There's been a renewed effort to make Nebraska a winner-take-all electoral vote state, but the same obstacles that thwarted the same effort earlier this year have resurfaced.
of The Washington Post Reported A similar effort failed on a procedural motion in the state Legislature earlier this year, but it was announced Friday that the effort was revived at a key meeting on Wednesday.
Nebraska is one of the few states, along with Maine, that awards its two electoral votes based on a combination of statewide results and votes allocated by the winner of a particular district. Maine has the opportunity to override such a move by the Nebraska legislature, but probably does not have enough Democratic votes to make that happen.
of The Washington Post Reports Gov. Jim Pillen (R-Neb.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) met with more than 20 Republican state senators on Wednesday to discuss making Nebraska a winner-take-all electoral vote state again.
“I want to change the law. I have no reservations about that,” Graham told the outlet. “They were not biased. I said, 'Listen, that's for you to decide. It all comes down to the electoral vote. I want you to understand what that vote means.'”
In the midst of the debate, state Sen. Marv Riepe (R-Ill.) had a brief phone call with former President Donald Trump. During the call, Trump supported the idea of changing the law, which Omaha World-Herald Reports The proposal also received support from the state's U.S. Congressional and Senatorial delegations.
The obstacles stand here, but the impact of such an effort would be enormous: If the law were changed to winner-take-all and Harris won Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania while Trump won North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada (a very likely scenario), the two states would be tied at 269 electoral votes, and the election would go to the House of Representatives.
If the changes don't materialize and the same scenario plays out, Harris would win the White House by a 270-268 margin if she wins the 2nd District.
That effort was blocked in April, but is now opposed by several Republican lawmakers. postState Sen. Mike McDonnell (R-Ill.) switched from Democrat to Republican just days before the procedural vote, giving Republicans a filibuster-proof supermajority in the unicameral Congress.
As Omaha World-Herald Reported:
State Sen. Lauren Lippincott, of Central City, said Graham gave an impassioned speech about the potential consequences of Nebraska's current system, which could lead to the state receiving the votes needed to win the presidential election for Democrats.
…
But Lippincott, who introduced the bill last year, said the incident did not affect the vote, and that the proposal remains a few votes short of overcoming a filibuster, as it did at the end of this year's legislative session.
For McDonnell, local political ambitions may be at play. postBiden is seen as a leading candidate for Omaha mayor in 2016, especially since Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, which would lose its electoral votes if the state becomes a winner-take-all state, makes up a large part of the Omaha metropolitan area. The district voted for Trump in 2016 and then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, before being won by Biden in 2020.
A vote to make the state's electoral vote winner-take-all system could hurt McDonnell's prospects if he decides to run for mayor of Omaha.
