Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday rejected President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Republicans should “nationalize” elections, emphasizing constitutional limits and his support for a decentralized election system.
Trump raised the idea during an appearance on former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino’s podcast, where he criticized Republicans for what he described as insufficiently aggressive action on election integrity.
“It’s amazing Republicans aren’t tougher on elections,” Trump said. “These people were brought to our country to vote, and they vote illegally. And it’s amazing the Republicans aren’t tougher on it.”
Trump suggested that Republicans should intervene directly in election administration in certain areas.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over, we should take over the voting in at least 15 places,’” Trump said, later adding, “The Republicans oughta nationalize the voting.”
Trump did not specify which states or jurisdictions he had in mind, but his comments came after criticizing Minnesota, which he described as a “rigged” state.
Thune, however, dismissed the proposal, saying that while he supports policies such as requiring proof of citizenship and voter identification, he opposes federal control of elections.
“I’m not in favor of federalizing elections,” Thune said. “That’s a constitutional issue. You gotta be a citizen to vote in our elections.”
Trump’s remarks followed an FBI raid on an election hub in Fulton County, Georgia, where federal authorities were authorized to seize election records, voter rolls and other materials related to the 2020 election.
Under the U.S. Constitution, elections are administered by state and local governments, with the federal government playing a limited role. Any effort to nationalize elections would likely face significant legal and constitutional challenges.
Thune also noted that similar ideas have previously been advanced by Democrats in Congress and rejected by Republicans.
“There are other things that the Democrats had in their proposal to federalize elections which are really bad outcomes for the country,” Thune said. “I’m a big believer in decentralized, distributed power. And I think it’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one.”
Virginia Sen. Mark Warner also criticized Trump’s call to nationalize elections.
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Republicans have long opposed Democratic-backed election legislation such as the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, arguing that the measures would effectively nationalize elections and shift control of election administration to Washington.
At the time, GOP lawmakers said those proposals would undermine state authority and weaken election security — arguments Thune echoed in his remarks this week.
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