House Speaker Mike Johnson backs Trump's call to 'nationalize' elections

WASHINGTON, DC: House Speaker Mike Johnson is backing President Donald Trump’s pitch for 'nationalizing' elections, suggesting that results coming out of Democrat strongholds like California raise serious red flags.

The Louisiana Republican made the remarks Tuesday on Capitol Hill, as GOP lawmakers continue pushing stricter voting rules that critics say could tighten access to ballots nationwide.

Mike Johnson echoes Trump’s frustration with blue-state voting

Johnson’s comments came after Trump floated an eyebrow-raising idea during a recent right-wing podcast appearance, suggesting Republicans should take control of election processes in several states. Trump said Republicans should take over the voting in at least 15 places. "The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting," Trump had said.

Pressed by reporters, Johnson acknowledged the constitutional reality that elections are run by individual states, not Washington. Still, he appeared sympathetic to Trump’s concerns.

“What you’re hearing from the president is his frustration about the lack of some of the blue states, frankly, of enforcing these things and making sure that they are free and fair elections,” Johnson said.

He specifically called out California’s system for processing mail-in ballots, where ballots postmarked by Election Day can still be counted for up to seven days afterward. Johnson argued that the drawn-out counting process can create suspicion, particularly when vote totals shift after Election Day tallies.

“We had three House Republican candidates who were ahead on election day in the last election cycle, and every time a new tranche of ballots came in, they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost, and no series of ballots that were counted after election day were our candidates ahead on any of those counts,” Johnson said. “It just looks on its face to be fraudulent.”

“Can I prove that? No, because it happened so far upstream,” Johnson added. “We need more confidence in the American people in the election system. It’s essential,” Johnson continued. “And everybody, no matter what party you’re in, should agree with that.”

GOP push for voter ID, divisions over ‘nationalizing’ elections

Johnson’s remarks come as Republicans in Congress are attempting to move forward with legislation requiring photographic identification for voters, a proposal supporters argue is necessary to prevent noncitizens from voting. Election officials aligned with the GOP have conducted extensive voter roll reviews, reportedly uncovering several such cases.

The issue recently threatened to blow up budget negotiations. A partial federal government shutdown nearly became reality when a group of conservative House Republicans insisted the voter ID proposal be included in a spending bill.

Those lawmakers eventually backed down after party pressure, claiming they had extracted assurances from Senate Majority Leader John Thune that he would help clear procedural hurdles to pass the legislation. But Thune quickly threw cold water on that claim.

While Thune expressed support for voter ID rules, he rejected Trump’s broader push for federal control of election systems. “I’m not in favor of federalizing elections, no. I think that’s a constitutional issue,” Thune said. “I’m a big believer in decentralized and distributed power. And I think it’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one.”

Johnson’s comments also surfaced just a week after the FBI seized 2020 election records in Fulton County, Georgia. The investigation was sparked by Trump’s longstanding allegations of widespread voter fraud.

Johnson argued that certain voting practices themselves have weakened public trust in elections.

“Mass mailing of paper ballots — or mail-in ballots — and all the other irregularities that have haunted us over the last couple of cycles, we need to tighten that up,” Johnson said. “Now, the red states have done a lot of good work in that, in that front, but it’s the blue states that I’m frankly concerned about.”