NBC News projects that Vice President Kamala Harris has won Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, securing one Electoral College vote.
While 48 of the 50 states award all their electoral votes to the state’s popular vote winner, Nebraska and Maine award two votes to the statewide winner and split the remainder by congressional district. Barack Obama won this district in 2008, as did Joe Biden in 2020 — the only Nebraskan electoral votes Democrats have picked up since 1964.
The 2nd District is centered around Omaha, the state’s most populous city. “The district is whiter, more educated and slightly wealthier than the U.S. average,” Politico reported earlier this year, “though it is an average-enough place that Taco Bell uses it as a test market for new products.” And despite some gerrymandering by the state Legislature, the district has actually become more Democrat-friendly in recent years, leading local Democrats to label it the “blue dot” in a sea of red states.
Harris’ victory was widely expected barring an across-the-board Democratic collapse, as public polls gave her a small but consistent lead over the former president. Trump and his allies tried several times during the year to change the state’s system to a winner-take-all setup, but were unable to convince enough Republican state senators to overcome a Democratic filibuster. Because she picked up the one vote here, a tie in the Electoral College is not possible.
James Downie is an opinion editor for MS NOW Daily.
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