Nebraska Republicans mount effort to switch state to winner-take-all electoral system

An effort by Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump and Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen to hold a special legislative session to change the state’s method of awarding Electoral College votes before the Nov. 5 election suffered a blow Monday.

State Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha, who switched from Democrat to Republican earlier this year, issued a statement Monday saying he opposed the plan. 

“Elections should be an opportunity for all voters to be heard, no matter who they are, where they live, or what party they support,” McDonnell said in the statement. “I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”

McDonnell was a key holdout in opposing the change. Pillen had said he would not call a special session unless he had pledges from at least 33 state senators – the number needed to overcome an expected filibuster by Democrats – to support the change. Pillen had been lobbying McDonnell aggressively to sign on to the plan and invited him to a meeting with other lawmakers last week.

Changing to a winner-take-all system could block Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris from peeling off an electoral vote from the Omaha area’s 2nd Congressional District in her race to take the White House.

Trump spoke briefly by phone to a group of Nebraska state senators last week in a private meeting called by Pillen at the governor’s mansion.

Sen. Merv Riepe, who was on the call, told the Nebraska Independent that Trump “didn’t put any pressure on us. He just said, ‘Nebraska is an important state for me.’”

Nebraska and Maine are the only states that split their electoral votes. In Nebraska, two of the five electoral votes for president are awarded based on the statewide vote; the other three are assigned based on the winner of the election in each of the state’s congressional districts.

Democrats have called the 2nd District the “Blue Dot” since Vice President Joe Biden won it in 2020 to block Trump’s reelection bid.

Trump assailed McDonnell Monday in a post on his Truth Social site.

“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,” Trump wrote. “Just another ‘Grandstander!’” 

The day before the Pillen meeting, U.S. Rep. Mike Flood posted on the social media platform X a copy of a letter he signed along with the rest of Nebraska’s all-Republican congressional delegation supporting the switch to a winner-take-all system.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who attended Pillen’s meeting in Lincoln, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the lone electoral vote from Nebraska’s Omaha-centric 2nd Congressional District could be key to a Trump victory.

“To my friends in Nebraska, that one electoral vote could be the difference between Harris being president or not, and she’s a disaster for Nebraska and for the world,” Graham said.

The Legislature voted to split Nebraska’s electoral votes in 1991. Pillen, prodded by Trump, openly supported an effort in the last regular legislative session to return Nebraska to a winner-take-all system, which would put the state in line with 48 other states. 

It failed, but Pillen later hinted at calling a special session on the subject. 

The district is again in play for Harris’ bid to win the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat Trump and claim the presidency.

The Republican Party holds a slim 38%-35% voter registration advantage over the Democrats in the 2nd Congressional District, while some 25% of the district’s voters are registered independents.

Nebraska recorded its first electoral vote split in 2008, when Barack Obama won the 2nd District in his successful bid for the White House.

No Democrat has won the statewide vote for president in Nebraska since President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Democratic state Sen. Danielle Conrad decried the winner-take-all effort in an email to the Nebraska Independent.

“Nebraskans are smart and unimpressed by this last-minute breathless push by outside political interests to change the rules at the very last minute to force a perceived partisan advantage,” Conrad said. “Nebraskans’ … approach to awarding our electoral votes has served our state well for decades. It increases voter engagement, has resulted in significant economic investments locally and ensures each candidate and each campaign has to come to Nebraska to compete for our votes as they should.”