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(CN) — A move by the Donald Trump campaign to bundle together Nebraska’s five electoral votes has hit an unlikely roadblock: a Republican state senator who now says he opposes the change.
“After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change,” state Senator Mike McDonnell said in a written statement Monday, adding that he would “oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election.”
McDonnell suggested he would support a referendum being placed on the ballot next year that unite the state’s electoral votes.
Nebraska is one of just two states, along with Maine, that don’t have a winner-take-all system of awarding all of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the state’s popular vote. Instead, each of the three congressional districts in Nebraska award their own single electoral votes, while the winner of the state gets an additional two.
That means that instead of five electoral votes that would almost surely go to former President Trump, he is more than likely to get four votes; the congressional district that includes the city of Omaha, which is represented by McDonnell, is favored to go to Vice President Kamala Harris. Recent polls show Harris leading Trump by between 5 and 8 points — a significant, though not insurmountable lead.
The two-point swing could prove crucial in an election which is expected to be very close, as indeed the last two were.
Democrats praised McDonnell’s announcement.
“Nebraska has a long and proud tradition of independence, and our electoral system reflects that by ensuring that the outcome of our elections truly represents the will of the people without interference," Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in a written statement. “Senator McDonnell is standing strong against tremendous pressure from out-of-state interests to protect Nebraskans’ voice in our democracy.”
The 58-year-old McDonnell was first elected to the unicameral state legislature in 2017 as a Democrat. He switched parties earlier this year after being censured by Democrats over his positions on abortion restrictions and transgender rights.
Trump, on his own social media platform Truth Social, blasted McDonnell’s announcement, writing in a post that the proposed change “would have been better, and far less expensive, for everyone!”
He added: “Unfortunately, a Democrat turned Republican(?) State Senator named Mike McDonnell decided, for no reason whatsoever, to get in the way of a great Republican, common sense, victory. Just another ‘Grandstander!’”
Trump noted that he won the district in 2016 during his first election against Hillary Clinton.
A two-thirds majority was needed to overcome a filibuster in order to pass the change in Nebraska. McDonnell is the third Republican to say he will not go along with the Trump-backed proposal, meaning that the plan is at least one vote short.
Supporting the plan was Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a staunch Trump ally. He urged Nebraska Republicans to vote for the plan during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday.
“To my friends in Nebraska, that one electoral vote could be the difference between Harris being president and not,” Graham said. “And she’s a disaster for Nebraska and the world.”
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