Socialist Party Urges National Resistance to Trump's Efforts to Weaponize Elections

August 12, 2026

The Socialist Party's Ballot Access and Electoral Working Group urges Americans to recognize and resist the Trump administration's efforts to maintain power through illegal and immoral control and manipulation of our electoral systems.

Earlier this year Trump-appointed members of the Supreme Court joined the other conservative members in a continued gutting of the Voting Rights Act, allowing Republican-controlled legislatures to immediately begin redistricting majority-minority Congressional districts.

Trump and his Congressional allies have been continually pushing to pass the SAVE Act in response to the non-existent threat of non-U.S. citizens casting illegal votes. Expert analyses have determined that fraud committed by non eligible voters is infinitesimal, happening in less than one-tenth of one percent of votes cast. Trump continues to develop another aspect of his racist myth that America is being "taken over" by criminal immigrants – this time in order to seize control of election oversight from states, where the Constitution plainly states it belongs.

Trump's efforts to control elections and voter registration also target women and transgender people, who his administration believes are likely to vote against him. The SAVE Act and other proposed rules are believed to require identification standards that women who have changed their name through marriage and people who have changed the gender marker on their state-issued identification will have difficulties meeting. Some states have already revoked identification from trans people whose gender markers do not match their gender marker assigned at birth.

Trump has issued an executive order requiring the United States Postal Service to use a federally-controlled list of approved voters as it delivers absentee and mail-in ballots in upcoming state elections. He has stated that voting by mail is a source of widespread fraud and has moved to ban it generally, while voting by mail himself earlier this year in Florida's primary election. Although a federal lawsuit was immediately filed against this blatantly unconstitutional executive order, Trump is clearly attempting to use whatever power he can to attempt to steer election results to his favor in the 2026 midterm elections.

Early in 2026 Trump offered to withdraw ICE agents occupying Minneapolis if Minnesota officials agreed to hand over state voting data to him. This was the latest in a series of efforts to coerce and strong-arm state officials into handing state voter data to Trump for centralization in a federal voter database.

The Democratic Party has joined Trump and the Republican Party in their bipartisan efforts to promote mid-cycle redistricting in an attempt to maintain or regain majority representation in Congress. Texas, Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, and Florida Republicans have already taken steps to redraw Congressional maps ahead of the 2026 election. Several Democrat-controlled states such as California and Virginia have taken similar steps. Maryland's legislature met recently in a special session solely devoted to a new redistricting that would eliminate Maryland's sole Republican-controlled Congressional seat.

The Socialist Party platform supports a number of reforms to protect free and fair elections, including proportional representation, public funding of campaigns, elimination of the Electoral College, ranked choice voting, and independent, non-partisan redistricting commissions.

Newsletter: Happy 125th Birthday to the Socialist Party!

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Happy 125th Birthday to the Socialist Party in America

On this weekend in 1901, the Socialist Democratic Party (led by Eugene V. Debs) and a branch of the Socialist Labor Party met in Indianapolis, Indiana. The two groups combined, developed a new platform and constitution, and left the “Unity Conference” as members of the new Socialist Party of America. Maryland’s first candidate representing the SPA was Silas Crabil, who ran for Governor of Maryland in 1903.

Although the SPA ceased to use that name in late 1972, members of the group re-organized as the Socialist Party USA the next year, and today we carry on the long tradition of independent Socialist electoral action.

Happy birthday to the Socialist Party in America, and here’s to 125 more years!

Thanks to the Organizers of the National Organizing Conference

Every other year since 2001 the Socialist Party USA has held a National Organizing Conference for Socialists from across the country to gather and discuss issues, organizing techniques, and ongoing projects. This year’s NOC was the first one held in person since the 2020 COVID shutdown. The conference was held in Greensboro, NC and organized by members of the Socialist Party of Central and Western North Carolina.

A representative from Baltimore attended and was impressed by the comradery of the event. We hope you will consider attending future face-to-face events held by the Socialist Party.

Stay tuned for news of future projects based on discussions at this event. The Socialist Party is growing and spreading throughout the U.S.!  

Register Now for the Starting Points for a Socialist Future Ecosocialism Working Group Webinar

The SPUSA Ecosocialism Working Group is hosting a daylong webinar on environmental issues and how to solve them by building a Socialist future. The event will be held by Zoom on Saturday, August 8.

Click here for more information and to register for the webinar. Registration is free!

