Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) pushed for the abolishment of the Electoral College during a Tuesday fundraiser in Sacramento, California, at the private residence of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).
“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” Walz said, according to a pool report. “But that’s not the world we live in.”
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“So we need to win Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win,” Walz continued in remarks to donors. “We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win. And the help that you give here today helps make that happen.”
At a separate fundraiser in Seattle, the governor also claimed: “This country is deeply divided, and because of that, this election is going to be very, very close — margin of error. And we know, because of our system of the Electoral College, that puts a few states in real focus.”
However, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign claimed this stance is not a position for the campaign.
“Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket,” a campaign spokesperson told the Washington Examiner in a statement.
“He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes,” the spokesperson continued. “And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”
Yet former President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt questioned if Walz is “laying the groundwork to claim President Trump’s victory is illegitimate” in a post on X.
It’s not the first time Walz has expressed dismay for the Electoral College and favored the popular vote as a credible pathway to selecting a president.
In May 2023, Walz signed legislation enrolling Minnesota in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a plan that prioritizes electing presidents by national popular vote rather than the Electoral College.
States that have enacted the compact would award electoral votes by national popular vote, eschewing the current standard of electoral votes being awarded by the candidate who wins the most votes in respective states.
This would be enacted if enough states surpassing the 270 electoral votes needed to win the election agreed to the compact. So far, only 17 states and Washington, D.C., have signed on.
Democrats, and a few Republicans, have lamented that the GOP has not won the popular vote in 20 years since former President George W. Bush defeated Democrat John Kerry in 2004.
Former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley frequently commented that the GOP “lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections” before she exited the 2024 race.
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But there is not enough political enthusiasm for undoing the Electoral College despite the public’s wish for it, which Walz acknowledged in his remarks at the Sacramento fundraiser.
A September survey from the Pew Research Center showed that 63% of voters would prefer that the person who wins the most votes nationally become the president, while 35% said they favor retaining the Electoral College system.
