Trump backtracks and begs Republicans to vote by mail as Democrats’ odds of taking Congress improve

Key Points:

• President Donald Trump urged his supporters to vote in the 2026 midterm elections by any method, including mail voting, despite his frequent baseless claims of mail voting fraud.
• Trump has previously encouraged mail voting for his own supporters and often votes by mail himself, highlighting a contradiction in his stance on mail ballots.
• His call for Republicans to vote by mail comes as polls indicate Democrats have increasing chances of winning control of both the House and Senate.
• The U.S. Supreme Court recently blocked the Trump administration’s attempts to impose restrictive mail voting rules, which lacked evidence of necessity but had some support from conservative justices.
• Data shows Democrats are more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, with 37% of Democrats and 24% of Republicans voting this way in 2024, according to MIT analysis.