right to vote. Democratic leaders are already fighting in court to stop this anti-American order from ever seeing the light of day. Will Republicans join us to protect our democracy from this unconstitutional election takeover – or will they once again choose fealty to Donald Trump, like they did after the deadly January 6th insurrection?”
President Trump’s unconstitutional order follows his threats to “nationalize our elections,” and a push from Republicans in Congress to pass his so-called “SAVE America Act” that would create more barriers for Americans to vote and empower the Department of Homeland Security to purge voters from the rolls.
Larson has voted against the SAVE Act three times and continues to oppose any effort to make it harder for citizens to cast their ballots. He introduced theStop ICE Election Militarization Act to prevent the federal government from deploying immigration enforcement to the polls, a Resolution of Inquiry probing illegal election interference efforts at the Social Security Administration, and joined Rep. Joyce Beatty (OH-03) to introduce theVoter Purge Protection Act, which would put protections into federal law to prevent anyone from improperly removing an eligible voter from the rolls. Rep. Larson also helped introduce the landmark John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would protect every citizen’s right to cast their ballot safely and securely by restoring Civil Rights-era Voting Rights Act protections from discriminatory laws that seek to disenfranchise voters.