UPDATE (Sept. 24, 2024, 12:44 p.m. ET): Shortly after this report was published, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a previous backer of the GOP’s electoral-vote scheme, announced that he has “no plans” to call a special legislative session to tackle the issue because the plan lacks the necessary votes in the legislature.
Every good heist story invariably involves a crew. With this in mind, when Republicans set out to effectively steal one of Nebraska’s electoral votes — creating a winner-take-all model shortly before Election Day because they fear Omaha-area voters might vote Democratic — they assembled a team to pull off the political robbery.
Gov. Jim Pillen was on board, as were members of the state’s congressional delegation. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham agreed to play the role of outside lobbyist, and Donald Trump even started leaning on individual GOP legislators, hoping they’d help deliver the loot.
At least for now, however, there are still some lingering divisions among the crew. NBC News reported:
A Nebraska Republican state lawmaker said Monday that he remains opposed to switching how the state allocates its electoral votes, effectively blocking a bid by President Donald Trump and his allies to change the system in search of an extra electoral vote this fall. … ‘After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change,’ state Sen. Mike McDonnell wrote in a letter obtained by NBC News.”
In the wake of McDonnell’s announcement, Nebraska’s senior U.S. senator, Republican Deb Fischer, said the GOP’s gambit simply didn’t have the necessary votes in the legislature. “It’s over,” she added.
That pronouncement might be premature. After all, Election Day is still six weeks away, and there’s still time for Republican leaders to get their heist plan back on track.
Indeed, the former president appears reluctant to walk away.
“I would like to thank Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska for trying to help the Republican Party simplify the complexity of the State’s Electoral Map,” Trump wrote via his social media platform. He added, “Unfortunately, a Democrat turned Republican(?) State Senator named Mike McDonnell decided, for no reason whatsoever, to get in the way of a great Republican, common sense, victory. Just another ‘Grandstander!’ “Who knows, perhaps one of the others two Republicans that were a ‘NO’ Vote will change their minds.” If rhetoric like this sounds at all familiar, it’s because after Trump’s 2020 defeat, he engaged in similar name-and-shame intimidation tactics, hoping to convince GOP election officials in key states to help him overturn results he didn’t like. Many of them soon found themselves facing serious threats from Trump allies. Nearly four years later, Nebraska’s McDonnell has apparently become the former president’s latest rhetorical target.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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