Dana Bash puts Hakeem Jeffries on the spot over Democrats’ voter ID stance

CNN’s Dana Bash pressed House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Sunday’s “State of the Union” about his opposition to requiring voter ID for elections, noting Democrats won in Virginia despite the state having such a requirement in place.

President Donald Trump urged Republicans on Monday to “nationalize the voting” in “crooked” states, arguing on a podcast that Democrat-led states have imported illegal immigrants to secure their votes. Since Trump’s push, Jeffries has described the stance as an attempt to “steal” the 2026 midterm elections. Bash challenged Jeffries’s opposition, asking why he wouldn’t support basic ID requirements, even if they did not include more stringent documentation such as a passport or birth certificate.

“Well, first of all, every state is empowered to be able to make the decision on their own, and we completely and totally support that. What Donald Trump wants to do is try to nationalize the election, translation, steal it, and we’re not going to let it happen,” Jeffries responded. “We stopped them in terms of their gerrymandering efforts, where they were going to try to redraw congressional maps in red states throughout the nation, not expect Democrats to respond forcefully, and try to rig them in [midterms]. They failed.”

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“We have stopped Donald Trump from being able to federalize the National Guard, which we believe was probably part of some toxic attempt to unleash troops on American cities all across the nation and intimidate people from voting, and we’re going to stop him from nationalizing the election,” Jeffries added. “This is going to be a free and fair election. It’s going to be conducted like every other election, where states and localities have the ability to administer the laws.”

Voter ID requirements have been repeatedly raised by the GOP; Democrats claim it would allow Republicans to suppress votes. Polls, however, have indicated that even Democrats are in support of having some form of identification required when voting in person.

A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in August 2025 found that 83% of those surveyed supported requiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification to vote. Among those who agreed, 71% were Democrats and 95% were Republicans.

Additionally, Jeffries has called out Trump’s attempt to “nationalize” voting in the U.S. ahead of the midterms. In 2021, however, the House minority leader co-sponsored the For the People Act, which attempted to reintroduce a major increase in federal government involvement in state election procedures. Many opposed, as well as others in support of the bill at the time, argued it would eventually lead to the nationalization of U.S. elections.

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