Republican Ploy to Help Trump Take All of Nebraska’s Electoral Votes Failed
The Republican Party’s attempt to hand former President Donald Trump all of Nebraska’s electoral votes has failed after a state GOP legislator announced his opposition, causing Gov. Jim Pillen (R) to cede the issue on Tuesday.
Pillen and Republican senators in the Nebraska Legislature have been pushing to pass a bill to turn Nebraska’s electoral process into a winner-take-all system, like all of the other U.S. states, except for Maine.
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U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R), one of the Trump allies in support of this, flew to Nebraska last week to try to change the minds of the few remaining legislators not in support of switching Nebraska to a winner-take-all system. Evidently, his efforts were unsuccessful.
On Monday, State Sen. Mike McDonnell, a Republican who used to be a Democrat, publicly opposed the bill in a statement.
“After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change,” McDonnell said. “I have notified Governor Pillen that I will not change my long-held position and will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election.”
Pillen said he would only call a special session of the legislature if he knew that 33 senators supported passing a bill on this. The state’s legislature has only one chamber made of up 49 senators — 33 Republicans and 16 Democrats. All of the state’s Democratic legislators opposed this, so every single Republican would’ve had to be on board to get this done.
Pillen released a statement Tuesday saying that he has “no plans” to call a special session before the November election because there is not a “filibuster-proof 33-vote majority” in support of it.
He added that McDonnell’s opposition “is profoundly disappointing to me and the many others who have worked so earnestly to ensure all Nebraskans’ votes are sought after equally this election.”
McDonnell argued that this issue should be passed in next year’s session as a ballot initiative, so Nebraska voters can decide if their electoral system should change.
“Nebraska voters, not politicians of either party, should have the final say on how we pick a President,” McDonnell said.
Most states give all of their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who won the popular vote in the state. However, Nebraska splits up its electoral votes among its three congressional districts and whoever wins the most votes statewide receives the state’s remaining two votes.
This allows the state’s five votes to be divided up among candidates in the Electoral College, which happened in 2020 when President Joe Biden lost Nebraska but won the state’s 2nd congressional district, which contains the state’s largest city — Omaha.
Multiple polls have shown Vice President Kamala Harris performing well in the state’s 2nd district, so even if Trump wins the statewide popular vote in Nebraska and the state’s other two districts, she could still net one electoral vote. The 2024 presidential election will likely be a very tight race, so every electoral vote matters.
If Nebraska switched to a winner-take-all system, then Trump would likely win all five of the Republican state’s electoral votes, recent polls show.
On Wednesday evening, Trump criticized and insulted McDonnell for preventing change on this issue in a Truth Social post.
“Unfortunately, a Democrat turned Republican(?) State Senator named Mike McDonnell decided, for no reason whatsoever, to get in the way of a great Republican, common sense, victory,” Trump wrote. “Just another ‘Grandstander!’ Who knows, perhaps one of the [other] two Republicans that were a ‘NO’ Vote will change their minds.”
Meanwhile, the Nebraska Democratic Party praised McDonnell for standing his ground and diverging from other Republicans on this.
“Nebraska has a long and proud tradition of independence, and our electoral system reflects that by ensuring that the outcome of our elections truly represents the will of the people without interference,” the state Democratic Party said. “Senator McDonnell is standing strong against tremendous pressure from out-of-state interests to protect Nebraskans’ voice in our democracy.”
Read McDonnell’s statement here.
Learn more about how the Electoral College works here.
Original post, Sept. 20
Nebraska Republicans are pushing for the state to change its electoral vote process to a winner-take-all system, which could give former President Donald Trump an extra electoral vote in this year’s close presidential race.
Nebraska’s all-Republican congressional delegation sent a letter to Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) and Speaker of the Legislature John Arch (R) asking them to pass and sign a bill that would make this change.
Also, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) flew to Nebraska on Wednesday to meet with Pillen and numerous state legislators to push them to adopt a winner-take-all system, multiple news outlets reported. Pillen’s office did not respond to a request for comment on this meeting.
How does Nebraska’s electoral system work?
Currently, Nebraska is one of the only states in the country that doesn’t award all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who received the most votes statewide, which is a winner-take-all system. Instead, they split up their votes by congressional district.
The state has five electoral votes, a small fraction of the Electoral College — made up of 270 votes.
Nebraska has three congressional districts, and if a presidential candidate wins a district, they get a single electoral vote. If they win all three districts, they get three electoral votes. The state’s two remaining electoral votes go to the person who received the most votes statewide. This system has led to Nebraska splitting its Electoral College votes in the past.
Maine has the same system with its four electoral votes, allocating two to the statewide winner and one for each of its congressional districts.
How would changing it to a winner-take-all system benefit Trump?
In 2020, President Joe Biden lost to Trump in Nebraska statewide and in the mostly Republican districts, but he defeated him in the state’s 2nd congressional district, which includes Omaha — the state’s largest city. So, Trump garnered four electoral votes and Biden netted one.
It’s still unclear who will win the state, but multiple polls show Harris leading Trump by at least five points in the 2nd district. If Harris faces the same outcome Biden did — losing statewide and in the 1st and 3rd districts but winning in the 2nd district, she gets one electoral vote instead of zero. In a presidential race that’s expected to be extremely close, every electoral vote matters.
According to analysis from Semafor — a global news outlet — there’s a plausible scenario where the race for the White House could come down to Nebraska’s 2nd district.
What happens next?
Pillen said in a statement last week that he’s willing to call a special session of the legislature to get a law passed implementing a winner-take-all system before the 2024 election.
“As Governor of Nebraska, I will never waver in my commitment to do what is right for our state,” Pillen said. “As I have consistently made clear, I strongly support statewide unity and joining 48 other states by awarding all five of our electoral college votes to the presidential candidate who wins the majority of Nebraskans’ votes.”
However, he said he would only do this if he knew that 33 senators would vote for it. Nebraska has a unicameral legislature — meaning they only have one chamber in their legislature instead of two. The legislature is made up of 49 senators, so Pillen is asking for over two-thirds of the members to clearly and publicly express support for this.
Republican members of Congress have also pushed for this.
Nebraska Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts along with Nebraska Reps. Mike Flood, Don Bacon and Adrian Smith said in a letter that the state “needs a President that will represent all of us, from Omaha to Scottsbluff and everywhere in between.”
The state’s federal delegation also noted that Nebraska had a winner-take-all system for electoral votes before 1992 and said that the state has only split its votes twice since then — in 2008 and 2020. They asked legislators and the governor to return to Nebraska’s pre-1992 status quo.
Also, Graham, one of Trump’s allies, met with state legislators on Wednesday “with the hopes of encouraging the final holdouts to change their minds” and “touched on what he said were the dangers of a Harris-Walz administration,” according to reporting from Nebraska news station KOLN.
Also, KOLN reporters said they spoke to lawmakers and that the majority of “the state senators who gathered at the governor’s mansion are ready to pass a winner-take-all bill, but a few holdouts remain.” Around 30 to 31 votes have been confirmed, the legislators said.
There have been reports that Maine Democrats said they would switch to a winner-take-all system if Nebraska does to counteract the effect this would have on Trump and Harris. Having a winner-take-all system in their state would help Harris.
However, it’s too late for them to do this since it takes 90 days for legislation to go into effect in Maine after it is enacted, and the Electoral College meets on Dec. 17, which is 88 days away.
With the 2024 election approaching quickly, Nebraska legislators would have to move quickly to pass their bill shifting the state to a winner-take-all system. If the legislation does pass and is signed by Pillen in time, Harris’ chances to win the Electoral College — and the presidency — could decrease.