When we think about Donald Trump's election lies, a familiar set of states comes to mind: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania. But as we head toward the critical 2026 midterm elections, a new state has taken center stage in Trump's assault on free and fair elections: California.

Last week, Trump told Fox News that California's "elections are a fraud; their mail-in votes are a fraud." Days later, he accused California Democrats of "cheating" and trying to "steal" the primary elections. Most ominously, he announced that the primary vote counting was "under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles."

On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced that it had opened "multiple election fraud investigations" related to the election. In a further escalation, the DOJ apparently sent a federal prosecutor to the Los Angeles vote-counting center.

All of that was a warmup for Trump's appearance on Meet the Press earlier today.

Trump exploded at host Kristen Welker when she refused to let his lies about California elections pass without correction. After being challenged for saying the "elections are rigged," Trump declared: "They're crooked just like you're crooked, your press is crooked." He then declared the interview over and walked out.

Trump's obsession with California's elections is neither entirely new nor surprising.

After the 2016 election, he falsely claimed that "serious voter fraud" in California had cost him a popular vote victory. Two years later, he lied again: "In many places, like California, the same person votes many times…Millions and millions of people."

In 2019, Trump bizarrely claimed that California had settled a court case in which it "admitted to a million [illegal] votes." That was not true. Ahead of the 2024 election, Trump said "the state is rigged. It's a rigged election."

Most famously, in August 2024, he told Dr. Phil: "If Jesus Christ came down and was the vote counter, I would win California, okay? In other words, if we had an honest vote counter, a really honest vote counter — I do great with the Hispanics, great, I mean at a level no Republican has ever done — but if we had an honest vote counter, I would win California."

Trump attacks California's voting for the same reason he insulted Kristen Welker and has targeted most of his political enemies with threats: he cannot bear the fact that there are people willing to stand up to him and his lies.

California is a success despite Trump, not because of him. Its governor is among the most outspoken critics of Trump, and his social media account regularly mocks the president.

When Trump tried to rig the midterm outcomes by pressuring Republican-controlled states to redistrict, it was California — through California's independent redistricting commission, established by voter referendum — that thwarted his plan.

Not only is it a state that has rejected Trump three times, but as other Democratic states have occasionally drifted toward Republicans, California has remained solidly blue.

The urgency of Trump's most recent attacks reflects another grim reality for the aging, twice-impeached president: California will likely spell the end of Republican control over the U.S. House of Representatives.

In the days after the November 2026 election, we are almost certain to see an avalanche of California races called in favor of Democrats.

Just as Trump became unhinged in 2020 as swing state after swing state was called for Biden, this fall he will endure the humiliation of watching Hakeem Jeffries's new congressional majority grow larger — seat by seat — as California results are tallied and certified.

To prevent that outcome, Trump is trying to preemptively delegitimize California's results and create a permission structure for Republicans to challenge and set them aside.

The first step is falsely suggesting there is something untoward about the way Californians cast their ballots. The next is to assert, without any evidence, that the vote counting is inaccurate or fraudulent.

Republicans responding to Trump are already pursuing both paths. The attacks on mail-in voting are as much about disenfranchising Californians as they are about targeting voters anywhere else. And the persistent lies about the time required to count ballots in California are nothing more than a thinly veiled scheme to reject results Trump does not like.

Tabulating ballots is a time-consuming process. Doing it while prioritizing transparency and accuracy makes it take even longer. California is a large and diverse state, and its system for ensuring that all lawful votes are counted is painstaking and complex.

Rather than viewing the time that careful counting requires as a sign of integrity, Trump seeks to weaponize it as supposed proof of fraud. Those of us who believe every lawful vote must be counted and every legitimate result honored must stand firm against these efforts.

Appeasing Republicans by questioning California's vote counting system will not solve the problem — it will make it worse. I have called on every Democratic-controlled state to reform its voting laws to prioritize voters' rights — and that includes suggestions I have made specifically for California. But advocating for changes to satisfy Republicans is a fool's errand.

Donald Trump and the Republicans are not looking for solutions that give the public confidence in California's elections — or in any elections where Democrats win. They want an excuse to discard those votes and ignore the results.

We must not let them succeed.

As a lawyer, I will fight to ensure that every vote is counted and every lawful result certified. But the deeper truth is this: what happens in California in 2026 will determine not just who controls the House in 2027, but whether Trump’s larger election denier movement will prevail as we head into the future.

That is what is at stake.

That is why we must win — not just at the ballot box and in court but in the hearts and minds of Americans. This is where Trump has always done his most dangerous work and where we must prioritize our efforts.