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A Look at Critical Implications of the 2026 Midterm Elections

Kristen Clarke – General Counsel, NAACP

Olivia Sedwick, Associate General Counsel

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Justice Not Served

Under this Justice Department:

145 canceled, 14 frozen enforcement actions against 166 corporations brought by the previous administration;
In first 6 months, abandoned 23,000 cases, including civil rights pattern and practice investigations into police departments to prioritize immigration;
DOJ provided DHS and ICE with access to nearly 50 million unredacted voter records and sued 30 other states to force the release of their unredacted voter records.

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Supreme Court Nomination?

Emil Bove

Potential Nominees

Demonstrated political loyalty over judicial independence
Commitment to corporate interests at the expense of the American people
Consistently opposed racial justice, reproductive rights, and full and fair enforcement of federal civil rights laws

Source: https://afj.org/scotus-shortlist/

Michael Park

Todd Blanche

Neomi Rao

Justin Smith

Andrew Oldham

James Ho

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On every issue that previous EEOCs refused to touch: protecting white American men from discrimination... she has led the EEOC headlong to defend Americans from these abusive practices.

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FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson

EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas

FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson

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Letitia James, NY NY State Attorney General

Lisa Cook, Federal Reserve Board of Governors Member

Fani Willis, Fulton County, Georgia DA

LaMonica McIver, US House Representative

In February 2024, James’ office secured a civil fraud judgment against President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, barring him from doing business in New York for three years. (The multimillion-dollar penalty against Trump was later overturned on appeal).

A little more than a year and a half later, the first Black woman elected as attorney general of New York became the latest target in a continuing campaign by Trump to seek retribution against those who he perceives to have wronged him. Legal experts and civil rights advocates told Capital B they worry this signaled a troubling shift of public servants no longer being a vehicle for justice, but rather a battleground for ideological control.

In August, Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors came under fire from Trump in a social media post alleging that she committed mortgage fraud. While Cook has not been charged with any crimes, he called for her resignation. In fact, even Cook’s historic nomination was met with fierce Republican resistance.

In September, the Department of Justice subpoenaed records related to Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis’ travel history around the time of last year’s presidential election.

In August 2023, Willis announced that a grand jury had indicted Trump and 18 other co-defendants on racketeering charges alleging election interference and operating a “criminal enterprise.” But last year, a state appeals court disqualified her from overseeing the case after it was revealed she had a personal relationship with one of the lawyers working with her on the case.

Marilyn Mosby rose to national prominence during Trump’s first term, when the officers accused in Freddie Gray’s 2015 death were later acquitted or had their charges dropped. Trump called for her prosecution and later described Baltimore as “rat and rodent infested” after she declined to pursue low-level offenses like loitering.

She also co-wrote a Washington Post op-ed in July 2020 vowing to prosecute federal agents who engaged in “illegal vigilante activities” against 2020 protesters deployed to her city. That same month, the Baltimore Brew published an investigation into Mosby’s finances that launched a federal inquiry that led to her January 2022 indictment on mortgage fraud and perjury charges. She was convicted in November 2023 of perjury for falsely claiming COVID-related financial hardship to access retirement funds and secure favorable mortgage rates on two Florida homes.

McIver was charged with assaulting law enforcement officers following a chaotic May 2025 scrum outside Delaney Hall, a controversial immigration detention facility in her district in Newark. The now-visibly pregnant lawmaker faces 17 years in prison. McIver, who is running for reelection, argues she was conducting an oversight visit when federal agents moved to arrest Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. That set off a scrum as McIver and others moved to encircle the mayor. McIver is accused of slamming a federal agent with her forearm, “forcibly” grabbing him and using her forearms to strike another agent. Allegations of physical violence by a sitting member of Congress are rare. A single trespassing charge against Baraka was dropped.

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All Politics are Local

Key Happenings on the State and Local Level

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Impact of State Elections on Redistricting

Louisiana

Passed a map in May 2026 following the Louisiana v. Callais decision that eliminates the second majority-Black district the state legislature created in 2022 following the Robinson v. Landry case.

Virginia

Virginia Supreme Court struck down a legislatively-proposed redistricting referendum that succeeded in the April 2026 special elections which would have added a state constitutional amendment to take up mid-decade redistricting.

Tennessee

Two days after the Callais decision, the state legislature changed the rules to take up mid-decade redistricting and break up the majority-Black district that includes Memphis and Shelby County, TN.

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Vote “Down the Ballot”!

The NAACP Virginia State Conference sued the Shenandoah County School Board for reinstating the names of Confederate leaders on their schools.

On Oct. 6^th, in a 7-5 vote, Memphis city council members voted to postpone the vote on the construction of another SpaceX-xAI data center. Two “Colossus” data centers have already been built in the Southaven area of Memphis.

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Investigation Failures

JUSTICE FOR NOLAN XAVIER WELLS

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The Fight for Civil Rights continues...

Get Involved in the Fight!

Visit the NAACP Election Hub

https://naacp.org/vote

Become an Election Protection Volunteer: https://866ourvote.org/

Use the Election Protection Hotline on Election Day

(Nov. 3^rd):

1-866-OUR-VOTE (687-8683)