THE SECOND WAVE IS WORSE

We have been watching the wrong hand.

When the Department of Justice went after James Comey, Letitia James, Jerome Powell, and sitting members of Congress, people paid attention. There was outrage. There were press conferences, television segments, and statements of solidarity. Those targeted had voices, platforms, and allies who could fight back.

That is exactly what Donald Trump is counting on.

Because while our eyes were fixed on the famous names, more than 100 FBI agents descended on a small nonprofit in Ohio called the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. Their crime? Registering Black voters. Registering formerly incarcerated citizens. Registering college students. All of them Americans. All of them entitled, by law and by right, to vote.

This is not the first wave of authoritarianism. This is the second — quieter, more patient, and more dangerous.

High-profile targets can fight back. A grassroots voter registration nonprofit in Columbus cannot.

Ohio has critical Senate, congressional, and gubernatorial races in 2026. Trump knows this. This raid did not happen by accident, and it did not happen in a vacuum. It happened months before an election, aimed at the people doing the unglamorous, essential, democratic work of making sure every eligible citizen can cast a ballot.

Voter fraud in this country is vanishingly rare. What is not rare is the lie that it isn't — a lie repeated deliberately to manufacture permission to contest elections that Republicans lose.

We cannot let the obscurity of the target become a shield for the attacker.

The Ohio Organizing Collaborative deserves the same full-throated defense we gave James Comey. The rule of law demands it. Free and fair elections require it.

Say their name. Tell their story. Do not look away.