Lawmakers in Nebraska are confronting a late push to change the unusual way the state awards electoral votes after former president Donald Trump and his allies came out in support of a languishing proposal that could boost his chances of prevailing nationally in the electoral college in a very close race.<\/p>\n
Nebraska is one of only two states that divides its electoral votes among statewide and congressional district winners, which allowed Joe Biden to pick off an electoral vote in the red state in 2020 by carrying a swing district in the Omaha area. But Gov. Jim Pillen (R) and Trump on Tuesday endorsed a proposal to return the state to a winner-take-all system, possibly upending the final days of the state\u2019s legislative session, which ends April 18.<\/p>\n
State Sen. John Cavanaugh (D), who represents Omaha, said Democrats are \u201con the lookout\u201d and preparing for a bill to be attached to \u201cany particular vehicle,\u201d while readying to put up \u201cprocedural bars\u201d and a possible filibuster.<\/p>\n
The sponsor of the proposal has said he does not have the votes to overcome a filibuster, but Trump\u2019s 11th-hour intervention has raised speculation that Republicans could regroup.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately, the Nebraska legislature does not legislate in response to tweets from anyone,\u201d Cavanaugh said. Democrats, he added, are \u201cfirmly in support of maintaining the division of the electoral vote. It is part of what makes Nebraska special.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation remained fluid Wednesday at the State Capitol in Lincoln. By afternoon, a GOP state senator, Julie Slama, said she would amend another bill, which is scheduled for floor debate, to include the winner-take-all proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the recent interest on this issue, it\u2019s incumbent that the NE Legislature finally take a full vote,\u201d Slama said on X. \u201cWhether it passes or fails, we\u2019ll get everyone on the record.\u201d<\/p>\n
A group focused on civic engagement in the state, Civic Nebraska, vowed to organize a November ballot initiative if the legislature \u201csuccumbs to this last-minute pressure from outside interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Republicans acknowledged they had very little time to get the stand-alone proposal to the governor\u2019s desk. The bill\u2019s sponsor, state Sen. Loren Lippincott (R), noted in a statement that there are two days left for bills to be scheduled for floor consideration.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy staff and I are doing everything we can to seek options for getting this to the finish line,\u201d Lippincott said. \u201cHowever, the harsh reality of a two-day time frame is limiting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The speaker of the legislature, John Arch (R), said in a statement that the bill was \u201cnot prioritized and remains in committee.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not able to schedule a bill that is still in committee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The one electoral vote in Nebraska\u2019s 2nd Congressional District has become increasingly important for Democrats as they can no longer rely on the \u201cblue wall\u201d trifecta of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, after recent redistricting reduced those states\u2019 weight in the electoral college. Maine is the only other state that does not award all of its electoral votes to the winner of the statewide vote.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s endorsement of the proposal came hours after a prominent ally, Charlie Kirk, rallied his large social media following to pressure Pillen and Nebraska state lawmakers to advance the legislation. Pillen issued a statement of support within hours.<\/p>\n
The Trump campaign had looked into the possibility of a late legislative push weeks ago and concluded that there were significant obstacles, according to a person familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal campaign efforts. But Trump decided Tuesday night after an event in Wisconsin to push hard for a shift, after he saw the statement from the governor.<\/p>\n
Nebraska has a unicameral legislature, with 49 lawmakers, referred to as senators, serving in one chamber that is officially nonpartisan. While registered Republicans hold a majority, it was not filibuster-proof as of Tuesday.<\/p>\n
There were 16 Democrats and an independent member from Omaha, Megan Hunt, who was previously a Democrat. Thirty-three votes are needed to break a filibuster, so if all 16 Democrats and Hunt stuck together, they could form a firewall against legislation they opposed.<\/p>\n
The legislature saw a shake-up Wednesday when a Democratic member, Mike McDonnell, announced he was switching to the GOP, breaking the Democrats\u2019 firewall. But McDonnell told Politico he would continue opposing any proposed changes to the electoral-vote system.<\/p>\n
McDonnell\u2019s switch nonetheless buoyed GOP hopes for the Trump-backed proposal. U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said in a statement that the timing of the party switch is \u201can awesome opportunity to mobilize our Republican majority to a winner-take-all system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Trump campaign also was encouraged by McDonnell\u2019s decision. A Trump campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss strategy, said Wednesday that Nebraska Republicans \u201cshould expect to see continued efforts and pressure, because Republicans have a filibuster-proof majority\u201d now.<\/p>\n
Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said Wednesday morning that Democrats believed passing the vote was \u201cunrealistic\u201d at this point but are closely monitoring the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharlie Kirk is obviously not an idiot and sent out that tweet for a reason,\u201d Kleeb said. \u201cWe\u2019re on guard. We\u2019re shoring up our 17 votes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even then, it is not clear that all Republicans want to prioritize the bill, which had languished in committee and was assumed dead until Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil yesterday, this wasn\u2019t a discussion at all, and then suddenly it blew up, and several of our legislators that are process-oriented will take a skeptical line,\u201d said Gavin Geis, executive director of Common Cause Nebraska.<\/p>\n
A Democratic state senator, Wendy DeBoer, was more blunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would literally take a complete distortion of all our rules,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would be incredibly unprecedented to try to make all of this happen now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kirk, founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, on Tuesday morning urged his nearly 3 million followers on X to call Pillen and state lawmakers to urge support for the proposal. Kirk asked Nebraskans to \u201cdemand their state stop pointlessly giving strength to their political enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within hours, Pillen released a statement saying he is a \u201cstrong supporter\u201d of the bill and has \u201cbeen from the start.\u201d He called on Republicans in the legislature to send it to his desk.<\/p>\n
Trump quickly reacted on his Truth Social platform, sharing Pillen\u2019s statement and calling it a \u201cvery smart letter.\u201d In a longer second post, Trump thanked Pillen for his \u201cbold leadership\u201d and said he hopes the legislature \u201cdoes the right thing,\u201d urging Nebraskans to call their representatives.<\/p>\n
Kirk has scheduled a rally Tuesday in Omaha to continue pushing for the change.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Lawmakers in Nebraska are confronting a late push to change the unusual way the state awards electoral votes after former president Donald Trump and his allies came out in support of a languishing proposal that could boost his chances of prevailing nationally in the electoral college in a very close race. Nebraska is one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}