Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley said Tuesday his organization is intervening in litigation involving a March executive order by President Donald Trump that seeks, among other things, to enhance voter citizenship verification and ban foreign nationals from interfering in U.S. elections.
"Leftist groups are attacking President Trump's election integrity Executive Order," Whatley wrote in a post on X. "We need protections like proof of citizenship, clean voter rolls, and ensuring ballots are received by Election Day. The RNC is intervening to make sure it is easier to vote and harder to cheat."
The RNC filed a motion to intervene Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in support of the executive order that is being challenged in a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Governors Association, the Democratic Party, the Democrats' campaign committees in the Senate and House, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
Trump's executive order issued March 25 requires government-issued proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration in every state, enforce that mail-in ballots are received by Election Day and directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to work with state election officials to address violations of the order, and conditions federal funding on whether states require voter ID.
It also requires Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to enforce "appropriate laws to prevent foreign nationals from contributing or donating" to U.S. elections. Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were also ordered to label election infrastructure — such as voting machines, ballots, and election equipment — as "critical" and prevent noncitizens from handling or administering election infrastructure.
The lawsuit asserted that the order "seeks to impose radical changes on how Americans register to vote, cast a ballot, and participate in our democracy — all of which threaten to disenfranchise lawful voters and none of which is legal."
RNC Chief of Staff Michael Ambrosini responded in a six-page sworn declaration to the court, viewed by Newsmax, that "the RNC intervenes as a defendant in this case to vindicate its own rights and in a representational capacity to vindicate the rights of its members, affiliated voters, and candidates."
He also argued that expanded mail-in ballot access and insufficient voter roll scrutiny harm Republican electoral prospects and drain party resources. One of its central claims is that mail-in ballots received after Election Day give Democrats a competitive edge.
"Late-arriving ballots that skew heavily in favor of one party undermine confidence in the integrity of the election, dilute the timely votes of Republican voters, and harm the RNC," he wrote.
In April, a federal judge in Washington issued a preliminary injunction that blocked parts of Trump's executive order, siding with voting rights groups and Democrats to stop the proof-of-citizenship requirement from moving forward while the lawsuit plays out. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly also blocked part of the order requiring public assistance enrollees to have their citizenship assessed before getting access to a federal voter registration form.
But she also refused to block the parts of Trump's order that seek to tighten mail-in ballot deadlines, as well as allowing the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Government Efficiency to review state voter lists alongside immigration databases.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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