STAMFORD–If the midterm elections shift power in Congress toward the Democrats, U.S. Representative Jim Himes expects President Donald Trump to cry foul, as he has in the past.

“The president has never accepted the results of an election that he didn’t like,” Himes, a Democrat, said yesterday in a meeting with reporters at his Stamford office. He noted that even when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton solely on electoral votes in 2016, “he demanded that we all say that he won the popular vote. So we’re taking it as near gospel that he will, after a bad election day, claim that the results were corrupt.”

Himes represents Connecticut’s 4^th Congressional  District, which includes Westport, and serves as the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

In his office, he discussed the possibility of violence at the polls on Nov. 3, especially in battleground states, and what may happen if, say, the Department of Homeland Security “shows up in vans, and lo and behold, at the end of it all, certain voting places are either not accessible or they have their machines taken, or whatever it is.”

One approach, he said, is to “reassure Americans of the unarguable fact that our elections are fair and secure.”

To that end, Himes and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia wrote several days ago to recently named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton about assessment of foreign threats to elections that the agency is required to produce. They noted that they had received one, but others are outstanding.  

One way individuals can lessen the risk of voting problems is to cast ballots early, said Himes, who is running for his 10^th two-year term on Nov. 3. He faces Dr. Michael Goldstein, the Republican candidate he defeated in 2024, and Independent Ben Wesley.

Goldstein said insufficient information exists to assure that elections are secure, pointing to Bridgeport’s election fraud cases in which a City Council member and former Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee official each face dozens of charges in connection with elections in recent years.

“There have always been issues of dead people showing up in voter rolls and people registered to vote in more than one place,” Goldstein said. “There are suspicious things that do happen,” Goldstein said. “Whether they’re outcome-determinate or something minor, I don’t think there’s enough data to determine.”

Wesley said he shared deep concerns about the election, but he suggested that Himes’s support of early voting was self-serving as the incumbent, encouraging people to cast their ballots before they have adequate chance to get to know the challengers.

“One of the reasons I am advocating for the abolition of ICE is because it can be used as a paramilitary force at elections under Donald Trump’s direct authority without a whole lot of pushback,” he said.

Goldstein disagreed.

“Nobody who is a valid citizen and has a legal right to vote should in any way shape or form be intimidated by ICE,” he said.

Himes advised that anyone being detained by ICE can ask if they are under arrest and if they answer is no, they have the right to leave. But he also said lawyers and observers from civil rights groups are preparing to monitor polling places.

“Are we giving ICE the benefit of the doubt?” he said. “No, we are not.” 

In addition to Westport, the state’s 4th Congressional District includes Bridgeport, Darien, Easton, Fairfield, Greenwich, Monroe, New Canaan, Norwalk, Oxford, Redding, Ridgefield, part of Shelton, Stamford, Trumbull, Weston and Wilton.