The nation’s top military officer has told a Democratic senator there are no plans to deploy troops to polling locations during the 2026 midterm elections.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, delivered the assurance in a letter to Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who had formally requested the confirmation.
“The Joint Force has no plans to send Federal military personnel or Federalized members of the National Guard to polling places during the 2026 elections,” Caine wrote in the letter obtained by the Associated Press.
Caine went further, adding: “Likewise, the Joint Force has no plans to use such personnel to seize ballots, voting machines, or other election related material.”
The general also stated: “I have neither received nor anticipate receiving any unlawful order concerning the role of the Joint Force in the upcoming November 2026 midterm elections.”
Slotkin had sent letters to both Caine and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth earlier this month, asking them to confirm that Pentagon forces would not be sent to polls or used to seize election materials.
Hegseth has not yet replied to Slotkin’s letter, according to Sonja Thrasher, Slotkin’s press secretary, even though the senator had requested a response by last Thursday.
Slotkin, who sits on the Senate Armed Services and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committees, cited comments from President Trump about nationalizing the midterm elections as motivation for her inquiry.
Trump told conservative commentator Wayne Allyn Root, after Root suggested declaring a national security emergency to federalize the midterms: “Let me just say that stranger things have happened, OK? I’ll leave it at that.”
Federal law prohibits armed federal forces from being deployed to election locations unless “necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States,” significantly limiting the legal options available to any administration.
Democratic anxiety over potential election interference has intensified following the administration’s deployment of federal agents in Democratic-led states over the objections of local leaders.
Slotkin told the AP that Trump has been laying the groundwork to claim elections were stolen, pointing to his 2020 post-election push to seize voting machines and his recent National Guard deployments against the wishes of Democratic leaders.
White House chief of staff Susie Wiles denied in a Vanity Fair interview last year that Trump would use the military to suppress voting in the midterms.
