Slotkin seeks Pentagon pledge to keep troops away from midterm polls

Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin has formally asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to commit that the U.S. military will not be deployed to polling stations or involved in election processes during the November midterms.

In letters sent Tuesday, Slotkin requested a simple confirmation: that the Department of Defense will not send federal troops to the polls or seize election materials of any kind. The Pentagon said it would respond directly to the senator, as it does with all congressional correspondence. The Joint Chiefs did not immediately comment.

Slotkin's request comes amid Democratic concerns that the Trump administration could use military force to interfere with the vote. She pointed to the former president's past actions, including his contemplation of using the military to seize voting machines after the 2020 election, his deployment of the National Guard to cities against local leaders' wishes, and the 2025 deployment of active-duty Marines to Los Angeles during an immigration crackdown.

"He's very clearly laying the breadcrumbs to be able to say the day after the election that he didn't really lose the House or he didn't really lose the Senate," Slotkin said.

This is not the first time Slotkin has raised the issue. During an April congressional hearing, she asked Hegseth whether he would follow orders to seize ballots. Hegseth called it a "gotcha hypothetical" but stated, "I've never been ordered to do anything illegal, and I won't."

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has also denied such plans, telling Vanity Fair last year that using the military to suppress voting "is categorically false, will not happen."

Federal law already bars the use of armed federal forces at election sites unless necessary to repel armed enemies. Any military involvement would likely fall to the National Guard under state control.

In 2020, then-Joint Chiefs chairman General Mark Milley responded to a similar letter from Slotkin, then a congresswoman, affirming his belief in an apolitical military and noting that election disputes are for courts and Congress to resolve, not the military.