As midterm election polls project gains for Democrats, the Center for Renewing America has published a strategy paper arguing that winning candidates can be blocked from taking office if they are linked to a purported “Red-Green Alliance.”
The Legal Strategy Proposed by the Center for Renewing America
The post, published last month by the think tank and titled “Can Congress Seat a Member-Elect Who Vows to Destroy our Constitution?”, targets incoming progressive and Muslim politicians. Benjamin Osborne, a Georgetown Law School graduate and legal fellow at the organization, authored the piece. Osborne contends that candidates who embrace the destruction of the constitutional order cannot truthfully swear an oath to support that order as a condition of taking office.
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Wade Miller, the executive director of the organization, authored another publication earlier this year defining the alliance. Miller claimed the group includes the “Squad”—Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar—alongside New York politician Zohran Mamdani and Michigan senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. The publications assert these politicians promote an ideology dedicated to destroying capitalism, Christianity, and the Western political tradition.
None of the named politicians have self-identified as Marxists, though some, including Ocasio-Cortez and Mamdani, are Democratic Socialists.
Criticism From Legal Scholars and Precedent Concerns
Legal experts have pushed back against the strategy outlined in the paper. Richard Pildes, a professor at New York University’s School of Law, called the proposal another attempt to contort and twist basic norms for partisan purposes.
“This is another attempt to contort and twist basic norms that have never been used this way for their own partisan purposes,” says Richard Pildes, a professor at New York University’s School of Law.
The Center for Renewing America was founded by Russell Vought, one of the main architects of Project 2025 and director of the Office of Management and Budget. Vought faced criticism for his anti-Muslim comments—he once said that Muslims had a “deficient theology” and “do not know God”—when was nominated for OMB director during the first Trump administration.
Broader Executive Power Expansion Under Vought
Beyond the think tank’s legal publications, Vought has pursued policies that critics argue infringe upon the powers of other branches of government. Despite Congress being tasked with allocating and approving funds for the operation of the federal government, Vought has impounded, refused, or delayed the disbursement of funds, including billions of dollars that Congress has approved.
Last year, Vought put a freeze on $5 billion in foreign aid funding, which was followed up by clawing back more than $800 million this year, a move that may violate the Impoundment Control Act, Maine senator Susan Collins said in late September.
The Center for Renewing America did not respond to a request for comment.
