Lindsey Graham visits Nebraska to urge winner-take-all vote

Gov. Jim Pillen invited conservative state lawmakers to lunch Wednesday on the governor’s mansion, the place Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina grew to become the newest nationwide political determine to push for the change, a number of lawmakers and a spokeswoman for Graham’s workplace confirmed.

His go to got here months after each Pillen and Trump referred to as in April for state lawmakers to switch the system that has allowed Democrats to select up a single electoral vote in Nebraska twice since lawmakers carried out the system in 1992.

Below the system, which can be utilized in Maine, two of Nebraska’s 5 electoral votes are awarded to the presidential ticket that wins essentially the most votes statewide whereas the opposite three go to the winner of every of the state’s three congressional districts.

The system has made a nationwide battleground out of Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which incorporates Omaha, the state’s most populous metropolis. Joe Biden and Barack Obama gained the district in 2020 and 2008, respectively, whereas Trump gained the district in 2016 and Mitt Romney gained it in 2012.

The newest push by conservatives to switch the system with the winner-take-all mannequin utilized in 48 different states started in April, when a right-wing radio present host made a social media publish highlighting a possible situation through which Nebraska’s decades-old election system might value Trump the presidency in November.

In his go to this week, Graham highlighted the shut nature of November’s matchup between Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, stated state Sen. Loren Lippincott, a conservative from Central Metropolis who launched a invoice final 12 months to implement the winner-take-all system in Nebraska.

“Jim Pillen, our governor, did invite Lindsey Graham to come back and make clear the gravity of the upcoming election,” Lippincott stated in a cellphone interview Thursday, calling the assembly between lawmakers, Graham and the governor a “standing briefing” on the state of the race for the White Home.

“He needed to make sure that Nebraska knew that each single electoral vote was essential,” Lippincott stated.

Lippincott and Sen. Tom Brewer of Gordon each stated Thursday that Graham’s go to didn’t seem to have elevated help for winner-take-all amongst lawmakers, who had conceded in April that it was “procedurally inconceivable” to make the laws regulation within the waning days of the legislative session after one procedural movement that might have cleared the way in which for the change was voted down.

However stress continues to mount.

Hours after Graham’s go to, Nebraska’s congressional delegation — made up of 5 Republicans — penned a letter Wednesday to Pillen and Sen. John Arch of La Vista, the speaker of the Legislature, urging them to work to implement the winner-take-all system.

Led by Republican Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, the delegation wrote that it “is previous time that Nebraska be part of 48 states in embracing winner-take-all in presidential elections.”

Pillen, whose workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark Thursday, stated in an announcement final week that he’s “prepared to convene the Legislature for a particular session to repair this 30-year-old downside earlier than the 2024 election” — however solely after a filibuster proof majority of lawmakers publicly endorse the change.

It could take the help of 33 of the 49 lawmakers in Nebraska’s formally nonpartisan, single-house Legislature for winner-take-all laws to beat an inevitable filibuster.

“Proper now, we’re roughly two — possibly three — votes wanting these 33 votes,” Lippincott stated. “And our assembly on (Wednesday) didn’t actually transfer the needle.”

Brewer, the conservative chairman of the Legislature’s Authorities, Navy and Veterans Affairs Committee — the place Lippincott’s invoice stalled final 12 months — supplied an identical evaluation Thursday in an interview on the Capitol.

“I admire the truth that (Graham) got here all the way in which right here I feel, however I do not know. I feel it is gonna be a tough push,” Brewer stated. “I feel the governor is attempting to do his finest to form the struggle, however I simply concern that it is too late within the sport proper now. I feel we’re gonna find yourself quick in the long run.”

Conservatives maintain 33 of the 49 seats within the Legislature — a filibuster-proof majority once they vote in lockstep. However Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha, who switched his celebration registration from Democrat to Republican in April, remained against the winner-take-all mannequin even after altering events.

McDonnell’s workplace didn’t return a cellphone name searching for remark Thursday.

Brewer stated Thursday that McDonnell “is a person of his phrase and has at all times been,” including that the Omaha lawmaker is “not one among these guys that is wishy-washy.”

Republicans could have a brief window to vary his thoughts. Lippincott stated a change to the state’s voting system would want to happen earlier than Nebraskans start casting votes in November’s election.

Early voting ballots might be mailed out beginning Sept. 30. Ballots might be despatched to Nebraskans overseas as early as this week. A spokeswoman for the Secretary of State’s Workplace, although, stated solely {that a} change to Nebraska’s voting system must take impact earlier than Nov. 5 — Election Day.

If Pillen referred to as a particular session to take up the laws, it might face intense opposition from Democrats within the Legislature, who signaled plans to kill a bipartisan Christmas-tree package deal of laws in April when conservatives moved to connect a winner-take-all modification to the invoice.

Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, a civil rights legal professional and the previous head of the ACLU of Nebraska, stated Thursday that the newest push for the change from out-of-state partisan actors is “insulting” — and a sign of the unpopularity of the GOP’s platform.

Conrad referred to as the push “an admission that they don’t suppose their candidate can earn the votes of Nebraskans beneath present regulation with their concepts and private attributes so that they have to vary the principles on the final second to silence voters in Nebraska and make our system much less responsive and fewer consultant.”

Although a change to the state’s presidential electoral system would undoubtedly be certain that Trump, who gained greater than 58% of the vote statewide in 2020, would bag all 5 of Nebraska’s electoral votes, the transfer may very well enhance Democrats down the poll.

In a memo despatched to funding allies final month, the Open Democracy PAC, backed by progressive donors, predicted the transfer would immediate Trump’s marketing campaign to desert Omaha altogether — giving a right away fundraising edge to Democrat Tony Vargas in his bid to unseat Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District.

Conservatives would additionally threat “robust electoral backlash,” the PAC warned, citing polling that recommended greater than half of Omaha voters surveyed indicated they might be much less prone to vote for candidates they in any other case agree with if the candidates supported the change.

Within the memo, a replica of which was obtained by the Journal Star, the PAC additionally predicted that Democrats within the district could be “energized and motivated” to vote for Vargas if state lawmakers strip the district of its electoral vote earlier than the election.

The PAC requested fundraising allies to “contemplate reserving assets to make the most of this chance ought to it come up,” in response to the memo.