Tim Walz says the Electoral College ‘needs to go’ as Democrats fear a repeat of 2016

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz argued Tuesday that the US needs to abolish the Electoral College as Democrats fear a repeat of 2016 in which the Harris-Walz campaign would win the popular vote but not the presidency.

“I think we all know the Electoral College needs to go,” Walz said Tuesday at a campaign fundraiser held at the home of California Governor Gavin Newsom, according to a pool of reporters in the room. “We need a national popular vote on something. But this is not the world we live in.”

Walz has long been vocal in his belief that the Electoral College system, which decides the winner of the presidency, should be abolished in favor of the popular vote.

At an earlier fundraising event in Seattle on Tuesday, Walz called himself “a national popular vote guy” and added, “But this is not the world we live in,” According to the New York Times.

Walz and his running mate, Kamala Harris, are focusing on some battleground states that will likely decide who becomes the next president under the Electoral College system.

Democrats have become concerned that Harris may win the popular vote but not have enough electoral votes to win the election.

Twice in recent history, the candidate the majority of Americans voted for lost the election, and both times they were Democrats.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million votes, but lost the White House to Donald Trump as she failed to garner the required 270 electoral votes.

And in 2000, Al Gore earned nearly 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 like the president to be elected based on the person winning the most votes nationally rather than through the Electoral College system. According to Pew Research study Published last month.

However, the vice president’s campaign attempted to distance itself from Walz’s statements on Tuesday, with Election Day less than a month away.

A spokesperson for Walz said in a statement to the Times, “Governor Walz believes every vote counts in the Electoral College and he is traveling the country and battleground states to drum up support for the Harris-Walz ticket. “Feeling honored to do so.” “He was commenting in front of a crowd of strong supporters on how to build a campaign to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support which is helping fund those efforts.

During Harris’s first presidential run in 2019, she said during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that she was “open to the discussion” of throwing out the Electoral College, but she made no such comments in her second run. Have not done.

The Post has reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign.

According to the same Pew Research study, more conservative Republicans are more likely to support maintaining the Electoral College system.

The Trump campaign attacked Walz’s bold call for its removal on Tuesday, I am asking why He “hates the Constitution so much?”

Congress would eventually need to vote to eliminate the Electoral College in favor of the popular vote – which is unlikely to happen in the near future.