LINCOLN, Nebraska (AP) — A new political map proposed by Nebraska Republicans wouldn’t just make it harder for Democrats to win one of the state‘
LINCOLN, Nebraska (AP) — A new political map proposed by Nebraska Republicans wouldn’t just make it harder for Democrats to win one of the state’s three House seats — it would make it a little bit harder for Democrats to win the White House. Nebraska is one of only two states that divides its Electoral College votes by congressional district, rather than a winner-take-all system. That allowed President Joe Biden to claim one of the state’s five electoral votes last year, even as he lost Nebraska by 20 percentage points. Now Republicans in Nebraska’s legislature are proposing splitting up the 2nd Congressional District, the one Biden won, in their new map. The change would make the swingy district surrounding Omaha, the state’s largest city, more Republican. It would also make it harder for a Democratic presidential candidate to win. Winning the presidency has not come down to a single electoral vote since the earliest years of the United States. Still, every one of the nation’s 538 electoral votes is precious. That single Electoral College vote — sometimes dubbed the “blue dot” in the state’s sea of red — has been enough to make Omaha a regular stop on the Democratic presidential campaign circuit. The GOP map was approved in a party-line committee vote in Nebraska’s legislature Thursday and will advance to the floor of the one-chamber legislature, which is officially nonpartisan, though controlled by Republicans. Democrats oppose the maps and the GOP does not have enough legislators to overcome a filibuster, making it likely the final maps will be some sort of compromise. Critics say the current proposal could effectively undo the 1991 legislation backed by Democrats that split the state’s Electoral College votes. Under the current system, the winner of each of the three districts gets one electoral vote. The two additional Electoral College votes the state gets, one for each of its senators, go to the overall winner of the state.
