State Sen. Mike McDonnell announces leaving the Democratic Party after he was censured by the state and Douglas County Democrats in March 2024. (Photo by Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — The Republican push to change how Nebraska awards its Electoral College votes and boost former President Donald Trump ran into political reality Monday as a key lawmaker, state Sen. Mike McDonnell, announced he won’t support the change.
McDonnell, of Omaha, said he had heard from people passionate about the issue who live in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District. But he said he did not hear enough to move him off his original position against the switch.
“Elections should be an opportunity for all voters to be heard, no matter who they are, where they live, or what party they support,” McDonnell said in a statement. “I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”
McDonnell said he told Gov. Jim Pillen his stance and suggested that the Legislature put winner-take-all to a vote of the people, as a proposed constitutional amendment, so people can decide the issue “once and for all.”
Nebraska and Maine are the only states that award a single Electoral College vote to the winner in each congressional district, plus two votes to the statewide winner of the presidential popular vote. Nebraska has split off votes twice in four presidential elections.
President Joe Biden won the 2nd District in 2020. Trump won all five of the state’s electoral votes in 2016. Mitt Romney did the same in 2012. The 2nd District got its national name as “the blue dot” in 2008, when former President Barack Obama won it.
2nd District split
Nebraska Republicans have argued for years that Nebraska should award all five of its electoral votes to the statewide winner of the presidential popular vote, a process many call winner-take-all.
Republicans hold a 2-to-1 voter registration advantage over Democrats statewide, but the 2nd District cuts much more evenly between Republicans, Democrats, and registered nonpartisans, a split that makes the 2nd District competitive in national elections.
Pillen had pledged to call a special session if he could secure the 33 votes needed to overcome a filibuster to change to winner-take-all. All five of Nebraska’s GOP congressional delegates wrote a letter urging state lawmakers to pass such a move.
The Nebraska Legislature has 33 Republicans, 15 Democrats, and one progressive who is a registered nonpartisan. People whipping votes for Pillen and the Trump campaign have told others they expected the remaining GOP holdouts to join the push for the change if McDonnell did.
Pillen’s office had no immediate comment Monday, nor did the Trump or Harris campaigns.
McDonnell’s no on winner-take-all leaves Republicans in Nebraska’s officially nonpartisan Legislature with no path to overcoming a promised filibuster unless a Democrat or nonpartisan senator defects. Thus far, none has opposed the status quo. Nebraska Democrats tweeted the list of 17 pledged no votes, including McDonnell.
Part of the GOP urgency is wrapped in national polling that shows a close race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee. Some political observers have argued the 2nd District could break a 269-269 Electoral College tie.
Few Democrats were surprised that the fate of winner-take-all largely swung on McDonnell, a former Omaha fire union president who switched to the GOP this spring after facing political pushback from Democrats for backing abortion restrictions and legislation restricting some health care for minors who are transgender.
This story first appeared in the Nebraska Examiner, a member with the Phoenix in the nonprofit States Newsroom.