Nebraska governor ends push to change the way state awards electoral votes in blow to Trump

By Terence Burlij and Jeff Zeleny, CNN

(CNN) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen said Tuesday that he has “no plans to call a special session” to change the way the state allocates electoral votes to a winner-take-all system, ending an effort led by Donald Trump.

The announcement comes after Republican state Sen. Mike McDonnell said he would not support a last-ditch effort to overturn the law that awards electoral votes based by congressional district.

“Given everything at stake for Nebraska and our country, we have left every inch on the field to get this done,” Pillen, a Republican, said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, we could not persuade 33 state senators. Senator Mike McDonnell of Omaha has confirmed he is unwilling to vote for winner-take-all before the 2024 election. 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. Based on the lack of 33 votes, I have no plans to call a special session on this issue prior to the 2024 election. I am grateful to the many Nebraskans who made their voices heard during this process.”

The statement puts an end to a saga that saw Trump attempt to pressure state lawmakers to change the Nebraska’s law in time for the vote in November. The Cornhusker State allocates two electoral votes for the statewide popular vote winner and one to the popular vote winner in each of the state’s three congressional districts. Trump won all five of Nebraska’s electoral votes in 2016, but won only four in 2020, with Joe Biden carrying the Omaha-area seat.

McDonnell told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront” Tuesday that he believed it was too late to change the law before the November elections.

“Even though I would be opposed to changing, going back to winner-take-all, I’d let the people of Nebraska vote. But you’re talking about 42 days before an election. No, that is not fair,” he said.

McDonnell, who declined to say whether he had spoken with Trump, noted the 2nd Congressional District has flipped between parties over the past few election cycles. He also said that the system helps “makes us relevant.”

“It makes people come in and spend dollars, and it also makes them work for the vote,” McDonnell added.

The fight over a single electoral vote from Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, which has become known as Omaha’s blue dot, has emerged as a symbol of just how close the race between Trump and Kamala Harris has become.

Even if Harris won the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, but carried no other key battlegrounds, she would still need the electoral vote from Nebraska’s 2nd District to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Trump believes he will win four electoral votes from Nebraska, but it’s the fifth one that he has been increasingly fretting over – leading him and his Republican allies to mount a late effort to try to change state election law only weeks before ballots are cast. He called into a meeting of state senators last week, urging them to change the election law before November.

Pillen, the state’s Republican governor, had said he was prepared to convene a special session of the Nebraska Legislature before the November election to change the law, but only if there was sufficient support. An effort earlier this year failed to change the law that is unique to only Nebraska and Maine.

The former president weighed in on the fight in a social media post Monday night, saying: “I LOVE OMAHA and won it in 2016. Looks like I’ll have to do it again!!!”

Yet Trump and Republicans have spent virtually no money in the district, while the Harris campaign is spending millions to try to win that sole electoral vote again, with a grassroots effort playing out in front yards across Omaha featuring yard signs with blue dots, a hopeful symbol for Democrats in a sea of Nebraska red.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.

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