Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Tim Walz Calls For ‘Shadow Government’ In Response To Trump Election Integrity Order

[Screenshot/The View]

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota called for his party to form a “shadow government” in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order on election integrity during a town hall in Texas on Thursday while taking questions from attendees.

Trump issued the order Tuesday, which requires the federal government’s Election Assistance Commission to update its voter registration form to require proof of citizenship. Walz accused Trump of seeking to suppress votes before pivoting to the concept proposed by some Democrats, including Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel of North Carolina.

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“We see one of the first things they do is try and restrict the vote,” Walz said. “This is one of the things, though, that this is going to take power industry to — I don’t know what the answer is on this, but I’m kind of — I’ve been saying this: I think we need a shadow government, so when all these things come up every single day, we’ve got an alternate press conference telling the truth about what things are happening, tell them what’s going on.”

The term “shadow government,” closely mirrors a similar term often used in the United Kingdom to refer to a practice where each senior member of the primary opposition party “shadows” a corresponding role held by government officials and offers alternative policy recommendations.

Trump and his running mate, Vice President JD Vance, defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who chose Walz as her running mate, in the 2024 presidential election, garnering 312 electoral votes to Harris and Walz’s 226. Republicans currently control 218 seats in the House of Representatives to 213 for the Democrats, as well as 53 seats in the Senate to 45 for the Democrats (plus two independents who caucus with the Democrats).

During the 2024 campaign, the Republican National Committee invested in an operation to ensure election integrity, recruiting over 230,000 poll watchers and 6,500 attorneys to watch for signs of suspicious activity, while filing over 100 lawsuits. In one incident, poll watchers discovered 30,000 ballots had been run through a tabulator without proper security protocols.

Since the 2024 election, the RNC has continued its work on election integrity, securing legal victories in the swing states of Arizona and Georgia, as well as in Washington state. The DNC and Tim Walz are holding town halls in red districts in an attempt to shore up support that was lost during 2020, particularly among rural, working-class voters.