Democratic group launches legal fund to help secretaries of state defend against postelection lawsuits

A Democratic group is launching a legal fund to help secretaries of state in key states defend against an anticipated post-election deluge of lawsuits.

In plans shared first with NBC News, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State plans to spend at $5 million to support top election officials in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada. Officials with the group said they may expand their reach to other states as needed and could spend more if fundraising is strong.

The group began aggressively raising money and campaigning to elect Democratic secretaries of state, who oversee elections in many states, in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in 2020. It first funneled money to deal with postelection litigation to then-Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in 2022 to deal with postelection litigation.

“This is us trying to help our people but also help democracy,” said Travis Brimm, the group’s executive director.

“We have a bunch of pro-democracy secretaries of state that we want to support. We know a lot of them are going to get sued. We know that there’s going to be a lot of challenges to election certification issues, and we know that those are expensive endeavors,” he said.

The initial four states were chosen in part because the group believes state laws will allow it to effectively send money to boost the secretaries of state.

More than 50 lawsuits were filed across the country seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In the run-up to this November’s election, Trump’s Republican allies have already filed a series of lawsuits targeting election administrators and various rules and procedures in swing states.

Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada are among the core battleground states in this year’s presidential election. Michigan and Nevada are also hosting competitive Senate races, while North Carolina has a key contest for governor on the ballot.

Maine, which leans Democratic, doles out Electoral College votes to the overall winner of the state and to the winner of each of its two congressional districts. Trump is once again eyeing Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, which he won in 2016 and 2020. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden also faces a tough re-election battle for the seat.