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Nebraska's distinct election system that has allowed Democratic presidential candidates to pick up a single electoral vote in the state three times survived its closest call in a decade Tuesday as a proposal seeking to eliminate the system fell victim to a filibuster. In a dramatic but expected vote Tuesday evening, two Republicans joined every progressive in Nebraska's formally nonpartisan Legislature to kill legislation backed by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen and President Donald Trump that sought to replace the state's 34-year-old election system with the winner-take-all model used in 48 states.
Under the quirky system, which is also used in Maine, two of Nebraska's five electoral votes are awarded to the presidential ticket that wins the most votes statewide while the other three go to the winner of each of the state’s three congressional districts. People are also reading..
. Republicans have sought for decades to eliminate the system, which has made a national battleground out of Nebraska's Omaha-centric 2nd Congressional District, dubbed the "Blue Dot" by Democrats , whose presidential candidates won the district in 2008, 2020 and 2024. Sen.
Loren Lippincott of Central City speaks on the floor during a debate on his bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. A pressure campaign to make the switch ahead of last November's election, fueled by Trump and other national GOP figures, failed in September as it became clear that winner-take-all did not have the 33 votes it needed to overcome a filibuster in Nebraska's 49-member, single-house Legislature. Pillen made changing the state's election system one of his top legislative priorities again this year after Republicans maintained their filibuster-proof majority in the Legislature in November's election, calling the switch "a no-brainer .
" But the latest effort to replace the system went up in flames again Tuesday evening as Republican Sens. Merv Riepe of Ralston and Dave Wordekemper of Fremont refused to vote for a procedural motion to end the Democrat-led filibuster of the proposed law, effectively killing the bill. The motion to shut off debate, which needed 33 votes, failed on a 31-18 vote.
"I committed to keeping an open mind throughout this process, and I have generally searched for a way to support this measure," Wordekemper said Tuesday on the floor of the Legislature. "After careful deliberation, I cannot." Sen.
Dave Wordekemper speaks during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Both Wordekemper and Riepe — along with numerous progressive lawmakers — said the vast majority of constituents who had contacted their offices in the days and weeks leading up to Tuesday's vote had urged them to reject winner-take-all. Lawmakers reported fielding dozens, if not hundreds, of phone calls and emails from voters inside and outside of their districts.
A few dozen Nebraskans sporting "Blue Dot" T-shirts sat in the balconies overlooking the legislative floor as debate began Tuesday afternoon while a handful of demonstrators gathered in the Rotunda, some holding signs urging lawmakers to oppose winner-take-all. "The message from my constituents has been overwhelmingly clear: preserve our current system," Wordekemper said, saying that 75% of his district opposed the measure and calling Nebraska's distinct electoral system "part of our identity." Tuesday's striking vote — in which two conservatives rejected pressure from the Republican governor and helped halt a bill that would likely boost Republican presidential candidates for years, if not decades, to come — marked a blow to Pillen and the bill's sponsor, Sen.
Loren Lippincott of Central City, who had remained publicly hopeful even as he privately acknowledged to colleagues Monday he did not have enough votes to overcome a filibuster. Riepe had been a particularly vocal opponent of Pillen and Lippincott's effort to replace Nebraska's election system — a reversal for the 82-year-old Republican who voted for the change amid his first stint in the Legislature in 2015 and 2016 and signed a pledge supporting the change ahead of last year's election. His reversal made him a target for Pillen, who issued a statement Saturday calling on Republican lawmakers to vote to advance LB3 before singling out Riepe.
"In particular, I hope that veteran Senator Merv Riepe stands with his fellow Republicans on this critical issue," Pillen said, noting Riepe had supported the bill in the mid-2010s and pledged to last year. "If he remains consistent with his past votes and his 2024 pledge, (winner-take-all) can finally be restored." Sen.
Merv Riepe of Ralston during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Instead, Riepe, who will face voters in his swing district next year if he seeks reelection, bucked the governor and his party Tuesday evening, citing the wishes of his district and the economic boost Nebraska's current system brings to Omaha, which has become a national battleground under the system, hosting visits from both vice presidential candidates and other national campaign surrogates last fall. "My constituents like the attention it brings to Omaha," Riepe said, adding that the split-vote system gives Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District "a voice that isn't taken for granted.
" "Those who live in safe states or safe districts may not understand what it means to be courted," he said. "As the saying goes, you don't know what you've got until you lose it." Led by Lippincott, most Republicans voted to establish a winner-take-all system, repeatedly calling Nebraska's 34-year-old model "a failed experiment" that is out of touch with how the country's founders meant for presidents to be elected when they established the electoral college.
Republicans largely refuted the economic impact the current system has on Omaha — or pointed to it as a reason to eliminate the system. Sen. Bob Andersen of Omaha called for lawmakers to "stop the influx of out-of-state funds, which is one of the detrimental side effects of all this.
" Conservatives, too, largely downplayed the role the state's politics — Trump won Nebraska by 20 points in November, while a Democrat hasn't won an election statewide since 2006 — played in their motivation. "I actually think in the next few decades, we could see a complete flip to blue," Sen. Katheen Kauth of Omaha said.
"But I want to uphold the framework regardless of which side is dominant at the time." Democrats, though, lined up to oppose the bill, accusing Republicans of seeking the change to the state's election rules because it is politically convenient. Sen.
Jane Raybould of Lincoln during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln called the proposed change "a lazy, shortsighted attempt to strip power from Nebraska voters and hand it over to national political machines.
"It's not about fairness. It's not about consistency," she said. "It's about silencing Nebraskans in the name of party loyalty.
" Omaha Sen. John Cavanaugh disputed the argument that Republican support for the bill "is not about some divergence from history or experiment. Sen.
John Cavanaugh of Omaha speaks during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. "We've been doing it for 30 some years now," he said. It is no longer an experiment; it is how we do it.
And it has been successful." In the end, enough Republicans agreed. The bill's failure to overcome Tuesday's filibuster marked the latest setback in a series of conservative-led attempts seeking to eliminate Nebraska's presidential election system, which state lawmakers established in 1991.
Lawmakers have tried to undo the system repeatedly in the decades since the Legislature established it, twice sending repeal bills to former Gov. Ben Nelson's desk in the 1990s, but the Democrat vetoed the legislation both times. Since then, similar legislation has reached the floor of the Legislature six times, but none of those proposals made it to the governor's desk.
The system survived a close call in 2016, when a proposal to return the state to a winner-take-all system fell one vote short of overcoming a filibuster . Trump won all five of the state's electoral votes eight months later. This is a developing story.
Stay with JournalStar.com for updates. 2025 Lincoln Primary; SNAP benefit update; Stars clinch cup Photos: Nebraska Legislature debates winner-take-all bill Sen.
John Cavanaugh of Omaha speaks during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. People listen to Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue speak on the floor during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Omaha Sens. Megan Hunt and John Fredrickson talk Tuesday during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol. Sen.
Loren Lippincott of Central City speaks on the floor during a debate on his bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen. Merv Riepe listens to debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Sen. Merv Riepe of Ralston during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen.
Rita Sanders of Bellevue (left) and legislative staffer Dick Clark converse on the floor during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen. Dave Wordekemper speaks during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte speaks during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen.
Ashlei Spivey during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha speaks during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln listens to debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen.
John Cavanaugh (right) speaks during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln during debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha listens to debate on a bill that would return Nebraska to a winner-take-all presidential election system at the Capitol on Tuesday. Dave Wordekemper Riepe Lippincott Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.
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