The late push to modify how the state allocates its Electoral College votes received an official endorsement from Gov. Jim Pillen and public support from former President Trump. (RELATED: Trump Pushes Electoral College Reform In Nebraska, Democrats On Edge)
Instead, Wednesday night’s attempt to attach the bill to an unrelated measure failed in a lopsided 8-36 procedural vote. The vote occurred after state Sen. Mike McDonnell announced his switch from the Democratic to the Republican Party, giving the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature a filibuster-proof GOP majority for the first time in recent memory.
Its supporters may explore alternative routes to advance the bill, although time constraints are severe as this year’s legislative session nears its end.
Nebraska awards two electoral votes to the winner of the statewide vote and one vote each for the three congressional districts. In both 2008 and 2020, Barack Obama and Joe Biden outperformed their Republican opponents in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District.
State Sen. Julie Slama led the push for the amendment, arguing on the floor that yesterday’s vote was the best opportunity for its passage before the session ends on April 18.
During the intense lobbying session among lawmakers, state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh proclaimed: “Democracy is on the line!”
“I want to throw up. And I want to go to bed. But I can’t, because I don’t trust you,” she added, in a rebuke to her Republican colleagues.
The Hill’s Nick Robertson has more on the fallout from Lincoln:
Slama said after the vote that the prospects for the bill, which conservative activists said was likely to pass, aren’t as bright as they once seemed.
“The ‘filibuster-proof’ majority doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude to make Nebraska a Winner-Take-All state in an election year,” she wrote on X, the platform known as Twitter. “Wild.”
State Sen. Loren Lippincott, who sponsored the bill, admitted after Wednesday’s vote that there is not enough support to avoid a Democratic-led filibuster, needing 33 votes.
Only Nebraska and Maine assign Electoral College votes by district. In most presidential elections, Republicans take two and Democrats take one of Nebraska’s districts, though the third is tightly contested. The state’s remaining two electoral votes are given to its popular vote winner, generally the Republican candidate.
In the 2020 election, Trump received more than 58% of the total vote in Nebraska. Lyndon B. Johnson was the last Democratic presidential candidate to win statewide, securing 52.61% of the vote in his landslide victory in 1964.
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