Nebraska governor does not plan to call special session on electoral votes

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen (R) announced Tuesday that he does not plan to a call a special legislative session before the November election to overhaul the way his state awards its electoral votes, a change sought by former president Donald Trump and his allies.

Pillen’s announcement came a day after a key holdout vote, Republican state Sen. Mike McDonnell, announced that he was still opposed to returning Nebraska to a winner-take-all system, which would be likely to benefit Trump.

Pillen said in a statement that his office “worked relentlessly” to secure a filibuster-proof majority to pass the proposal but “could not persuade 33 state senators,” citing McDonnell’s opposition.

“That is profoundly disappointing to me and the many others who have worked so earnestly to ensure all Nebraskans’ votes are sought after equally this election,” Pillen said. “Based on the lack of 33 votes, I have no plans to call a special session on this issue prior to the 2024 election.”

Nebraska is one of two states — the other is Maine — that partly award their electoral votes by congressional district. The system allowed Democrat Joe Biden to gain an electoral vote in otherwise solidly Republican Nebraska in 2020 by winning in a competitive House district in the Omaha area.

For months, Trump and his allies have pressured Nebraska to restore the winner-take-all system, in which the top vote-getter statewide would capture all five of the state’s electoral votes. Supporters of the idea fell short of the support needed to beat back a filibuster this spring, but the push resurfaced in recent days when a Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), traveled to Lincoln to lobby legislators. Trump also spoke with one of them by phone.

McDonnell is a former Democrat who switched parties this year, giving Republicans a filibuster-proof majority in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature. He said at the time he was opposed to a winner-take-all system but gave Republicans some hope more recently that he could change his mind.

McDonnell announced Monday that he would not waver.

“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 in a statement.

Trump appeared to concede defeat in a social media post hours after McDonnell’s statement Monday. He thanked Pillen for his help and said the change “would have been better, and far less expensive, for everyone!” Trump also criticized McDonnell as a “Grandstander,” and noted that he had carried the Omaha-based House district in the 2016 presidential race.

“Looks like I’ll have to do it again!!!” Trump said.