The Latest Issue of The Socialist is Out

The Summer 2026 issue of the The Socialist, the official magazine of the Socialist Party USA, has articles on the historical relationship between the Socialist Party USA and the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), digital minimalism, and more!  

Click here for the Summer 2026 edition of The Socialist.

Newsletter: Check Out an Exciting April Full of Events

April 1, 2026

We hope you’ll check out a number of exciting national and local Socialist Party events coming up this month and in May.

You can see them all on the events page our new website - www.BaltimoreSP.org. Check it out!

It starts tonight, April 1st. (No fooling!) Representatives from the Socialist Party USA’s Working Groups will be talking about their groups, the work they do on behalf of the Socialist Party, and how you can get involved.

We hope to see you virtually and in-person at an event this spring as we build the Socialist Party nationally and in Baltimore!

Can You Make Two Donations This Month?

Our local chapter has opened its new website at www.BaltimoreSP.org. The new site looks great and is easier to update, but like everything nowadays, hosting fees have increased. Can you make a contribution to help us pay the monthly hosting bill, and invest in supplies and equipment we need to build a party that will last? Click here to make a donation to the Socialist Party of Baltimore!

From the Socialist Party USA:

Every day is another challenge. ICE is continuing its violence and racism, war is raging, and people are suffering.

It’s not enough to just be against this repressive system, we need to build an alternative. As members of a socialist organization, we understand that. We also understand that to build an alternative we need to organize.

The Socialist Party is moving forward with a summer of socialist action. We hope to have new literature, materials, and ways to support party building. We also have a National Organizing Conference planned for late July or early August.

We currently do not have the funding to make that happen. We need your financial support.

Make a donation to the SPUSA today! Thank you!

Socialist Party USA Condemns the US/Israeli attack on Iran

March 2, 2026

The Socialist Party USA condemns the US/Israeli attack on Iran. Again, and again, the rich and the powerful of the United States and Israel have shown their willingness to kill civilians in the name of greed and imperialism. We, the working class of the United States, have a moral obligation to oppose attacks on workers and civilians of other nations, to stand for human rights, and to reject militarism and imperialism. The United States of America should not serve as the self-appointed police of the world.

We call upon all people of conscience to stand against this imperialist war and the rising tide of fascist oppression at home and abroad. We have more in common with our fellow workers than with the ruling elites.

We, the many, are stronger together. Solidarity with the oppressed. Solidarity with the people of Palestine. Solidarity with the people of Iran.

Statement written by the Anti-War/Anti-Imperialism working group and passed by the National Executive Committee, March 1, 2026

Statement from the Socialist Party usa: The U.S. Embargo of Cuba Is Genocide

February 13, 2026

Cuba is on the verge of a complete shutdown of their economic and social infrastructure. Since the illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, fuel shipments from Venezuela to Cuba have been aggressively seized by the United States preventing vital fuel from reaching the besieged island nation. There are hospital patients relying on electrical life support machines, monitors, and other instruments of care. There are farmers with agricultural machines that cannot be fueled to work the farms producing food. There are riders on buses and public transports that will grind to a halt, whose livelihoods will grind to a halt as well. Every aspect of Cuban life will be impacted and devastated.

Since even before the tanker seizures began the objectives of the wider US trade embargo have been clear. The United States will suffer no examples of non-capitalist alternatives in its imperial sphere of influence. Venezuela and Cuba are two very prominent examples of peoples asserting their dignity and sovereignty in opposition to US imperialist domination and exploitation. The United States has been unequivocal in its determination to destroy these governments and the example they set for others seeking more than subservience to the hegemonic power.

The Socialist Party USA condemns once again in the strongest terms the illegal, immoral, and inhumane US blockade of the sovereign nation of Cuba. The refusal of the United States government to allow humanitarian shipments from all countries of fuel, and any other supplies or goods to Cuba demonstrates unambiguously the genocidal intentions of this policy.

To the working people in the United States, we have no enemy among the workers of other nations. It is the capitalists of our own country who have put us on the edge of homelessness, unemployment, poverty, hunger, and disease. It is the capitalists of our own country who drag us time and again into crimes against humanity while we plead for peace and for a future for ourselves and all our children. The capitalists and their political parties do not care and will not lend an ear to our cries or those of any Cuban or Venezuelan. They must be fought! Their power must be broken! Find your comrades in the Socialist Party USA and join the fight for freedom, equality, and a future worth living!

Passed by the SPUSA National Executive Committee 2/13/2026