LINCOLN -- Though the urgency has significantly lessened, several Nebraska lawmakers remain steadfast in their effort to switch Nebraska's presidential elections back to a winner-take-all approach.
State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City confirmed he plans to bring back a bill he introduced in 2023 that would reinstate winner-take-all as the system Nebraska uses to award all five of its electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the state's popular vote. Nebraska is one of two states, alongside Maine, that divides its electoral votes by congressional districts, although two of the five votes are distributed based on the statewide winner.
Lippincott's original bill, Legislative Bill 764, went largely ignored through the 2023 and 2024 sessions, until Gov. Jim Pillen released a statement supporting the bill in the final weeks of the 2024 session, past the point when the bill had a serious chance of passing. He considered calling a special session to debate the issue, but there was not enough support among lawmakers to pass the measure.
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Now, with a new Legislature and 33 Republicans -- enough votes to survive a likely filibuster -- Pillen and other winner-take-all supporters are hopeful they can get it done in 2025.
"If you're a Republican and you don't believe in that, you're not a Republican," Pillen said in a World-Herald interview.
Lippincott said the winner-take-all system is needed in Nebraska to better represent rural areas. While the U.S. Senate represents all states equally, and the House of Representatives gives representation based on population, he described the Electoral College as a "happy medium" with which Nebraska's current elections system doesn't align.
"The Electoral College prevents tyranny of the majority -- mobocracy," Lippincott said. "This same principle applies to the winner-take-all argument in voting for president. Winner-take-all spreads out representation and prevents pockets of power in population centers, and ensures less populated areas are heard."
Since adopting the current system in 1992, Lippincott said Nebraska lawmakers have tried to reinstate winner-take-all 11 times, not including 2024. During that time, Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District in Omaha, known as the "Blue Dot," has awarded electoral votes to Democratic presidential candidates three times, including in November's election.
Kamala Harris wins the 'Blue Dot' -- Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District
There was urgency among Nebraska Republicans to pass winner-take-all before 2024's general election out of concern that the "Blue Dot" would make the difference in the presidential race.
Now that lawmakers will revisit the issue in a year without a presidential election, most winner-take-all supporters believe it will be easier to discuss, without the added pressure. Others, however, are unconvinced.
Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston, who previously supported Lippincott's LB 764, said 2025 isn't the right time to reconsider winner-take-all, and he would rather bring back the issue in 2028.
"We have other things to do this session," Riepe said.
Riepe's district has an even mix of registered Republicans and Democrats, and he said the district favored Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. He said he wants to represent his district, which he doesn't believe supports winner-take-all, although he didn't fully commit to opposing any attempts in 2025.
Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams, who said he supports Lippincott's current proposal, plans to introduce an alternate route of passing winner-take-all through a constitutional amendment. If passed by the Legislature, the measure would also need to pass a vote of the people in 2026 in order to take effect.
Dorn said he is not bringing his proposal in an attempt to compete with Lippincott's bill, but wants to offer a second option in case Lippincott's proposal doesn't have enough support to pass.
Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth, who was one of the holdouts that prevented winner-take-all from passing in 2024, said he is supportive of Dorn's constitutional amendment. He declined to comment on Lippincott's plan.
Riepe said he was intrigued by the idea of a constitutional amendment, although he was concerned it might invite lawsuits.
Pillen had a firmer stance against the approach when he was asked about it Monday. He said he doesn't want to lock the state's way of electing the president into the Nebraska Constitution, because it would be even more difficult to change if it were ever necessary.
"That's why we have elected members of the body," Pillen said.
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