(Congress Report) – One has to wonder if the latest oops moment from Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, has led to buyer’s remorse on her part for choosing him over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro? Walz’s latest comment about wanting to toss out the Electoral College, made during a stop in California, has led to the campaign distancing itself from the controversial remarks. The potential future vice president suggested ditching the EC in favor of a straight popular vote.
Many Americans are dead set against this idea — as were our Founding Fathers — because it would place all of the power for choosing the nation’s leadership and representation in big cities with rural areas essentially no longer having a say in anything. Our current system prevents that from happening, allowing every vote to be a voice and every voice to be heard.
“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” Walz went on to say at a campaign fundraiser with California Gov. Gavin Newsom held on Tuesday afternoon, as per pool reporters in the room, Politico disclosed. “We need a national popular vote that is something. But that’s not the world we live in.”
“Walz then added, in light of the Electoral College system, he and Harris are hitting swing states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada, in their bid to win the presidency next month. The Founders established the Electoral College vote in the Constitution to ensure smaller population states would also have a say in who would become president. Each state is allotted votes based on the number of House members it has, which is based on population. States also receive two votes for the two senators each state has. So for example California, the nation’s most populous state, has 54 votes, while states like Alaska, Delaware and North Dakota just have three,” The Western Journal reported.
Now, the complaints of the left about wanting to get rid of the Electoral College so they can pick a winner by popular vote is ridiculous because, essentially, whoever wins the popular vote usually does become president by securing the electoral votes needed to cinch a victory. There have only been five times in our country’s history when someone lost the popular vote, but ended up with enough electoral votes to win the election. The two most recent are the 2000 and 2016 presidential races. Democratic candidate Al Gore, in 2000, won the popular vote, but lost the Electoral College to George W. Bush. In 2016, now twice-failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton also nabbed the popular vote, but ultimately had fewer Electoral College votes than GOP candidate Donald Trump.
“Clinton was particularly able to run up the score in Democratic large population bastions like California and New York, where she beat Trump by about 3.4 million and 1.5 million, respectively. So the total in California alone is well above Clinton’s 2.9 million margin of victory in the popular vote,” the report said. “In response to Walz’s remarks, Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt asked in a post on X if Walz was attempting to lay ‘the groundwork to claim President Trump’s victory is illegitimate?'”
Is Tampon Tim laying the groundwork to claim President Trump’s victory is illegitimate? https://t.co/E8konqFN82
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) October 8, 2024
“In 2023, Walz signed a bill into law as part of the National Popular Vote initiative that would require all of Minnesota’s Electoral College votes to be cast for the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of who the majority in his state voted for. Sixteen other states have passed similar legislation in recent years, according to the National Popular Vote website. It is a way to try to bypass the constitutional amendment process. The pact would likely be challenged in court if the requisite number of states needed to reach 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency ever sought to implement it,” the article read.
Not long after the comments were made, Politico reported that Harris’ campaign put out a statement saying, “Gov. 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. He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”
Back in 2019, Harris herself noted in an interview with late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that she was “open to the discussion” of ending the Electoral College.
“There’s no question that the popular vote has been diminished in terms of making the final decision about who’s the president of the United States, and we need to deal with that, so I’m open to the discussion,” she explained at the time.
During a September fundraising event held at the home of Alex Soros, son of the infamous progressive billionaire George Soros, Walz stated, “I am hopeful on this country, but I’m also a pragmatist and a realist.”
“That’s the electoral college system, the way it’s set up, and the states that we’re vying for are incredibly close,” he declared.
Copyright 2024. CongressReport.com
