Senate Leader Ron Johnson Accuses Democrats of ‘Cheating’ Voters by Blocking Election Safeguards
FILE PHOTO: Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee confirmation hearing for Neera Tanden, director of the Office and Management and Budget (OMB) nominee for U.S. President Joe Biden, in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 9, 2021. Ting Shen/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
By Nicole Weatherholtz | Thursday, 26 February 2026 11:00 AM EST
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, stated on Thursday that Democrats are blocking the SAVE America Act because they “want to cheat” in U.S. elections.
In an interview on “Wake Up America,” Johnson said the fight over election integrity is about protecting legitimate votes from being diluted by fraud.
“ heating President Trump stated in his State of the Union, it’s because Democrats want to cheat,” Johnson said.
He argued that the left’s opposition to the SAVE America Act fits into a broader pattern of resisting basic election safeguards that most Americans support.
“This isn’t just an isolated piece of legislation,” Johnson said. “The Democrats, through their NGOs, promoted millions of people to come to this country illegally.”
“They send them off to sanctuary cities and states, they pump up the census, they get more members of Congress.”
Johnson contended that those policies ultimately reshape political power while undermining confidence in elections.
He pointed to mail-in and absentee voting expansions during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing findings he attributed to a bipartisan group created to address issues in the U.S. electoral process.
“For example, the Baker Commission said absentee balloting is probably the one area with the greatest potential for fraud in our elections,” he said, adding that Democrats “doubled that during COVID.”
Johnson accused Democrats of pushing policies that weaken election safeguards at every turn.
“They push mail-in balloting, they push automatic registration,” Johnson said. “Again, Democrats want to make it easy to cheat.”
He contrasted that with what he described as overwhelming public support for voter ID and other commonsense protections.
“Eighty percent of Americans say, No, we don’t want our legitimate vote canceled by a fraudulent one,” Johnson said. “So, we support things like voter ID.”
“But Democrats obviously do,” he added, arguing that Democrats “oppose any election security measure, including the SAVE America Act.”
When asked about negotiations in Washington regarding the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Johnson noted that talks between the White House and Senate Democrats don’t appear very productive because his colleagues across the aisle are “not voting to fund DHS.”
“I’d say those negotiations haven’t been too successful initially,” he said.
Johnson also stated that the last government shutdown was “promoted by and caused by Democrats.” He added that Republicans twice backed his Shutdown Fairness Act to ensure essential and furloughed workers were paid.
“All 53 Republican senators voted for that twice,” Johnson said, calling the unity “pretty unusual,” while noting only a handful of Democrats supported the measure.
