Nebraska Republicans want to give all five of the state’s electoral votes to the winner of the state’s presidential popular vote this November. Currently, Nebraska is one of only two states that awards two electoral votes to the winner of the state-wide popular vote and the rest based on who wins in each congressional district.
Nebraska began splitting its votes in 1992. Since the change, the votes have been split twice, once in 2008 and again in 2020.
The state’s congressional delegation wrote a letter to Gov. Jim Pillen, R, and Assembly Speaker John Arch, R, urging them to return to the winner-take-all system.
“Senators and governors are elected by the state as a whole because they represent all of the people of Nebraska equally, and the state should speak with a united voice in presidential elections as well,” the all Republican delegation wrote.
KOLN TV in Lincoln reported Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., met with Nebraska’s governor and about two dozen Republican legislators in an attempt to convince them to make the change. When asked, Graham confirmed the meeting and said he was invited by Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., and denied that he went at the behest of Donald Trump.
“I hope the people in Nebraska will understand this may come down to a single electoral vote. And I just don’t believe a Harris presidency is good for Nebraska. I don’t think it’s good for foreign policy interests of America,” Graham told reporters.
According to the Nebraska Examiner, Gov. Pillen would only call a special session if he had 33 or more firm votes in favor of the change, so they can overcome a promised filibuster. As of now, they are a few votes short and State Sen. Tom Brewer, R, told the outlet, “I think the chances are very remote.”
Lawmakers in Maine, the only other state with split electoral votes, are monitoring Nebraska, regardless of how remote the senator says those chances may be.
In 2020, four of Nebraska’s electoral votes went to Donald Trump, one went to Joe Biden. In Maine, it was the opposite; three went to Biden, one went to Trump.
So Maine’s House Majority Leader Maureen Terry, D, says her state would also switch to winner-takes-all if Nebraska does, to cancel out the expected additional electoral vote for Trump.
Terry said in a statement obtained by the Nebraska Examiner, “If Nebraska’s Republican governor and Republican-controlled Legislature were to change their electoral system this late in the cycle in order to unfairly award Donald Trump an additional electoral vote, I think the Maine Legislature would be compelled to act.”
