Previous President Donald Trump is cheering an work, led by Republicans in Nebraska, to change the state’s electoral college system to a strictly winner- take- all contest.
Wyoming is one of the two U.S. states that currently awards district-level contest winners, with Maine being the other condition to adopt a similar type. The candidates with the highest voter turnout in the other 48 states favor a system where all political electors are given to the prospect with the highest voter total.
Legislation introduced by Republican Nebraska condition senator Loren Lippincott last year, LB 764, which would restore Nebraska to a strictly winner-take-all electoral college system.
Mr. Lippincott’s regulations now appears to be gaining speed. On Tuesday, Republican Nebraska Gov. In a statement, Jim Pillen urges the state’s elected legislature to help LB 764 and declares his backing for its passage.
Nebraska’s government is actually nonpartisan, but Republicans comprise a majority of its members.
President Trump, the 2016 and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee and potential 2024 Republican nominee, even threw his support behind Nebraska’s efforts to acquire a winner- get- all electoral college system.
” Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska, a really smart and common Governor, who has done some truly great things, came out today with a pretty strong letter in support of returning Nebraska’s Electoral Votes to a Winner- Take- All System. Most Nebraskans have wanted to go back to this system for a very long time, because it’s what 48 other States do—It’s what the Founders intended, and it’s right for Nebraska”, President Trump said in a post on his Truth Social account on Tuesday. ” Thank you Governor for your bold leadership. Let’s hope the Senate does the right thing. Nebraskans, respectfully ask your Senators to support this Great Bill”!
Republicans Could Take Advantage of Reform
Under the U. S. electoral college system, states are given a number of electors equal to the number of U. S. Senators and House members from that state’s delegation. Senators are elected in state- wide contests, while House members are selected in district- level contests.
According to Nebraska’s electoral college system, two of its presidential electors are chosen based on the state-wide winner of the election. The three unelected presidential candidates in Nebraska are chosen in contests that take place within its three U.S. House districts.
Republican candidates for president have historically been the ones to garner the most votes in state-wide contests in Nebraska. In fact, since 1968, the Republican nominee for president has racked up a clear majority of votes cast in every presidential election.
While Republicans have historically been the clear favorite in Nebraska’s state- level contests, Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District has sometimes presented itself as more of a battleground. Since 1968, Republicans have won all but two of Nebraska’s district-level elector contests.
In the 2008 election, Republican presidential candidate and senator John McCain won the district-level elector contests in Nebraska’s 1st and 3rd congressional districts while Barack Obama won the electorate in Nebraska’s second congressional district.
In Nebraska’s second congressional district, voters re-elected the Republican presidential candidate in the 2012 and 2016 elections, giving those Republicans a sweeping majority of the state’s voters during those two presidential elections.
While President Trump swept all of Nebraska’s electoral contests in 2016, President Joe Biden won the electoral contest in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District during the 2020 election.
If Nebraska’s state- wide trend of support for Republican presidential candidates continues, and if Mr. Lippincott’s bill becomes law, Republican presidential candidates could expect to win an additional elector going forward.