Defend Democracy - Vote Merkley Out of Office in 2026

Defending Democracy: The Real Threat Isn’t the President—It’s the Politicians Who Refuse to Accept the People’s Verdict

In recent town-hall meetings across Oregon, Senator Jeff Merkley has taken to the stage to warn his constituents that a Republican president, elected by the American people in a free and fair contest, somehow poses an existential threat to “democracy.”

This claim is not only false; it is the very opposite of the truth.

The election of any president—Republican or Democrat—by popular vote and the Electoral College is not a danger to our republic. It is the living, breathing definition of democracy in action.

When millions of Americans go to the polls and choose their leader, that choice is the sovereign will of the people. To call that outcome a threat is to declare that the American voter is the threat. Senator Merkley’s rhetoric does not defend democracy; it dismisses it.

The true danger to our constitutional order arises when elected officials, having lost the presidential election, immediately set out to discredit and destroy the winner’s ability to govern. In the first year of this presidency, Merkley and his allies have wasted no time launching investigations, leaks, media campaigns, and legislative roadblocks aimed at one goal: rendering the people’s choice ineffective.

This is not oversight. This is obstruction.

When a senator uses the prestige of his office to portray a duly elected president as illegitimate from day one, he is not protecting democracy—he is assaulting it. The American people did not elect their president on a trial basis, subject to the veto of the losing party. They elected him for four years to lead.

Any sustained campaign to nullify that mandate before the term even begins is an attack on the consent of the governed, the central pillar of our republic.

The conspiracy theory that a Republican president could somehow transform himself into a “king” or dictator collapses the moment one opens the Constitution. Our system was deliberately engineered with separation of powers precisely to prevent any such outcome. The president commands no army of his own; Congress controls the purse strings and writes the laws; the judiciary stands independent; and every two years the American people can fire half the House and a third of the Senate.

No president—Republican, Democrat, or otherwise—can suspend elections, dissolve Congress, or rule by decree.

To pretend otherwise is not serious constitutional analysis; it is theatrical fearmongering designed to frighten voters into surrendering their own judgment to Washington insiders. The Founders did not trust any one man with unchecked power, and they certainly did not trust any one party to define “democracy” as whatever keeps them in office.

Most troubling of all is the transparent motive behind the hysteria.

Democrats lost the White House. The people looked at their record, their policies, and their vision for the country and chose a different direction. Rather than accept that verdict and offer constructive opposition, some, like Senator Merkley, have chosen to delegitimize the result itself.

The goal is clear: maintain power, position, and influence even after the electorate has revoked their mandate. This is not the behavior of public servants; it is the behavior of an entrenched political class that views electoral defeat as a temporary inconvenience to be overcome by any means necessary.

The American people did not grant the president four years so that Congress could spend those years trying to impeach him before he has even finished his first budget. They granted him those four years to govern, to negotiate, to lead. Denying him that opportunity is an attempt to steal back through sabotage what was lost at the ballot box.

Russ McAlmond rejects this cynical playbook. He believes that democracy is strengthened when the people’s choice is respected, not undermined. He understands that the real work of a United States Senator is not to fuel conspiracy theories about “threats to democracy” but to deliver results on borders, inflation, energy independence, and the everyday concerns of Oregon families.

He will fight for accountability, but he will never confuse accountability with an endless partisan war against a president the American people just elected.

The choice before Oregon voters in 2026 could not be clearer. We can re-elect the politics of denial, obstruction, and manufactured panic. Or we can send to Washington a senator who trusts the American people, honors their vote, and understands that the surest way to protect democracy is to stop treating the voters who disagree with you as enemies of the state.

Russ McAlmond stands with the Constitution, with the separation of powers, and—most importantly—with the sovereign right of the American people to choose their president without apology or asterisk. That is not a threat to democracy. That is democracy. And it is time we defended it.