Feds assign two officials to lead intelligence coordination on election threats
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stands after President Donald Trump spoke about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on April 1, 2026 in Washington, DC. Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images
For months, it was unclear if ODNI ever named an election threats executive responsible for leading election security efforts in the 2026 midterm cycle.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently named two officials to a role coordinating with the nation’s spy agencies on threats against the 2026 midterm elections, according to a congressional source and a second person familiar with the matter.
Dave Mastro and James Cangialosi will jointly oversee the intelligence community’s election threat mission, serving in the role of election threats executive. Both sources requested anonymity to communicate the appointments.
Mastro serves on the National Intelligence Council, which produces intelligence assessments drawn from findings across the nation’s spy agencies, including reports requested by Congress and senior policymakers. Cangialosi serves as deputy director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.
“We have an expansive team of professionals at ODNI focused on carrying out President [Donald] Trump’s and [Director of National Intelligence Tulsi] Gabbard’s election integrity efforts,” which includes Mastro and Cangialosi, ODNI spokesperson Olivia Coleman said in a statement.
The office is also “providing robust briefings, on par with efforts traditionally carried out during election years, to protect election integrity this midterm cycle,” Coleman said.
For months, it was unclear if ODNI ever named an election threats executive responsible for leading the intelligence community on election security for the coming midterm cycle.
The Record first reported the appointments.
Established in 2022, the Foreign Malign Influence Center was designed to coordinate spy agencies’ efforts to identify and assess foreign influence and disinformation threats targeting elections. But an overhaul inside ODNI launched last summer shifted many of the center’s responsibilities to the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and the National Intelligence Council, with ODNI arguing the previous structure raised constitutional concerns over coordination with social media companies.
The election threats executive — created in 2019 during Trump’s first term — typically oversees an “Experts Group” that analyzes intelligence on foreign interference efforts.
Election threats can include cyberattacks on voting systems, foreign influence operations and disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining public trust in elections.
The assignments come as Gabbard has faced criticism over her involvement in the White House’s broader review of election security outcomes, including scrutiny from Democrats tied to her presence during an FBI raid on a Georgia election office and ODNI-led examinations of voting machines in Puerto Rico.
This year’s annual intelligence assessment of worldwide threats to the U.S. did not describe foreign threats to the nation’s elections, the first time in nearly a decade.
Trump has continued to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts, audits and state reviews finding no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome.
The appointments also come amid broader changes to the federal government’s election security apparatus ahead of the 2026 midterms. In recent months, Democrats and state election officials have raised concerns over cuts to election-focused programs at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which has lost around a third of its workforce in the last year.