The Trump administration is moving to rebuild federal election security infrastructure less than 100 days before the 2026 midterm elections, after dismantling the federal system designed to protect U.S. elections since taking office in early 2025. A key federal cyber agency is now reassigning remaining staff into new roles focused on election security, according to an internal summary obtained by CNN.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has lost around a third of its workforce since Trump’s return to the White House, dropping from 3,400 employees in January 2025 to roughly 2,300, according to reporting by the New York Times and CBS News. Despite these cuts, the administration says it will release a public election security plan within 30 days that will “lay out cyber and physical security resources” for states, according to a July 17 email to Capitol Hill staff.
The rebuilding effort comes after months of what election officials describe as radio silence from the federal government. In a closed-door briefing this month, a CISA official told congressional staff that the agency has been so depleted of staff that it would not be able to provide its normal election-security assistance ahead of the midterms, according to reporting by CNN.
State and local election officials have responded by filling the void themselves. They have stretched tight budgets to contract with private cybersecurity vendors, hired additional IT staff, and set up tabletop exercises to prepare for security emergencies—work that CISA previously handled at no cost to the states. Election officials have also had to pay for membership in the Elections Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a platform the federal government once offered for free, creating a patchwork where 44 states now subscribe to the service under a paid model.
Vermont Secretary of State Sarah Copeland Hanzas told CNN that states are now relying on makeshift solutions: “This was all supported by federal agencies. Now we’ve got to figure out how we can share that—with some duct tape and, you know, maybe a bungee cord or two.” Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, a Democrat, said it was “too late” in the election-preparation season for such a plan from the federal government.
The loss of federal coordination has created a significant gap in the nation’s ability to detect and respond to election threats. During the first Trump administration, CISA worked with intelligence agencies to identify Iranian influence operations targeting the 2020 elections and shared that information with election officials in language they could act upon. According to CNN’s reporting, the federal government’s cross-agency approach provided a nationwide view of emerging threats that states cannot replicate on their own.
The administration’s plan to use a security mechanism employed during the World Cup to protect the midterm elections has drawn skepticism from election security experts. Geoff Hale, a former election security official at CISA now at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told CNN that there is “a gap of information of 14 to 18 months” in federal oversight. “It is not when the Russians started in 2016. It is not when the Iranians started in 2020,” he said, noting that election threats emerge long before Election Day.
Some state election officials have found ways to adapt. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, a Republican, said his state learned from CISA’s training and has since trained others to conduct tabletop exercises independently. West Virginia Secretary Kris Warner, also a Republican, hired a former CISA official as his state’s chief information officer and has built partnerships with other states to share threat information directly, without relying on federal coordination.
Still, the financial burden remains steep. Nevada’s Aguilar emphasized that states are now bearing costs that the federal government should cover: “This is on the back of the Nevada taxpayers, when it’s Nevada taxpayers who are already paying into the federal government to do this job. The federal government should take on this responsibility, and they’re not.” Iowa’s Pate acknowledged the broader challenge: “We’re going to have to really get serious about that consistent funding stream—whether that’s going to be the states having to pony it up, or the federal government’s going to stay committed to it.”
Sources
- CNN — Trump administration’s plan to rebuild CISA election security, workforce depletion, state responses, and expert analysis
- New York Times — CISA workforce losses and dismantling of election security efforts
- CBS News — CISA personnel departures and federal worker cuts
