Nebraska could deliver a critical electoral vote to Vice President Kamala Harris under its hybrid system of splitting votes in an otherwise red state.
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By Neil Vigdor and Reid J. Epstein
- Sept. 19, 2024, 7:07 p.m. ET
ImageThe Nebraska delegation during a roll call at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.Credit…Ruth Fremson/The New York TimesImageDelegates from Nebraska at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.Credit…Landon Nordeman for The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump’s allies are resurrecting efforts to change how Nebraska awards its five electoral votes, a hybrid system that could deliver a single but decisive vote to Vice President Kamala Harris from a reliable red state in one tiebreaking scenario.
With less than seven weeks until the election, all five Republicans who represent the state in Congress are pushing for Nebraska to return to a winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes that had been used before 1992 and was based on the statewide popular vote.
Under the state’s the current hybrid system, its electoral votes are split: Two go to the winner of the statewide popular vote, and the other three are based on who wins the popular vote in each of Nebraska’s three U.S. House districts. Maine also has a hybrid system.
In 2016, Mr. Trump secured all five of Nebraska’s electoral votes, but he was denied a sweep in 2020 when President Biden won the popular vote in the Second District, which includes Omaha, the state’s most populous city. The area, which has become known in Nebraska as the “blue dot,” is near where Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, Ms. Harris’s running mate, grew up.
Bracing for a close election, Mr. Trump’s allies are trying again to blot out the “blue dot” — which, in a close race, could play an outsize role — after their previous efforts stalled.
If Mr. Trump flips Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, states won by Mr. Biden in 2020, there is still a pathway for Ms. Harris to win the presidency by holding onto the other states that Mr. Biden won, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
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Source: nytimes.com
