The Democratic National Committee is creating its first internal litigation department and preparing tens of thousands of poll observers for the 2026 midterms, while Republicans are expanding their own election-law operations across dozens of states.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
The Democratic National Committee is building an unprecedented internal legal operation ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, creating its first in-house litigation department while expanding voter-protection staffing and preparing to deploy tens of thousands of poll observers nationwide.
The new legal unit is being formed as Democrats and Republicans prepare for a growing number of disputes over mail ballots, voter eligibility, election administration and other voting rules, according to the Washington Examiner.
Dan Freeman, a former Justice Department trial attorney who spent 15 years at the agency, is leading the DNC’s new litigation operation.
Freeman joined the DNC under Chairman Ken Martin and is working with another full-time litigator as well as several supporting attorneys, according to a party official.
The DNC is also continuing to rely on the Elias Law Group for election litigation involving the national party and its congressional campaign organizations, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
The new internal legal structure comes as Democratic state attorneys general pursue separate lawsuits challenging Trump administration election policies.
Among those cases is litigation involving President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting aspects of mail-in voting.
The Supreme Court on Monday allowed major portions of the order to take effect for the November elections, overturning portions of an injunction issued by a federal judge in Massachusetts.
The justices divided 6-3 along ideological lines.
The ruling allows the Department of Homeland Security to assemble a federal citizenship list and distribute that information to states.
It also permits the administration to begin Postal Service rulemaking involving ballot design.
The court fight is only one component of the DNC’s preparations.
The party is expanding what spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez described as its “voter protection infrastructure,” including attorneys and election staff operating across much of the country.
“The Democratic Party currently has voter protection staff in more than 30 states,” Fernandez Hernandez told the Washington Examiner.
The party plans to “recruit, train, and deploy tens of thousands of observers” during the November elections, he said.
The DNC is also preparing a voter-assistance hotline that party staff will begin monitoring in October.
Its IWillVote.com election-information platform, which has operated since 2012, will remain another component of the party’s voter-support operation.
Republicans are simultaneously expanding their own election litigation and monitoring programs.
Trump announced on Truth Social last Friday that U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin would leave the Justice Department to work on election-related legal disputes for Republicans during the 2026 and 2028 election cycles.
Trump said Martin would “fight Legal Battles” on behalf of Republicans.
Martin previously served as interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and has been associated with the “Stop the Steal” movement.
Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters said the party already has nearly 180 active election-related lawsuits spread across 37 states.
“The RNC has been working around the clock to secure the ballot box,” Gruters said in a statement. “We’re staffed, battle-tested, and ready to respond to any Election Day issue in real time.”
The Republican operation also includes plans for voter-issue hotlines in 22 targeted states and an online election portal at protectthevote.com.
Ally Triolo, the RNC’s communications director for election integrity, praised the Supreme Court’s decision allowing portions of Trump’s mail-ballot executive order to take effect.
She called the ruling “a vital step toward protecting our elections from far-left Democrats who want to cheat.”
Democrats and Republicans are therefore entering the midterm cycle with increasingly extensive legal operations positioned to intervene before, during and after voting.
For the DNC, the creation of a permanent internal litigation department represents a significant organizational change.
Rather than relying exclusively on outside election attorneys, the party will now maintain lawyers inside the committee capable of handling election disputes alongside outside counsel and Democratic legal officials in the states.
Republicans, meanwhile, say their existing network of approximately 180 cases and election-integrity operations gives them an established structure for responding to disputes across dozens of states.
The competing preparations indicate that legal battles over election rules are likely to remain a major component of the 2026 campaign, with both parties assembling lawyers, poll observers, hotlines and other resources well before voters cast their ballots.
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