‘Grind the country to a halt’: Democrat urges national strike if Trump meddles in midterms — The Guardian

“We have to prepare for the outmost scenario, the worst scenario, which is they try to either capture the ballot box as ballots are being counted, they try to stop the count, they try to surround polling places, whatever it is,” he told the Court of History podcast with political historians Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz.

“We need to make sure that we have an ultimate response to that which, I believe, has to be a true national strike in the sense that, if they do this, if they try to overthrow our democracy, if you are allied with democracy, do not go to work. If you’re a pilot, do not show up. If you drive a train, do not show up. If you’re a teacher, do not show up. We grind the country to a halt.”

Gallego, who defeated Trump loyalist Kari Lake in 2024, has gained a reputation as a blunt speaker who sometimes uses profane language to take the fight to Republicans. He continued: “We’re not going to keep going to work and boosting the world’s greatest economy in exchange for us to give up on democracy.

“If we have to destroy the stock market to save democracy, we need to accept that and, more importantly, the richest and the most powerful people in the world and in this country need to understand that that is a real possibility. There is no economic stability without democratic stability. If you take away our democratic stability, we will take away the economic stability.”