President Trump fired the two remaining Democratic commissioners of the federal Election Assistance Commission and accepted the resignation of its lone Republican member, leaving the bipartisan agency without a single sitting commissioner just months ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The move, which the White House says is authorized by a recent Supreme Court ruling expanding presidential removal power, has drawn sharp condemnation from voting rights advocates and congressional Democrats who warn it strips a key federal election support agency of its independence.
Story Highlights
- Trump fired Democratic commissioners Thomas Hicks and Benjamin Hovland by email; Republican commissioner Christy McCormick was asked to resign and complied.
- The firings leave all four seats on the Election Assistance Commission vacant, preventing the agency from taking any official action requiring commissioner approval.
- The White House cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, which expanded presidential authority to remove officials from independent federal agencies, as justification.
What Happened
President Trump dismissed the two Democratic commissioners of the Election Assistance Commission, Chairman Thomas Hicks and Commissioner Benjamin Hovland, via email Thursday, while the panel’s remaining Republican commissioner, Christy McCormick, was asked to resign and did so shortly afterward. The termination notice sent to Hicks and Hovland, signed by White House deputy director of presidential personnel Morgan DeWitt Snow, read in part, “On behalf of President Donald J. Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service.” The agency’s fourth commissioner, Republican Donald Palmer, had already departed voluntarily in April to join the Heritage Foundation, meaning the commission now has zero sitting members.
The Election Assistance Commission, created under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 following the disputed 2000 presidential election, is a bipartisan body responsible for certifying voting system standards, maintaining the national voter registration form, distributing federal election security grants, and serving as a clearinghouse of best practices for state and local election officials. By law, the commission requires the approval of at least three commissioners to take any significant official action, meaning the agency is now effectively unable to function until new members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Hovland, who had served since 2019 after being nominated by Trump during his first term and unanimously confirmed by the Senate, learned of his termination while returning from a work trip to a Missouri election office, where he had been observing new measures to protect election workers. In comments afterward, Hovland said the commission had been working in a bipartisan way “to find constructive solutions to support election officials in maintaining the security and integrity of our elections,” and expressed hope that agency staff would continue that work despite the leadership vacuum.
A White House official defended the dismissals directly, stating that the president “reserves the right to remove individuals that may not be totally aligned with the important task of securing America’s elections and ensuring every legal vote is counted,” and added that “the Slaughter decision gives the President precedence to do so.” That reference points to the Supreme Court’s late-June ruling in Trump v. Slaughter, a 6-3 decision that upheld Trump’s removal of a Federal Trade Commission member and significantly expanded presidential authority to fire officials at agencies previously considered independent from direct White House control.
The commission had previously declined to fully implement part of a March 2025 Trump executive order that sought to require documentary proof of citizenship on the national voter registration form, an effort that was separately blocked by federal courts on the grounds that election administration authority rests primarily with the states rather than the federal government.
Why It Matters
The dismantling of the EAC’s leadership represents one of the most direct assertions yet of expanded presidential removal power following the Supreme Court’s Slaughter decision, and it specifically targets an agency Congress deliberately structured to remain insulated from single-party control. Election law experts, including UCLA’s Rick Hasen, have noted it remains legally unresolved whether the Slaughter precedent actually extends to bipartisan agencies like the EAC, given that Congress explicitly designed the commission to require balanced representation between the two major parties.
For state and local election officials, who rely on the EAC for grant funding, equipment certification, and technical guidance, the leadership vacuum creates immediate operational uncertainty just months before the 2026 midterms, a period when officials typically depend most heavily on federal coordination and support. Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, who chairs the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, called the move “reckless and irresponsible,” warning that state officials will now have to fill gaps previously covered by the federal agency.
The action fits within a broader pattern of the administration seeking greater federal influence over election administration, an area the Constitution generally assigns to the states. Voting rights organizations, including the Brennan Center for Justice, argue the firings leave the agency “unable to carry out its major responsibilities” and warn the vacancy could be exploited to reshape federal election guidance in ways more favorable to the administration’s preferred policies once replacement commissioners are eventually confirmed.
Economic and Global Context
The EAC has distributed more than 1 billion dollars in election security grants to state and local governments since 2018, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, funding that supports everything from voting equipment upgrades to cybersecurity protections for election infrastructure. A prolonged leadership vacancy could delay or complicate the distribution and oversight of similar funding streams heading into the 2026 election cycle, at a moment when state election offices are already managing tighter budgets and rising security demands.
The commission also plays a central role in certifying voting system standards used by equipment vendors and testing laboratories nationwide, meaning any operational disruption could have downstream effects on the certification pipeline for new voting technology being considered by states ahead of the midterms.
Internationally, the episode adds to a broader narrative being closely tracked by democracy and governance watchdog organizations regarding the erosion of independent institutional checks within the U.S. federal government following the Supreme Court’s recent expansion of executive removal authority across multiple agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and now, potentially, election-focused bodies.
Implications
In the near term, Hicks and Hovland could pursue legal challenges to their removal, though doing so would likely require courts, potentially up to the Supreme Court itself, to revisit and clarify the scope of the Slaughter precedent as it applies to statutorily bipartisan agencies. Any such litigation would take considerable time to resolve, meaning the commission is likely to remain without confirmed leadership through at least a significant portion of the 2026 midterm election cycle.
For congressional Democrats, including Senator Mark Warner and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the firings are likely to become a rallying point for oversight hearings and public pressure campaigns, though without control of the Senate, Democrats have limited practical ability to block the confirmation of Trump’s eventual replacement nominees.
For state election officials, the coming months will require increased self-reliance and coordination among themselves, likely through organizations like the National Association of Secretaries of State, to fill gaps left by the EAC’s inability to act, even as they await the nomination and Senate confirmation process for new commissioners, which historically has taken many months to complete.
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