In a Fortune commentary published on October 4, 2026, longtime officials who served presidents from both parties warn that the United States faces the most serious threat to its system of "we the people" government since 1860 — the year of the presidential election that preceded Southern secession and the Civil War. Writing in the 250th year of American history, they argue that the country's constitutional republic is moving incrementally but steadily from self-governance toward authoritarian governance, and that the foundation of democracy — the ability to hold valid, trusted elections — is being threatened.

A brief history

The authors recount that in the months before the 2020 presidential election, President Trump repeatedly told audiences that a loss would mean the election had been rigged. After the election, and throughout January 2021, they write, the extent of his effort to overturn the result became clear, as he refused to accept the decision of the American voter:

• He asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to "find11,780 votes" to change Georgia's result. Raffensperger refused.
• He sought to halt Michigan's vote counting — which initially had him ahead in the pivotal state before he lost it as the count continued — and pressured officials not to certify the result in the days after the election. Republican officials refused to comply.
• He urged his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol to prevent Congress and Vice President Mike Pence from carrying out their constitutional duty to certify the 2020 result. According to the authors, only Pence's courage in putting country over party prevented America from suffering its first failed election in nearly 250 years.

The authors add that Trump now wants to pay those attackers from what they describe as a "highly questionable fund" created to pay supposed victims of the alleged weaponization of the legal system. They also note that Trump considered the 2016 and 2024 elections error-free — "undoubtedly because he won them."

Actions cited over the past 18 months

According to the authors, actions by the Trump administration over the last 18 months have led them and others to fear that it will not accept and allow a losing result in the 2026 congressional elections. Those contests — the first nationwide federal vote since 2024 — will put every seat in the House of Representatives and roughly one-third of the Senate on the ballot. Those actions include:

1. Pardons and commutations. On his first day in office in 2025, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people charged or convicted in the 2021 attack on the Capitol, including those convicted of violently attacking police and, via commutation, those convicted of seditious conspiracy.
2. Personnel changes. Since the start of his second term, he has fired or forced out some 75 federal officials who played important roles in ensuring valid elections. Some have been replaced by people who actively worked to reverse the 2020 vote.
3. Fulton County, Georgia. In January 2026, Kurt Olsen — described by the authors as a leading election denier who currently serves as the administration's director of "election security and integrity" — directed the FBI to seize ballots from the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, even though the Justice Department has yet to produce evidence supporting the affidavit's underlying fraud claims, and senators have called the seizure's legal basis "misleading."
4. Arizona and Michigan. In March 2026, the Justice Department obtained 2020 ballot images in Maricopa County, Arizona, and — citing claims of fraud in 2020 — demanded ballots from the 2024 election in Wayne County, Michigan.
5. Ohio. Last week, FBI agents searched the office of, and questioned staff at, an Ohio group that supports voter registration efforts, without a search warrant.
6. California. More recently, the Assistant U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles announced multiple election fraud investigations after California's primary election and said he plans to charge people with election fraud as soon as California certifies its vote count.
7. Executive order on federal elections. Trump signed an executive order claiming authority to regulate federal elections; multiple federal courts — including in Maryland, Virginia, and the 1st Circuit — have blocked the order, ruling that this power rests with Congress and the states. The Supreme Court briefly allowed a related mail-ballot rule to move forward in August before blocking it again on September 15.
8. Housing bill. The president recently torpedoed a bipartisan housing bill he had publicly supported, using it as leverage and saying he would not sign it until Congress passed his voter suppression act.
9. Postal Service. His postmaster general has endorsed a rule under which the Post Office will not distribute mail-in ballots in states that refuse to turn over their voting rolls to the administration.

Taken together, the authors argue, these actions are further evidence of a relentless effort to move authority over the election process from the states to the federal government — contrary to the clear language of the Constitution, which assigns the "Times, Places and Manner" of congressional elections to the states, with Congress empowered to make or alter those rules.

The warning

The authors write that they have taken part in many disagreements over controversial issues but have always agreed that the constitutional electoral process is vital to democracy — which means accepting and honoring a losing result. In their view, America's government gives the people the power to govern themselves, rather than an authoritarian ruler exerting that power them. If valid, trusted elections cannot continue, they warn, the ability of the American people to govern themselves will end, their collective voice will be silenced, and the country will return to the authoritarian model under which human governance was conducted everywhere before the republic's founding.

What must be done

To prevent that outcome in 2026, the authors issue three calls to action. First, Congress must reclaim its constitutional powers and review and reject many of the president's executive orders. Second, federal, state, and local officials with election responsibilities must be prepared to refuse unlawful demands to override actual election results, with every official responsible for the electoral process ready to put country over party and self. The appeal reaches every level of a system in which U.S. elections are run not by a single national agency but by thousands of county and local election offices operating under state law. Finally, they write, everyone else — "in pulpits and classrooms, on podcasts, at work, and around kitchen tables" — must defend the most fundamental freedom: the right to choose who governs. "Lose it, and we lose everything it protects."

Conclusion

"Let us repeat: Donald Trump has never acknowledged a lost election, and if the November elections don't go his way, Americans should not expect him to break his long-established behavior," the authors write. They invoke Benjamin Franklin's admonition, given when he was asked about the result of Philadelphia's Constitutional Convention: "A Republic, if you can keep it." After decades of disagreeing on how to run the country, they conclude, they do not disagree that the American people, not one man, must decide who runs it next. "So, can you keep it?"

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.