Tim Walz says the Electoral College needs to go as Democrats fear 2016 repeat
Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz argued Tuesday that the US needs to do away with the Electoral College as Democrats worry about a repeat of 2016 that would see the Harris-Walz campaign winning the popular vote but not the presidency.
“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” Walz said at a campaign fundraiser hosted at California Gov.Gavin Newsom’s home on Tuesday, according to pool reporters in the room.
“We need a national popular vote that is something.But that’s not the world we live in.”Walz has long been vocal in his belief that the Electoral College system, which decides the presidential winner, should be nixed in favor of the popular vote.At an earlier fundraising event in Seattle Tuesday, Walz called himself “a national popular vote guy” and added “But that’s not the world we live in,” according to the New York Times.
Walz and his running mate, Kamala Harris, have been focusing on a handful of battleground states that will likely decide who becomes the next president under the Electoral College system.Democrats have grown concerned that Harris could win the popular vote but not enough electoral votes to win the election.
Twice in recent history, the candidate whom most Americans voted for lost the election, and both times they were Democrats.In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by almost three million votes but lost the White House to Donald Trump as she failed to get the necessary 270 electoral votes.
And in 2000, Al Gore earned about half a million more votes than George W.Bush, but Bush was elected president by winning more electoral votes.
More than six in ten Americans would rather the president be chosen based on the person who wins the most votes nationally than through the Electoral College system, according to a Pew Research study published last month.However, the vice president’s campaign attempted to distance itself from Walz’s statements Tuesday with Election Day less than a month away.
“Gover...