Democrats are calling a Nebraska Republican proposal to return the state to a winner-take-all electoral vote system as a “threat to democracy” – despite all other states but Nebraska and Maine allocating votes via that method.
The possibility is gaining steam afterD emocrat State Senator Mike McDonnell (R-5) switched from Democrat to Republican, giving Republicans a filibuster-proof majority in the unicameral legislature.
As Breitbart reported:
The state currently has a split electoral vote awarding system that gives “two electoral votes to the state popular vote winner, and then one electoral vote to the popular vote winner in each congressional district,” as Newsweek’s Natalie Venegas pointed out.
In 2020, former President Donald Trump won a majority of support in the state but did not win all electoral votes. He earned five, while one went to President Joe Biden. In a winner-take-all system where Trump earns a majority of the overall vote, he would carry all electoral votes.
Democrats have become apoplectic at the notion, as the additional one electoral vote likely to go to Trump in that scenario could give Trump the necessary 270 electoral votes in a tight race.
Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee Communications Director Abhi Rahman channeled the breathless hysteria from national Democrats in a Wednesday statement, calling the proposal the latest in a line of Republican “anti-democratic efforts that would make it easier for Trump to win all five of Nebraska’s electoral votes.”
Rahman accused Republicans of wishing to subvert democracy through “anti-democratic extremism.”
“The only way to preserve our democracy is to elect Democrats to state legislatures across the country,” Rahman said. Ironically, Democrats across the country have worked to prevent Trump from even appearing on the ballot.
Democrats are hoping the fast-approaching end of the legislative session will prevent the change from taking place. Democratic state senator Wendy DeBoer (D-10) said passing the bill on an expedited timeline “would literally take a complete distortion of all our rules. It would be incredibly unprecedented to try to make all of this happen now.”
It is true that Republicans would need to act fast. The final day of the state’s legislative session is April 18.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
