Walz says the Electoral College ‘needs to go’

Gov. Tim Walz made a new push for booting the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote, as Democrats are again wary of a scenario in which Vice President Kamala Harris wins the popular vote but fails to secure the presidency.

“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” Walz said at a campaign fundraiser with California Gov. Gavin Newsom Tuesday afternoon, according to pool reporters in the room. “We need a national popular vote that is something. But that’s not the world we live in.”

Walz said he had been talking about the idea with Newsom earlier. But he appeared to put it aside as he went on to say that the campaign needs to focus on winning swing counties from Pennsylvania to western Wisconsin and Nevada.

Walz, according to pool reports, made similar comments at an earlier fundraiser in Seattle. His comments are a painful reminder for Democrats of 2016, when Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes but fell short of the 270 votes she needed in the Electoral College and lost to Donald Trump.

As governor, Walz signed legislation in May 2023 that effectively sought to replace the Electoral College with a plan to elevate a national popular vote. While the number of states who’ve backed such proposals is growing, the major change would require congressional approval, which is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

Walz has been criss-crossing swing states for weeks. But in fundraisers in New York and now the West Coast, he’s been vocal in his years-long criticism of the Electoral College. Though, his stark description Tuesday did spook some campaign officials so close to the election.

“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. He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes,” said a Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson. “And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”

Nixing the Electoral College is not a campaign position, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.

Kamala Harris, as a presidential hopeful in 2019, said during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” that she was “open to the discussion,” of getting rid of 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,” Harris said at the time.

At a fundraiser last month in the New York home of investor and philanthropist Alex Soros and former Clinton staffer Huma Abedin, Walz said: “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,” Walz added at the fundraiser. “The good news on this is the vice president and I and everyone that’s out there in these states are feeling the energy.”