NEW YORK (AP) — On the road to 2028, the Democratic Party’s leading presidential prospects are warning African Americans that President Donald Trump is actively working to undermine their right to vote in 2026.
That was a central message Thursday as some of the nation’s most ambitious Democratic politicians appeared before Black activists at the National Action Network’s annual convention. In all, more than a half-dozen potential candidates are speaking during the four-day gathering led by Rev. Al Sharpton, aiming to make inroads among Black voters, who comprise one of Democrats’ most powerful blocs.
As they deflected questions about their 2028 intentions, the high-profile Democrats pointed to what they described as an imminent threat from the Trump administration heading into the November midterm elections.
“If we don’t have a fair election in November, we won’t have any more elections,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker charged. He warned that Trump was going to send Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection agents to “scare people away from the polls” — something the administration has denied — and said “we need to go with purpose and push them out of the way, or at least tell them to get out of the way, and go in and vote.”
Pritzker’s comments underscore how the clash over voting rights in the 2026 midterm elections is already shaping the early stages of the 2028 presidential contest.
Trump has been taking unprecedented steps to change how Americans vote based on his false allegations of fraud.
Less than two weeks ago, Trump signed an executive order to create a nationwide list of verified eligible voters and to restrict mail-in voting. The order, which voting law experts say violates the Constitution by a …
