(Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign tried to walk back comments Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz made this week about abolishing the Electoral College, raising questions about whether Harris and her running mate are on the same page.
Walz reportedly told donors at a private fundraiser in California on Tuesday that getting rid of the constitutionally-prescribed voting structure should be a goal for Democrats.
“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” Walz said, according to a pool report. “But that’s not the world we live in.”
Walz admitted that if the Electoral College were abolished, Democrats would be able to spend less time in rural, swing districts.
But because of the Electoral College’s distribution, the battleground districts were forcing them to work a lot harder at pleading their case in the flyover states—including his own, he complained.
“[W]e need to win Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania, and win,” he said.
“We need to be in western Wisconsin and win,” he continued. “We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win. And the help that you give here today helps make that happen.”
Asked whether Walz’s comments reflected a policy priority for Harris, the campaign tried to do damage control.
“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,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.
“He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes,” said the statement. “And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”
The Trump campaign, however, argued it appears as though Walz is already “laying the groundwork to claim President Trump’s victory is illegitimate”—especially if it is close.
Is Tampon Tim laying the groundwork to claim President Trump’s victory is illegitimate? https://t.co/E8konqFN82
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) October 8, 2024
This is not the first time Walz has advocated abolishing the Electoral College.
In May 2023, he signed legislation enrolling Minnesota in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which has pushed to elect presidents by the national popular vote instead of the Electoral College.
Given the Democrats’ now explicit policy for bad-faith open-borders immigration, it would allow them to retain permanent control simply by importing new voters and refusing to enforce the immigration or election rules in massive blue-leaning states like New York and California, which would effectively decide every election.
