- Video shows debate Tuesday in the legislature.
- A year long campaign to move Nebraska to a Winner Take All Electoral vote failed after the bill died in its first round of debate.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Tuesday's debate was all about whether or not conservatives in the body would fall in line behind the bill being pushed by Governor Pillen and the President.
Despite conservatives holding a majority in the legislature the bill's introducer Loren Lippincott has struggled to gather the 33 votes needed to advance the bill, keeping it out of the 2024 special session after several lawmakers committed to not tackling winner-take-all until after the election.
Coming into tuesday’s debate the number of supporters that lippincott could count on was still in question and many in the body expected it to come down to just one or two votes.
It didn’t take much debate before it became clear that conservative hold outs were going to keep the blue dot alive for at least another year.
Merv Reipe, who earned republicans ire for voting against an abortion ban in 2023, again voted against his fellow conservatives.
But it wasn’t just Reipe.
Dave Wordekemper, the freshman senator from District 15, also broke ranks with his party.
Wordekemper had voted to advance the bill from committee but said his constituents made it clear in the time since that they wanted the split electoral vote to stay.
“It ensure presidential candidates pay attention to our diverse state instead of writing us off as a foregone conclusion. i cannot support legislation that would relegate Nebraska to fly over country status where our concerns and voices are ignored on the national level," said Wordekemper.
After the bill failed to advance Governor Pillen released a statement saying he wouldn't give up on Winner Take All.
“I am deeply disappointed that a minority of the Legislature defeated the will of the majority of their colleagues and, more importantly, the majority of Nebraskans by filibustering Winner-Take-All. WTA is supported by a substantial majority of the people’s representatives and should have received a fair up-or-down vote. Nebraskans expect and deserve principled, straightforward consistency from their elected leaders, and I’m disappointed that the Legislature fell short of those expectations with its failure today.
I continue to believe that it is critical to pass WTA to strengthen Nebraska’s voice in presidential elections. There have been many efforts to fix it in the last 30 years, and I will continue to work with allies in the Legislature to get this done in time for the 2028 election.”
