With the 2026 midterm elections less than two months away, one prominent newspaper is urging Americans to deliver an unmistakable verdict on Donald Trump’s political movement: Remove every election denier from office.

In a blistering editorial, The Philadelphia Inquirer warned that the approaching election is about more than control of Congress. The paper argued that voters must decide whether officials who challenged previous election results—and could do so again—should retain political power.

“For those fed up with the direction of the country under Trump, there is only one answer,” the editorial concluded. “Vote the bums out.”

A darker question hangs over the midterms

Midterm campaigns traditionally revolve around the economy, taxes, health care, crime and foreign policy. But the Inquirer’s editorial board argued that an even more fundamental question now overshadows those issues: Will the results be accepted and the winners certified?

The concern is shared by election attorney Marc Elias, who has warned that Trump and his allies could use political and legal pressure to contest outcomes they oppose.

Trump has not said he intends to reject the 2026 midterm results. Nevertheless, the Inquirer pointed to his continuing attacks on voting systems and his refusal to accept his 2020 presidential defeat as reasons to take the possibility seriously.

The editorial claimed Trump is already trying to create suspicion around the process, potentially giving himself and his supporters a justification to challenge Democratic victories.

‘Brace yourself for chaos’

The Inquirer suggested that Trump’s assessment of the election’s legitimacy could depend heavily on who wins.

If Republicans retain the House and Senate, the editorial predicted that Trump would celebrate the results as proof of a fair election. But if Democrats capture either chamber, the board warned Americans to “brace yourself for chaos.”

That warning reflects the paper’s view of several Republican-backed election initiatives, including aggressive congressional redistricting, new restrictions on mail voting and attempts to impose voting rules through executive authority.

The board also raised concerns about weakened federal election-security operations and the possibility of federal agents being deployed near polling locations.

Some of these disputes remain the subject of litigation and partisan disagreement. Republicans frequently describe such policies as election-integrity measures, while Democrats and voting-rights groups argue that they suppress lawful participation.

The Inquirer’s position was unambiguous: Voters should judge the measures in the context of Trump’s conduct following the 2020 election.

The shadow of January 6

Trump was criminally indicted over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential result, although an indictment is an accusation and not itself proof of guilt.

Those efforts culminated in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, when a mob disrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Hundreds of participants were subsequently charged or convicted of offenses connected to the riot.

After returning to office, Trump issued sweeping clemency to January 6 defendants, including people accused or convicted of assaulting law-enforcement officers. He also pardoned political allies associated with election-denial efforts, according to the editorial.

To the Inquirer, those decisions sent a deeply troubling signal: People who attempted to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power would receive protection instead of consequences.

“Sadly, 2020 may just be a warm-up compared with 2026,” the board warned.

A demand for total repudiation

The editorial did not call merely for defeating a few vulnerable Republicans. It urged voters to reject MAGA election deniers across the board.

Its argument is that lawmakers who supported Trump’s false claims about 2020—or refused to hold him accountable—cannot be trusted to defend an election producing results unfavorable to their party.

That message transforms the midterms into a referendum on the democratic system itself.

Republican candidates would ordinarily prefer to campaign on immigration, taxes, public safety and conservative cultural issues. But the Inquirer wants voters to focus on whether those same candidates would certify a legitimate Democratic victory.

More than an election dispute

The paper also attacked Republican lawmakers over affordability, the conflict with Iran, alleged abuses connected to deportation operations and what it characterized as the Justice Department’s abandonment of the rule of law.

Taken together, the editorial presented a portrait of a governing party that has failed to restrain Trump while neglecting the everyday problems confronting voters.

Its solution was not subtle, cautious or conciliatory.

The Inquirer called for an electoral reckoning—one large enough to deprive Trump’s movement of congressional power and demonstrate that attacks on legitimate elections carry a political price.

The battle over November 3, in this framing, is not merely Republican versus Democrat. It is accountability versus impunity—and a test of whether voters are prepared to deliver consequences before the next constitutional crisis arrives.