The effort to make Nebraska a winner-takes-all electoral votes state has rekindled, though hindrances that halted the same effort earlier this year are once again at play.
The Washington Post reported Friday that the effort had been renewed, highlighted by a significant meeting on Wednesday after a similar initiative failed earlier this year on a procedural motion in the state legislature.
Nebraska is one of only two states, along with Maine, that award two electoral votes based on the statewide result and multiple votes allocated by who wins particular congressional districts. While Maine would have the opportunity to neutralize such a move from the Nebraska legislature, it would likely not have enough Democrat votes to make it happen.
The Washington Post reports that Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) met with more than 20 Republican state senators on Wednesday to discuss once again making Nebraska a winner-takes-all electoral vote state.
“I want the law changed. I’ve made no qualms about it,” Graham said per the outlet. “They were open-minded. I said: ‘Listen, it’s your decision to make. It comes down to one electoral vote. I want you to understand what that one vote would mean.’”
During the discussion, State Sen. Merv Riepe (R) had a brief phone conversation with former President Donald Trump. During their call, Trump backed the idea of changing the law, a move that the Omaha World-Herald reports was also supported by the state’s entire U.S. Congressional and Senatorial delegation.
There are roadblocks at play here, but the implications of such an effort coming to fruition are enormous. Assuming the law were changed to a winner-take-all vote, and Harris were to win Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania while Trump won North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada—a scenario well within possibility—they would be tied at 269 electoral votes, and the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives.
If a change does not come to fruition and the same scenario plays out, Harris will win the White House 270-268 if she takes the Second District.
While the effort was stimied in April, there are currently several Republican holdouts, including, per the Post, State Sen. Mike McDonnell (R), who defected from the Democrat Party to become a Republican days before the procedural votes, giving the GOP a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Unicameral legislature.
As the Omaha World-Herald reported:
State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City said Graham gave an impassioned speech about the potential consequences of Nebraska’s current system, namely the possibility that the state could provide the vote needed for a Democratic victory in the presidential race.
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But Lippincott, who introduced legislation to make the switch last year, said the event did not sway any votes. He said the proposal remains two or three votes shy of overcoming a filibuster to pass, just as it was at the end of this year’s legislative session.
Local political aspirations could be at play for McDonnell. Per the Post, he is seen as being a potential candidate for mayor in Omaha. Notably, the Second Congressional District, which would lose its electoral vote if Nebraska became a winner-take-all-state, encompasses a large portion of metropolitan Omaha. The district went to Biden in 2020 after going for Trump in 2016 and then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.
A vote to make the state’s electoral vote awarding system winner-take-all could harm McDonnell’s prospects if he decided to run for mayor in Omaha.