A former Democrat representative has highlighted how one “craven” act would let the GOP hold onto their House majority — even if they lose the midterms.
Donald Trump could act on a “craven, but shockingly constitutional” clause should the House flip to a Democrat majority after next year’s elections. Steve Israel, writing in The New Republic, confirmed there could be cause for the president to hold a majority through a “possible hijacking” that courts would struggle to reverse.
The ex-Dem rep wrote, “I’d always assumed that seat was bestowed to me by a majority of voters in my Long Island district. Turns out I was wrong. That simple language—tucked into Article 1, Section 5—might be a mechanism for Donald Trump and his congressional acolytes to maintain their House majority after the 2026 midterm elections, even if it’s clear the Democrats have flipped the House.”
“It would be craven, but shockingly constitutional. And it would be hard for the courts to reverse. The possible hijacking of a Democratic majority would rest on these words: ‘Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business.’”
Ex-rep Israel believes the “preferred representative” chosen at the ballots could be overturned, as the “final arbiter” is the speaker of the House, Republican rep Mike Johnson. There is precedence to refuse the results of the midterms and stagger on with a slim majority, too.
Israel wrote, “In 1984, a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives refused to seat newly elected Republican Rick McIntyre from Indiana’s notorious “bloody” 8th congressional district.”
“He’d just beaten incumbent Democrat Frank McCloskey by a mere 34 votes, but questions about the vote counting abounded, leading House Democrats to appoint a three-person commission to investigate further. They ultimately found that McCloskey had held the seat by four votes and seated him instead—reversing the results of the election.”
No House since then has used Article I, Section 5, but there could be a plan under way to give the GOP a “rubber-stamp majority”. Speaker Johnson had previously refused to seat Adelita Grijalva immediately, instead taking seven weeks to confirm her spot in the House.
Israel added, “That’s why I’m worried that the president and his most rabid supporters have a plan in their back pockets to invalidate the results of the 2026 midterms if Democrats win the House. And while the move may be thoroughly legal, it will be based on a Big (and not so beautiful) Lie that will amount to a constitutional coup d’état.”
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