Midterm mania as Trump summons state election officials to D.C.

||| FROM WHAT A DAY |||

Trump’s FBI summoned state election officials from across the country for an unusual briefing on “preparations” for the midterms, What A Day has learned. At least one top state official is deeply concerned.

• The FBI is organizing a mysterious conference call in late February for local election officials from all 50 states to discuss plans for the midterm elections with federal law enforcement agencies, according to an email obtained by What A Day. The exact purpose of the call remains unclear. But it’s raising concerns after President Donald Trump called for state elections to be nationalized.
• Election officials from every state received an invitation for the call on Feb. 25th, to be joined by Trump’s FBI, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Postal Inspection Service and U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The email, which was obtained via public records request, was sent on Tuesday by an official named Kellie Hardiman, who gave her title as “FBI Election Executive.”
• Hardiman wrote that the FBI and other federal agencies “would like to invite you to a call where we can discuss our preparations for the cycle, as well as updates and resources we can provide to you and your staff.” She added: “We look forward to speaking with you in support of the 2026 midterm elections.”
• I asked the FBI for an explanation, but a spokesperson wouldn’t give me one, writing: “Thank you for reaching out. The FBI has no comment.”
• The email is raising anxiety at a moment when Trump is calling for the federal government to take control of elections in 15 states, and dispatching the FBI to investigate the 2020 election in battleground state Georgia.
• Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar told What A Day he’s never heard of a conference call like this being organized by the FBI between state officials and federal agencies. After he received the email, he wrote back to Hardiman an hour later: “Is this real? Given what’s occurred over the last two weeks I am concerned.”
• “I was just like, ‘what is this?’ It’s the strangest thing in the world that the FBI is reaching out to us and trying to coordinate election security,” Aguilar told me on a phone call this afternoon. “It’s never happened in the past. The casualness which they did… it was just beyond crazy.” He added: “They’re just sowing this confusion and chaos to try to intimidate us into compliance.”
• While DOJ does monitor elections during normal times, the email and conference call are unusual, a former DOJ official from the department’s civil division told What A Day. “I can’t imagine why it would be coordinated in that way,” the former official said.
• The FBI recently raided an election hub in Georgia, dispatching spy chief Tulsi Gabbard to tag along, supposedly on the evidence-free theory that there may have been some kind of foreign meddling by China. Intelligence officials reportedly investigated voting machines in Puerto Rico last year, too. MAGA Godfather Steve Bannon is calling for ICE agents to “surround the polls” during the midterm elections in November.States are taking these threats extremely seriously. Nevada officials are “constantly preparing and strategizing” for whatever Trump’s team may attempt, Aguilar said. That includes monitoring statements from people like Bannon, even though the former Trump advisor has no formal power.
• “It’s unconstitutional for the president to do what he wants to do,” Aguilar said. “We understand that what he’s trying to do is really disrupt the midterm election, because the ‘26 election is critical to the ‘28 election.”

Nevada is gearing up for a legal fight — if it needs to have one. “We have to prepare for that litigation at a moment’s notice, and we will be prepared in Nevada to push back,” Aguilar said.