An effort to change Nebraska to a 'winner-take-all' Electoral College system was blocked in a crucial vote on Wednesday, despite backing from former President Trump, Gov. Jim Pillen (R-Neb.) and Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.).
Shifting Nebraska’s Electoral College vote distribution in the Republican-dominated state would align it with much of the rest of the country and could gain Trump an additional vote this November. However, an attempt to attach the bill to an unrelated measure as an amendment on Wednesday was not successful by a significant margin.
State Sen. Julie Slama (R) led the push for the amendment, arguing on the floor that it was the best chance for the bill to pass this legislative session, which ends on April 18. Only eight of the required 23 legislators supported the vote.
During the discussion, Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh (D) contended that the GOP was attempting to sneak a partisan bill into unrelated work.
“Democracy is at stake!” she stated, according to the Lincoln Journal Star. Lincoln Journal Star reported.
“I want to throw up. And I want to go to bed. But I can’t because I don’t trust you,” she added, referring to her Republican colleagues.
Slama mentioned after the vote that the prospects for the bill, which conservative activists said was likely to pass, aren’t as promising as they once appeared.
“The ‘filibuster-proof’ majority doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to make Nebraska a Winner-Take-All state in an election year,” she said, formerly Twitter. “Wild.” wrote on X
Sen. Loren Lippincott (R), who introduced the bill, admitted after Wednesday’s vote that there is not enough support to avoid a Democratic-led filibuster, needing 33 votes.
Only Nebraska and Maine allocate Electoral College votes by district. In most presidential elections, Republicans win two and Democrats win one of Nebraska’s districts, although the third is highly contested. The state’s remaining two electoral votes are awarded to the popular vote winner, generally the Republican candidate.
If the bill were to come into effect for the 2024 election, it could cause President Biden to lose an Electoral College vote. Trump garnered around 58 percent of the vote in Nebraska in 2020, which means the GOP candidate would receive the state’s entire slate of electoral votes in a winner-take-all system.
The campaign received a trio of late high-profile endorsements from Pillen, Trump and Ricketts, along with a grassroots activist effort led by right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk.
Pillen made a late endorsement for the winner-take-all bill on Monday, arguing that the measure would bring Nebraska in line with the rest of the country and represent “what the founders intended.”
Trump lauded Pillen for the endorsement the next day.
“Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska, a very smart and popular Governor, who has done some really great things, came out today with a very strong letter in support of returning Nebraska’s Electoral Votes to a Winner-Take-All System,” Trump said Tuesday in a Truth Social post.
“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,” he continued. “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!
Ricketts provided help for the proposal once supporters claimed they had secured enough votes to be approved. State Sen. Mike McDonnell (R) changed from being a Democrat to a Republican on Wednesday, giving the GOP a two-thirds majority in the unicameral legislature.
The attempt was backed by the Nebraska Freedom Coalition, a conservative activist group, which exchanged insults with lawmakers after Wednesday’s vote.
When it was evident that the proposal would not be approved, Slama accused the group of not doing sufficient to support the effort, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.
“If you’re gonna tweet out an issue, if you’re gonna put out press releases on an issue and try to pressure the Legislature to do something — maybe when the concept actually comes up and people are voting on it, maybe y’all should do the work,” she said. “Maybe y’all should do the work in the committee hearings when the bill is actually introduced. Rather than firing off a tweet and a press release with five days in the session left.”
The Nebraska Freedom Coalition strongly criticized Slama and other state legislators after the vote, calling for a complete change of party leadership after the failure.
“Maybe just maybe Sen. Slama, it’s not our job to do your job,” the group said in a direct response to the legislator’s comments. “We are everyday citizens with actual jobs and lives. We are not silver spoon appointed establishment wonks who have never experienced a day of real work.”
“God forbid a tweet wakes up a bunch of Senators to do their jobs!” it continued. “Sorry you missed an appointment with your hair stylist because we pushed for a change that you say you overwhelmingly support.”
Slama in a statement to The Hill on Thursday denounced the Nebraska Freedom Coalition as an “underwhelming group of trolls clinging to tweets for relevance.”
“Their only goal appears to be undercutting Republican lawmakers who win elections and actually work to govern,” she said.
Nebraska GOP Chair Eric Underwood blamed the national GOP after the vote failed, stating the Republican National Committee declined to use its resources to assist the effort.
“I went to the RNC last year, I met with [former Chair] Ronna McDaniel and said, ‘I think this is something that could happen, but I need outside help,” he told Kirk in an interview. “I was basically told that it wasn’t much of an importance.”
Biden’s easiest path to victory is generally considered to be a sweep of “blue wall” states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — plus a single Nebraska vote from Omaha’s electoral district to reach the needed 270 electoral votes.
–Updated at 9:42 a.m.
