ICYMI: As Trump Election Intimidation Increases, Shenna Bellows Leads National Resistance
As Trump’s election intimidation has grown this week through AG Bondi’s ransom request to the state of Minnesota in order to stop ICE’s occupation and the FBI’s Georgia raid to further 2020 election conspiracies, Secretary of State Bellows has been leading the charge among national election officials to push back on ICE and defend free and fair elections.
See coverage highlights below:
PBS News: FBI raids Georgia elections office as Trump administration seeks voter data from states
Liz Landers and Ali Schmitzi, 1/28/26
Bellows: In Maine, ICE is surging. They're calling it, grotesquely, Catch of the Day, which is just truly gross. We're in the bottom quartile in terms of percentage of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. So for them to send a letter on the heels of the killing of Alex Pretti and demand Minnesota's voter rolls as a condition for ICE leaving indicates that ICE's presence in Minnesota isn't really about immigration at all. It's about intimidating election officials.
Bellows: And we're going to continue to fight to protect the integrity of American voter information, because the Constitution places the states, not the federal government, not the president, in charge of elections.
Bellows: I do think that there is a lot of bipartisan conversation and dialogue. We are not going to agree on certain policies. But I think this is something that the American people can have confidence in. It doesn't matter what state you are in, whether it's Maine or Kentucky.
Bellows: We may not agree on certain voting rights policies, but in terms of the integrity of election administration, in terms of the checks and balances, and the state and local control of the elections, that's something that I think we all really value. And I think it's really important today.
Politico: These gov candidates stood up to Trump in 2020. Now they’re betting voters have moved on
Erin Doherty, 1/29/26
But Trump isn’t ready to move on, complicating these candidates’ hopes of putting 2020 in the rearview mirror. Speaking before an audience of global leaders and business officials in Davos last week, Trump repeated his false claim that the 2020 election was “rigged” and promised that “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Two Democratic secretaries of state are also running for the governor’s mansion. And while defending democracy and their defiance to Trump on election issues forms a defining part of their political biographies, both candidates lead with pocketbook issues rather than making protecting the vote the centerpiece.
“The economy is the number one issue for most Mainers, there’s a lot of economic concern right now, especially in the wake of the tariffs and increasing job losses that we’re about to see,” she told POLITICO. “That being said, I also think it’s really important to tell the truth,” she said. “What the Trump decision and my work as secretary and defending democracy tells people about me is that I will do the right thing even when it’s hard.
New York Times: On immigration, the GOP Finds Itself in a Shocking Place: On Defense
Reid Epstein and Lisa Lerer, 1/27/26
But in the meantime, both parties are adjusting on the fly as a midterm election year they thought would center on the cost of living abruptly seems far more focused on immigration and federal power.
Even the name of the ICE effort in Maine — Operation Catch of the Day — has infuriated some officials and voters.
“It’s a grotesque name,” said Shenna Bellows, the Maine secretary of state and Democrat who is running for governor. “People are not fish.”
Never Backing Down: Secretary Bellows previously drew national attention for ruling that Donald Trump was not eligible for the ballot in Maine based on his role in the January 6th insurrection. More recently, she's been leading more than 25 other states to stand up to the DOJ in protecting voter rolls, and recently for refusing to grant ICE confidential licesnse plates.
