Key Nebraska Republican Opposes Changing How State Awards Electoral Votes, Blocking Trump Campaign
A Nebraska state Republican lawmaker said Monday he remains opposed to changing how the state awards its electoral votes, blocking an effort by President Donald Trump and his allies to tweak the system in a bid to gain an extra electoral vote this fall.
Trump allies have pushed for a special legislative session to be held so that the Republican-controlled legislature can change Nebraska to a first-past-the-post system instead of allocating electoral votes by congressional district.
“After careful consideration, it is clear to me that now, 43 days before Election Day, is not the time to make this change,” Sen. Mike McDonnell wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News.
Nebraska Republican Sen. Loren Lippincott, who sponsored the bill to move the state to a first-past-the-post system, said Monday that McDonnell’s position means a special session to advance the legislation is not expected this fall.
In response to questions about McDonnell’s statement, Lippincott emailed NBC News a draft of his weekly op-ed in local newspapers, which reads: “Governor Pillen was unwilling to call a special session unless he had assurances from 33 senators that they would vote yes on the bill. That effort was unsuccessful. There will be no special session to address the Winner Take All issue. I will reintroduce this bill in the next legislative session.”
Lippincott said via email that he had not heard directly from Pillen, but he expects the governor to provide his opinion later this week.
McDonnell represents an Omaha-area Senate district and is reportedly considering a run for Omaha mayor. A former Democrat, he switched parties in April, becoming a Republican, after state Democrats censured him.
The developments appear to cap months of deliberations over whether Nebraska lawmakers could change how the state allocates its electoral votes in a way that would benefit Trump.
Nebraska distributes its electoral votes by congressional district, and the swing district around Omaha has gone to Democrats twice in recent years, giving them one electoral vote from an otherwise ruby-red state.
But if lawmakers changed that to a winner-take-all model, Trump would be almost certain to win all of Nebraska’s electoral votes.
And there is a plausible scenario in which this could determine who becomes the next president.
For example, if Vice President Kamala Harris won Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin but lost all other key states, she and Trump would be tied with 269 Electoral College votes in a winner-take-all configuration in Nebraska, with Trump winning the state.
In this scenario, the race would come down to the House of Representatives, where each state delegation would get one vote in the presidential election. Republicans hold the majority of delegations and are favored to keep it, although the House majority could change hands after the November elections.
However, if Nebraska did not change its apportionment and Harris won Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin but lost all other key states, she would win the presidential election with 270 electoral votes.
Nebraska Democrats welcomed McDonnell’s announcement.
“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,” said Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb.
“Senator McDonnell is standing firm against the enormous pressure from out-of-state interests to protect the voice of Nebraskans in our democracy. In this election and those to come, Nebraskans will continue to lead the way by electing leaders at every level who stand up for the people and respect our independent spirit,” Kleeb added.
Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a Trump ally, met with Pillen and about 20 Republican lawmakers to discuss how the state allocates its electoral votes, according to a source with direct knowledge of the trip.
Graham, acting on behalf of the Trump campaign, was working to encourage Pillen to call a special legislative session in which lawmakers could consider changing the state’s electoral vote allocation, the source told NBC News.
Proponents of the winner-take-all model would need 33 votes in the state Senate to overcome a filibuster and advance the change. Although the state’s unicameral legislature is technically nonpartisan, Republicans have a 33-seat majority thanks to McDonnell’s recent party switch. But that slim margin means Republicans can’t move forward without him.
Pillen said he had not yet “received any concrete, public indication that 33 (state) senators would vote” for the winner-take-all system.
State lawmakers told the Nebraska Examiner last week that they estimated the change had the support of 30 or 31 state senators, meaning they were two to three votes short. McDonnell was one of them. State Sen. Merv Riepe was believed to be one of them. The Washington Post reported last week that Riepe now supports the change to a first-past-the-post system.
The renewed interest in Nebraska’s Electoral College votes comes months after Republicans tried and failed to introduce the change in the spring. At the time, a lobbying effort backed by Pillen, Trump and pro-Trump influencer Charlie Kirk failed on procedural grounds because it failed to garner enough support from senators to overcome a filibuster.
Since the state changed the way it awarded Electoral College votes more than 30 years ago, lawmakers have tried repeatedly to return to awarding all of Nebraska’s votes to the state’s winner. One attempt to do so passed in 1995, but was rejected by the governor. Another attempt failed by just one vote in 2016.
Maine is the only other state that doesn’t have a first-past-the-post voting system. But while Maine Democrats have discussed changing their system in response to Nebraska’s change, they appear to have run out of time to make a counteraction for 2024.
