Nebraska Republicans don’t appear to have the votes needed to change the law that could help Trump win the election.
Topline
Republicans’ final-hour push to change the way Nebraska allocates electoral votes appears to have died, preventing a rules change that would increase former President Donald Trump’s chances of winning the 2024 race, as a key lawmaker withholds his support.Key Facts
Nebraska awards two electoral votes to the winner of the state at large and awards the remaining three votes to the winner of the three House districts—one of which, covering the state’s largest city, Omaha, is an outlier in the deep-red state and typically votes Democratic.
Republicans want to change the system to a winner-takes-all approach—which all states except Maine and Nebraska use—to increase the chances that Trump takes all five electoral votes.
The change could lead to a scenario where Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, should she carry the “blue wall” states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but no other swing states, tie each other with 269 electoral votes, leaving it to the GOP-controlled House, where Trump has the clear advantage, to choose the winner.
Nebraska Sen. Mike McDonnell, a former Democrat from Omaha who recently changed his party affiliation to Republican, reiterated on Monday he wouldn’t back the change, expressing concerns that it would blunt Nebraska’s national significance in the election process and that it was being made too close to Election Day.
