Every two years between 2001 and 2015, I’d begin my term in Congress with the official swearing-in ceremony on the House Floor. I’d raise my right hand, proclaim my oath to the Constitution, and take a seat. I’d always assumed that seat was bestowed to me by a majority of voters in my Long Island district. Turns out I was wrong: The very Constitution I’d promised to protect and defend has an obscure clause that could have invalidated my election.

That simple language—tucked into Article 1, Section 5—might be a mechanism for Donald Trump and his congressional acolytes to maintain their House majority after the 2026 midterm elections, even if it’s clear the Democrats have flipped the House. It would be craven, but shockingly constitutional. And it would be hard for the courts to reverse.

The possible hijacking of a Democratic majority would rest on these words: “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business.” More plainly, voters may believe they are choosing their preferred representative—that once they see their district’s race called on election night, they can sleep peacefully in the knowledge the winner will be sworn in. Ultimately, the final arbiter of those elections is the speaker of the House. And if an election is close—perhaps even beset by accusations of fraud—then the speaker has enough constitutional leeway to override election results.

Believe it or not, we’ve seen it happen before. In 1984, a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives refused to seat newly elected Republican Rick McIntyre from Indiana’s notorious “bloody” 8th congressional district. He’d just beaten incumbent Democrat Frank McCloskey by a mere 34 votes, but questions about the vote counting abounded, leading House Democrats to appoint a three-person commission to investigate further. They ultimately found that McCloskey had held the seat by four votes and seated him instead—reversing the results of the election.

Since then, no House majority has seriously sought to use Article I, Section 5. But as we barrel toward the 2026 midterms with a fully MAGA-filled Congress and a Trump administration intent on bending every institution to his will, Article I, Section 5 is a five-alarm fire waiting to happen. When the president already says any election he doesn’t like is rigged, what will stop Speaker Mike Johnson from asking his fellow Republicans to accept the fiction of compromised elections in enough close districts to reverse the judgment of actual voters and preserve a Trump rubber-stamp........

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