Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, said Thursday he still supports abolishing the electoral college after the Harris campaign claimed his position did not reflect the campaign's. remained silent as to whether or not.
“I think everyone knows that we need to abolish the electoral college,” Walz said Tuesday at a campaign fundraiser at the home of California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. It's necessary,” he said. Walz made similar comments at a previous fundraiser in Seattle.
While running for president in 2019, Harris said she was “open” to the idea of abolishing the electoral college. However, campaign officials who followed up on the issue following Walz's comments said that abolishing the electoral college system in favor of the national popular vote is not the official position of Harris' current campaign.
Fox News Digital has repeatedly contacted Walz's representatives to confirm that he still supports replacing the electoral college with a national popular vote, especially after his campaign has made it clear that it opposes the electoral college. I asked him if he had done so. Although no response was received, the Harris-Waltz campaign issued statements to certain media outlets suggesting that Walz's comments were intended to express support for the electoral system.
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The U.S. Electoral College map shows the number of electors per state. (Encyclopedia Britannica/Universal Images Group, via Getty Images)
A spokesperson for the Harris campaign said: “Governor Walz believes that every vote counts in the Electoral College and has traveled across the country and in battleground states to drum up support for Harris-Waltz.'' “We are honored by this,” a Harris campaign spokesperson said in a statement sent to some media outlets. CNN and USA Today. “He was commenting to a large group of powerful supporters about how the campaign was structured to get 270 electoral votes. I was grateful for the support.”
The debate over whether to introduce the national popular vote in place of the Electoral College in 2016 ended with Donald Trump winning the electoral vote despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, cementing his victory. When I realized it, I was instantly excited. “I think that needs to be eliminated.” Clinton told CNN. After losing to Trump in 2016. “I'd like to see us move beyond that, yes.'' Mr. Clinton had made similar remarks earlier in his career.
Just last month, Democratic Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin suggested that not abolishing the Electoral College could have dire consequences for Americans. Raskin said a national popular vote would be better than the current system, which is “a complex, outdated, 18th-century, antiquated system that is as likely to kill you as it was on January 6, 2021.” Said it's a much better option.
Congressman Raskin criticized the electoral system as an outdated relic of America's past. (C-span)
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Both Republicans and Democrats have tried to abolish the electoral college system in the past, but after Clinton's loss, calls for it to be abolished surged among Democrats. This process was established by the Founding Fathers and was seen as a compromise between electing the president by a vote of Congress and by popular vote of eligible citizens. Electoral votes, of which a presidential candidate needs 270 to win, are allocated based on the census. This process effectively allows voters in sparsely populated states to have the same impact on elections as voters in densely populated states. The electoral system is also seen as a safeguard against extremely close margins and excessive recounts.
Mr. Walz will be sworn in as governor in May 2023. signed a sweeping election bill it included clause Assigning a state's electors based on who wins the most votes nationwide, even if that does not match the state's results. The bill, known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, is supported by 17 states and the District of Columbia, but would only take effect after all signatory states reach a total of 270 electoral votes. According to , there are only 209 supporters of reform. CBS News.
donald trump and kamala harris (Fox News)
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Voted by Pew Research Center A report released last month showed a majority of Americans support leaving the Electoral College. That sentiment has steadily grown since 2016, with more than 6 in 10 Americans now preferring the national popular vote to the electoral college system, according to Pew.
Jason Snead, executive director of Honest Elections Project Action, a nonprofit organization that supports the preservation of the Electoral College, said that when Walz argued that the Electoral College should be abolished, he was “quiet.'' “I said that part out loud,” he said.
“Democratic leaders don't think it's necessary to campaign in places like Michigan and North Carolina, and they want California and New York to decide every election,” Sneed said. insisted. “There's a pattern here: Democrats claim to love democracy, and then they turn to the Supreme Court, the Senate filibuster, the Electoral College, and all the institutions that stand in their way of political power.”
