President Donald Trump is not on the ballot in the 2026 midterms, but he is still trying to shape the outcome of the election, not only through campaigning, but through executive orders that would dramatically reshape who can vote and how ballots are cast.

How are Wisconsin’s candidates for office responding to these efforts?

On Jan. 6, 2021, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany was in the U.S. Capitol as Congress prepared to certify the 2020 electoral votes that showed Joe Biden had won the presidential election. Tiffany voted against certifying the results from Pennsylvania and Arizona, part of a Trump plan to invalidate the election.

Outside, a violent mob egged on by Trump himself stormed the Capitol, forcing lawmakers to seek safety. Eventually, order was restored and Congress certified the election.

Nearly six years later, the lies about rampant voter fraud and rigged elections still circulate, pushed by Trump himself at a rally in Eau Claire on June 5.

“They rigged the election. When I turned — the election was totally rigged,” Trump said.

Trump’s grievances over 2020 led to efforts by his administration to have the federal government take over elections, an authority Congress has delegated to the states.

First, he demanded states hand over voting lists, including confidential data like SocialsSecurity numbers. Wisconsin, like many states, refused to do so.

Republicans in Congress tried to pass the SAVE Act, which would create a proof of citizenship requirement so strict that critics estimated millions of legal voters would not be able to meet. That bill passed the House with Tiffany’s support, but stalled in the Senate.

In March, Trump issued an executive order that would have required the U.S. Postal Service to create a list of which voters were eligible to send an absentee ballot through the mail, a process that would have disenfranchised millions of voters. This action was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in September.

“Also, the ballots, the voting, the mail-in ballots. So crooked. They send millions of ballots out all over the place. If you’re a Democrat, sometimes you get six or seven,” Trump falsely stated at the Eau Claire rally.

Wisconsin’s Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul joined a lawsuit that fought that order, something he sees as a key point in the 2026 election for the office, in which his Republican challenger for the office is Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney.

“What I think is fundamental and a big difference between a Democratic AG in this office and a Republican AG is, are we going to stand up for the rights of the people of our state? Are we standing up for the interests of the state? Or are we just going to cave to the Trump administration on issue after issue?” Kaul asked. “The fact of the matter is Eric Toney would not stand up to the Trump administration the way I have. It wouldn’t even be close.”

Across the country, zero Republican attorneys general joined that lawsuit. “Here & Now” asked Eric Toney if he would have joined the case against creating new U.S. Postal Service rules.

“So what I can say is I would be defending the ability for people to vote early.,” Toney said. “One of the things I’ve been very careful on — I rarely comment on the different lawsuits that are out there, because I want to make sure we’re working with the great attorneys that we have at our Department of Justice making these decisions based on the facts and the law. And if in that conversation, we believe that that’s unconstitutional, I would absolutely join a lawsuit like that to make sure that we’re protecting people’s rights to vote earlier here in Wisconsin.”

“Here & Now” interviewed gubernatorial candidates Tom Tiffany and David Crowley as the country was waiting for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide if the rule could move forward.

Tiffany would not say if he supported the rule change.

“I mean, that’s going to be up to the courts. It is in the courts at this point, and they’re going to decide what role is going to be able to be played there,” Tiffany, the Republican candidate, said on Sept. 8. “All I know is I have confidence in clerks across the state of Wisconsin. There’s hundreds of them, and I’ve worked with them in northern Wisconsin. Regardless of what rules are put before them, they always go out and do their job, and I appreciate the work that they do.”

Crowley, the Democratic candidate, said on Sept. 14 that stance fits a larger pattern for Tiffany.

“As the governor, it is our job to make sure that we are protecting democracy, protecting people’s ability to cast their ballot, and to instill dignity right, we have free and fair elections here in the state of Wisconsin,” Crowley said. “I’m always going to sing at the mountaintops about how I believe in our election system. But you’re not going to get that with Congressman Tom Tiffany. I mean, we’re talking about someone who voted against certifying the 2020 election for Wisconsin voters, someone who’s not willing to stand up and say Donald Trump actually lost the 2020 election.”

The website electiondeniers.org, which is a project of the nonpartisan nonprofit States United Democracy Center, tracks candidates for office that voted against certifying election results or spread conspiracies about election fraud. It lists Tom Tiffany on its Wisconsin page, citing his votes on Jan. 6, 2021.

Tiffany denied being an election denier. “Here & Now” asked if he has complete confidence that elections in Wisconsin are free and fair and legitimate.”

“I believe that our elections are going to be done in that fashion,” Tiffany said. “I mean, it should be easy to vote, but hard to cheat. Now, there’s been a couple instances. You look at Madison. They had, the city of Madison had to fire their clerk two years ago because she failed to count 197 ballots. Green Bay has had a problem two elections in a row with their clerk. I mean we have to be vigilant also, but I just know the hundreds of clerks across the state of Wisconsin, they do the very best job that they can.”

Outside the specter of election conspiracies about voter fraud or concerns about a federal takeover of elections, both candidates encourage voters to have a plan to vote.

“Go out and get your ballot in because we know that the mail, U.S. mail is not what it used to be,” Tiffany said. “I mean, it’s a number of years ago that our U.S. mail service has been in decline. So make sure you figure out how you’re going to vote. And remember,at two weeks before the election, you can go vote in person, so that is an option also.”

Crowley exhorted Wisconsinites to vote as well.

“I want to encourage everybody, one, if you’re going do a mail-in your ballot, do it early, do it quickly, and do it as soon as possible,” he said. “And if you feel like you’re getting close to that deadline, go visit your municipal clerk, and drop your ballot off at your clerk to make sure that your voice is being heard.”

(Editor’s note: This video report is corrected with updated graphics showing David Crowley is the Democratic nominee for governor of Wisconsin.)