Trump says Democrats must cheat to win. What do his supporters think? : NPR

HARRISBURG, Pa. — This week and in last month’s State of the Union address, President Trump accused Democrats of planning to cheat in upcoming elections.

“They want to cheat,” said Trump during the State of the Union, providing no evidence. “Their policy is so bad that the only way they can get elected is to cheat, and we’re going to stop it.”

NPR spent several days traveling across a pair of swing congressional districts in Pennsylvania — the 10th and the 7th — to find out what people think of the president’s claim ahead of the midterms.

Nearly every Republican disagreed with the president. They said Democrats could win fair and square and dismissed the idea of mass voter fraud.

“I don’t think that that’s how elections are won today,” said Richard Cline, a 69-year-old preacher who was buying chocolate at a farmer’s market across the river from Harrisburg. “It’s too hard to really pull something off that would be considered fraud.”

Patrick Basom, 53, an insurance salesman who is running for the York County Republican Committee, is also skeptical of Trump’s allegations against the Democrats.

“We don’t expect them to cheat,” said Basom. “I think there’s been enough people that have seen what has happened over the last decade to make sure that it doesn’t happen.”

Basom was referring to the president’s false assertion that Democratic voter fraud robbed him of the 2020 election, which most Republicans found persuasive at the time. After Trump lost, an NPR/PBS News/Marist poll found that more than 70% of Republicans did not trust that the results were accurate.

But that was more than five years ago — eons in American politics. After Trump won in 2024, nearly 9 in 10 Republicans said the election was well run. While trust does fluctuate, Marist College pollster Lee Miringoff said there is bipartisan confidence in the system today.

“If you ask people whether they think ballots will be counted accurately, Democrats or Republicans … 2 out of every 3 say, ‘Yeah!’ ” Miringoff said.

Another recent survey by the Center for Transparent and Trusted Elections at the University of California at San Diego found that most Republicans no longer rely exclusively on Trump’s word when it comes to evaluating the fairness and integrity of elections. The survey found that while 30% turn to Trump, the rest rely on other sources, including local and state election officials, local TV news and family members.

“The president is not the only voice in the room — or in the party — when it comes to trusting elections right now,” said Thad Kousser, the center’s co-director.

Norine Haertsch, whom NPR spoke to outside Harrisburg, said family influenced her view of election integrity. She said her daughter-in-law used to believe that Democrats stole the 2020 election but changed her mind after she went to work at York County’s Office of Elections and Voter Registration.

“There’s no way they can cheat,” Haertsch said her daughter-in-law told her.

“I just trust in the government,” Haertsch added.

Democrats who spoke to NPR said they thought Trump was accusing them of cheating to justify intervening in elections if it appears Republicans are poised to lose congressional seats in the midterms, as incumbent parties often do.

“I think it’s a lie and a pretext for election interference coming up in 2026 in November,” said Thomas Fink, 79, who serves as vice president of the Camp Hill Borough Council.

The White House responded by saying the president wants Americans to have full confidence in election administration, including photo ID for voting as well as accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of noncitizens.

“The media should not uncritically amplify these Blue Anon conspiracies,” said White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson, using a play on the right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon.

Some Republicans told NPR they have no doubt there is cheating in elections. Valerie Schock, who has served as a poll worker in Carlisle, Pa., says she’s seen voters who could neither speak nor write English. She suspects they weren’t citizens but acknowledges she can’t prove it.

That is why, she says, she supports the president’s push to require proof of citizenship — such as a birth certificate or passport — to register to vote. The legislation is called the SAVE America Act.

“Everybody who wants the SAVE Act wants legitimate voting,” said Schock, 61, who spoke with NPR at a bowling alley outside Carlisle. “Anybody against the SAVE Act wants the option of cheating.”

A series of studies has found that people who aren’t U.S. citizens almost never vote. Critics worry the SAVE America Act would disenfranchise many millions of Americans who don’t have easy access to such documents.

Schock doesn’t agree with everything the president has proposed, such as his call to nationalize elections and have Republicans take over administration of voting in at least 15 places.

“That’s not constitutional,” Schock said. “The fact is the Constitution does say that each state makes its own rules.”

Even if the president alleges fraud in November, it may not resonate with Republicans the way it once did. Harrison Smetana, president of the Lehigh University College Republicans, said election integrity and Trump’s claims that the 2020 race was stolen are not something he and his fellow members really discuss at the school in Bethlehem, Pa.

“It seems like it’s something that was, what, six years ago now?” said Smetana, 19, referring to Trump’s original election fraud claim.

“It’s sort of just something that he says,” said Smetana, who declined to say how he voted in 2024 citing American’s right to a secret ballot. “No one really cares.”