In interviews and statements, nearly a dozen Republican officials from key states expressed sympathy with Trump's broader concerns about election integrity but questioned the feasibility and wisdom of an outright ban on a voting method used by millions of Americans.
Following social media posts where Trump suggested he could enact a ban via executive order before the 2026 midterms, GOP leaders were quick to point out major practical and legal hurdles. They noted that the U.S. Constitution grants states, not the president, the primary authority to set election rules.
A central concern for many Republicans is the impact a ban would have on military personnel stationed overseas, who rely on mail-in ballots to vote. “We can’t get rid of vote by mail because we’ve got military serving,” said Jim Eschenbaum, Chair of the South Dakota GOP. “If anybody deserves a vote in our elections, it’s the people that are willing to die for us.”
Other state-level Republicans, like Michigan House Majority Leader Bryan Posthumus, argued for securing mail-in voting rather than eliminating it. “We shouldn’t just go off and get rid of voting by mail,” Posthumus said. “We need to buckle down and secure the weakness and vulnerability in it... I’ve always been a proponent that it should be easy to vote and hard to cheat.”
The pushback highlights a tension within the GOP between aligning with Trump’s rhetoric and navigating the practical realities of a voting system that many of their own voters use. Data from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission shows that mail-in ballots accounted for 30% of all votes in the 2024 general election, with turnout exceeding that threshold in over a dozen states—half of which were won by Trump.
Despite Trump's claims that mail-in voting is "corrupt" and leads to "rigged" elections, evidence of widespread fraud is scant. A database maintained by the conservative Heritage Foundation lists 217 total criminal convictions for all types of election fraud between 2020 and 2025. Election officials from both parties have consistently stated that multiple safeguards exist to verify the validity of every mail ballot.
While some party members, like an RNC committeeman from Nebraska, expressed full support for Trump's agenda, the overall response suggests a political and legal battle ahead if the administration moves forward with its plan. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has already promised that any such measure would be "dead on arrival" in the Senate.