State Senator Thwarts GOP Effort to Make Nebraska Winner-Take-All State

LINCOLN- A Republican effort to lock down all of Nebraska’s electoral votes for former President Donald Trump appears doomed because one state lawmaker won’t give backers his crucial support.

Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha said in a statement Monday that he still opposes awarding Nebraska’s five electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis, like 48 other states do. McDonnell’s position means fellow Republicans don’t have the two-thirds majority they’d need in Nebraska’s Legislature to make the change now. Nebraska gives two votes to the statewide winner but one to the winner of each congressional district. That puts the 2nd District in the Omaha area in play. Nebraska is one of nine states that Republican candidates have carried in every presidential election since 1964, but it hasn’t had a winner-take-all rule since 1991. And most times since 1991, Republican candidates still have captured all of the state’s votes. But in 2020, Democrat Joe Biden captured the vote for the 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area.

President Barack Obama also did it in 2008.