In a blow to the Republican party and its presidential nominee, Donald Trump, Nebraska's governor said Tuesday he wouldn't call a special session to change how electoral votes in the state are awarded. The decision follows a key state senator saying he would not support the effort.
Former President Trump and his allies have been pressuring the state to change its 32-year law that awards electoral votes by congressional district instead of a statewide vote, otherwise known as a winner-take-all system.
In winner-take-all states, the candidate winning the popular vote receives all of the state's electoral votes. But in Maine and Nebraska, the state's popular vote winner receives two electoral votes, and the popular vote winner in each congressional district receives one electoral vote.
Nebraska has three congressional districts, and the Republican party believes their candidate will win two along with the two electoral votes coming from the state's popular vote. But it's Nebraska's 2nd District that's pushed the party to rally for a change in the electoral system, as the Omaha-based seat has tilted blue recently and could be the single electoral vote to decide a 269-269 tie.
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But on Monday, that last-minute push came to a halt after Democrat-turned-Republican Omaha State Sen. Mike McDonnell announced he would not support overturning Nebraska's electoral voting system, saying it became clear "after deep consideration" that "right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change." He also noted that "Nebraska voters, not politicians of either party," should decide how the state picks the president.
Republican Gov. Jim Pillen then said Tuesday that despite working "relentlessly to secure a filibuster-proof 33-vote majority to get winner-take-all passed before the November election," his team could not "persuade" enough senators, mentioning McDonnell's unwillingness to vote for the change.
"That is profoundly disappointing to me and the many others who have worked so earnestly to ensure all Nebraskans' votes are sought after equally this election," Pillen wrote in a statement. "Based on the lack of 33 votes, I have no plans to call a special session on this issue prior to the 2024 election."
Trump also shared in the public disappointment of McDonnell's stance, calling the state senator a "Grandstander!" and saying he decided "for no reason whatsoever, to get in the way of a great Republican, common sense, victory" in a post on Truth Social Monday.
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Omaha's 2nd District contributed to Nebraska's first split electoral vote in 2008 when former President Barack Obama won the district and notched the first Democratic electoral vote in the state since 1964. Trump narrowly won the district in 2016, but he lost it to President Joe Biden in 2020 by around six points. Now Vice President Kamala Harris is hoping to be only the third Democratic candidate to win an electoral vote from the state with a win in the district.
As for why the single electoral vote could decide a 269-269 tie, it boils down to a potential scenario in which Harris wins the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. That would add to 269 votes, as would Trump, and make Nebraska's 2nd District the tiebreaker.
And as the district has recently become known as Omaha's "blue dot" — with yard signs donning the image popping up across the area — the effort to take its vote away and turn it over to winner-take-all would've likely been a boost to Trump, hence the efforts that began in the legislative session to change the system.
