Nebraska Republican state senator says he won’t support electoral college change : NPR

The Nebraska State Capitol is seen in Lincoln, Nebraska, on May 14, 2024.

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

The Nebraska state lawmaker at the center of the debate over whether the state will switch to a winner-takes-all system in the Electoral College says he will not change his position and “will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election.”

“I have notified Governor [Jim] 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,” said state Sen. Mike McDonnell in a statement Monday. “I also encouraged him and will encourage my colleagues in the Unicameral to pass a constitutional amendment during next year’s session, so that the people of Nebraska can once and for all decide this issue the way it should be decided – on the ballot.”

Nebraska is one of two states — Maine being the other — that allow split ballots if a candidate wins the popular vote in a congressional district. It’s “blue dot” — the state’s 2nd Congressional District — has gone for Democratic candidates in recent presidential elections.

Any change to the way Nebraska awards its five electoral votes could have had a major effect on the contours and strategy of the final few weeks of the campaign. Candidates need to secure 270 electoral votes in order to win the White House. For Vice President Harris, winning the electoral vote from the 2nd Congressional District would allow her to reach 270 were she able to also win the so-called Blue Wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Harris would reach 270 even if she were to lose every other battleground state.

Without that one vote, Harris would go from a 270-268 advantage in the electoral college to a 268-268 tie with former President Trump. In that scenario, the House of Representatives would choose the next president, with each state’s delegation getting one vote. With Republicans expected to have an edge in the total number of state delegations they control, that vote would all but likely go to the former president.

Trump and his allies had been hoping to persuade Republican Gov. Pillen to call a special session to change how the state accords its votes. Those efforts included a visit to the state last week by Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who traveled to Nebraska to lobby lawmakers for the change.

Pillen had said that he would do so if he had the votes. Tuesday’s statement from McDonnell — a former Democrat who in April changed his party affiliation to Republican — suggests he does not.

“It would have been better, and far less expensive, for everyone!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform following McDonnell’s announcement. “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. Just another “Grandstander!”