BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Longtime Omaha resident Melinda Classen says she and her neighbors deserve a say especially when it comes to picking a president. That's why she got involved with the grass roots blue dot movement in the run up to the 2024 election.
"It was a force of people who believed in the right thing," said Classen.
In the '24 cycle campaigns, she spent time and money here making Omaha relevant. Former state senator, now mayoral candidate, Mike McDonnell says the current law forces candidates to stop here and earn Nebraska's 5 electoral votes.
"The economic impact which this last presidential cycle we were told.. anywhere between 50-80 million dollars for the city of Omaha and second congressional district," said McDonnell
That's why McDonnell opposes this latest proposal to change the law. He's not alone. I took a walk to north Omaha to speak with community activity and former senate candidate Preston Love about what's at stake if there's a change to the law that's been in place since the early 90s.
"There was a renewed or an increased awareness of wow... all these years before 91 - 92 we've been suppressed.
Love says if the law goes back to the way it was voices here would be muffled.
"The one place where African American and people of color, its rude, arrogant and not fair,"
If the law changes it would bring Nebraska in line with 48 other states that award electoral votes in a winner take all format. But the people i spoke with say Nebraska's one-of-a-kind unicameral is evidence enough that that state doesn't have to go with the flow.
In Omaha, I'm Melissa Wright.
