GOP Lawmaker Throws Cold Water on Trump’s Winner-Take-All Hopes in Nebraska

Donald Trump is sure to be furious Monday after a Republican lawmaker killed off any chance that Nebraska’s five electoral votes will become winner-take-all in the Electoral College this November.

State Sen. Mike McDonnell, described by The Washington Post as a “key holdout” to the Trump-backed push to change the state’s electoral college rules, said that “43 days from Election Day is not the moment” to change how Nebraska votes.

Some Republicans have fought to pass an amendment that would see all of the state’s electoral votes go to whichever candidate won Nebraska’s popular vote, as it is in every other state besides Maine. The change would have broken decades of tradition in the cornhusker state, which has split its electoral vote allotment by congressional districts—in addition to awarding two electoral votes to the state’s outright winner—since 1992.

Nebraska Legislature

Polls suggest that Trump will likely win the state’s overall popular vote. Under the current system, however, Harris is favored to win a single electoral vote from Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional district, which was won by Joe Biden and includes Omaha and its suburbs.

McDonnell, a 58-year-old ex-Democrat, had been described as being a de facto tie-breaker on the issue for the 2024 election, The New York Times reported this weekend. His decision is squarely against Trump’s wishes and that of his Republican governor, Jim Pillen, who said he’d call a special legislative session to vote on the issue if he knew he had enough votes to pass it through. However, because of McDonnell and those under his influence, Pillen—and by extension Trump—simply doesn’t have the votes.

There was a meeting held Wednesday on the matter in Lincoln, the Times reported. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) made the trip to attend in person while Trump reportedly called in to the meeting to “express his desire for the change.”

McDonnell said Monday that he personally wrote Pillen to make his position clear: “I will not change my long-held position and will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election.”

State Sen. Mike McDonnell

The local lawmaker added that he believes any changes in how Nebraska allots its electoral votes should be decided by the voters themselves—not a surprise amendment at the 11th hour in a presidential election year.

Trump did not immediately react to McDonnell’s decision on Monday afternoon. However, the leader of Nebraska Democratic Party, Jane Kleeb, thanked McDonnell for “standing strong.”

“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,” she said.

270 To Win

While a single electoral vote may seem insignificant on the surface, there’s a not-so-impossible scenario where Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional district could determine whether Harris narrowly wins the election or finishes tied with Trump at 269.

That scenario, laid out by the Times, would come into play if Harris carries the so-called “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but loses the western and southern swing states of Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina.