Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes vowed to protect the midterm elections from Trump interference “come hell or high water,” pledging last week to safeguard voting in the state despite escalating tensions between election officials and the Trump administration.
Fontes made the declaration on August 22 during a televised appearance, as the Department of Justice announced plans to deploy approximately 1,000 federal election monitors across the country for the November 2026 midterms. The Arizona official’s statement reflects growing alarm among state election administrators over what they see as federal threats to election security rather than support for it.
The tensions boiled over publicly on August 17 when Fontes lashed out at federal officials during a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency call with state election leaders. According to participants, Fontes told the Trump administration representatives: “I don’t trust you. Your boss came out there and said: We are going to criminalize the work you do. Why should we trust you?” Fontes later expanded on his frustration to Votebeat, saying “They don’t work with us, they work against us.”
The conflict stems from what election officials describe as a dramatic shift in federal support. Since Trump returned to the White House, the administration has scaled back CISA’s traditional assistance to states, cut agency staff, and launched investigations into the agency’s former leader. The Department of Homeland Security has also threatened to withhold federal funding from states that don’t adopt the Trump administration’s preferred election policies, according to reporting from Stateline and voting rights organizations.
Meanwhile, Democratic state officials and election administrators are racing to fortify their systems independently. According to Stateline’s August 14 reporting, Democratic governors in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Virginia signed new laws this year to limit law enforcement and military presence at voting sites and protect against voter intimidation. State election officials have also been conducting tabletop exercises to prepare for potential federal interference, including scenarios involving immigration officers at polling locations.
Fontes has positioned himself as a leading voice in this resistance. At a National Conference of State Legislatures panel in August, he urged state leaders to exercise more self-discipline in election regulation and to prioritize funding for security over making voting more difficult. “This should not be a partisan issue. That’s the hill that I’m willing to die on,” he said, arguing that the right to vote is among the most sacrosanct constitutional protections.
The August 17 CISA call illustrated how far the relationship between state officials and the Trump administration has deteriorated. One participant described the federal briefing as a generic “cover your ass” presentation that offered state officials few assurances of federal help with less than 90 days until the election. Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, also a Democrat, echoed Fontes’s frustrations, telling Votebeat that “states are almost entirely on their own this election cycle and cannot rely on the federal government for election assistance.”
Federal law prohibits ordering armed forces to polling places in most circumstances, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials stated in July they were not planning aggressive enforcement at voting sites. Still, the rhetoric from the Trump administration about election security has alarmed voting rights advocates and state officials who worry about potential federal overreach or interference in the election’s integrity and outcome.
Sources
- MS NOW — Adrian Fontes’s statement about protecting midterms “come hell or high water” and DOJ’s 1,000 election monitors announcement (August 22, 2026)
- Votebeat — Fontes’s “I don’t trust you” comments during CISA call and his expanded criticism of Trump administration (August 17, 2026)
- Stateline — Democratic state officials preparing for federal interference, new state legislation, and Fontes’s panel remarks on election security (August 14, 2026)
- Democracy Docket — DOJ’s plan to deploy 1,000 election monitors for November midterms (August 17, 2026)
- The Guardian — Voting rights experts’ skepticism of Trump’s 1,000-monitor pledge (August 21, 2026)
