Key Nebraska Republican opposes Trump effort to change state’s electoral vote process
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(LINCOLN, Neb.) — A growing effort backed by Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, to switch Nebraska’s electoral process to winner-take-all hit a major snag on Monday after a key state lawmaker said he wouldn’t support such a change before the November election.
State Sen. Mike McDonnell, one of the key Republicans holdouts GOP Gov. Jim Pillen was looking to for support to break a likely filibuster, said in a statement that he would not vote to change electoral process before then.
Instead, McDonnell said he believed the legislature should take up the issue in next year’s legislative session, which tentatively starts the first week of January 2025.
“In recent weeks, a conversation around whether to change how we allocate our electoral college votes has returned to the forefront,” McDonnell said. “I respect the desire of some of my colleagues to have this discussion, and I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”
“I have notified Governor Pillen that I will not change my long-held position and will oppose any attempted changes to our electoral college system before the 2024 election,” he added. “I also encouraged him and will encourage my colleagues in the Unicameral to pass a constitutional amendment during next year’s session, so that the people of Nebraska can once and for all decide this issue the way it should be decided — on the ballot.”
Pillen released a statement last week saying he would not call a special session unless Republican legislators could show they have 33 votes needed to break an expected Democratic filibuster. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and staunch ally of Trump, traveled to Nebraska last week to lobby lawmakers and met with stakeholders.
ABC News spoke to Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood, who agreed that McDonnell was a key holdout and understood the Nebraska legislature needed at least three more votes to break a very likely filibuster.
If the other state Senate holdouts stand firm, McDonnell’s decision effectively throws cold water on the ongoing effort to switch the state’s Electoral College vote to winner-take-all, even after Republican members of Congress and Trump pushed for the change.
Flood, a Republican who represents Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, said Trump engaging directly on the issue “underscores how big of a deal this is.” Flood, who supports changing the process along with the rest of Nebraska’s federal delegation, said Nebraska “has the right to speak with the majority of its citizens, by and through its legislature, and that’s what I want to see done.”
The winner-take-all electoral change would be pivotal if the Republican-leaning state allocates all of its five electoral votes solely to Trump, instead of dividing them with Vice President Kamala Harris.
Nebraska split its electoral votes in 2020, with President Joe Biden flipping the 2nd district, which includes Omaha. Without gaining the votes from Nebraska’s 2nd district, Harris could not win the general election with “blue wall” of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania alone. It would also create a new possibility for a 269-269 Electoral College tie.
“It is amazing to think that could come down to Nebraska, but I think the math and the reality is that it very well may be true,” Flood said.
ABC News’ Nathaniel Rakich contributed to this report.
Mayor Rob Rue speaks to residents during a town hall about the 2024 presidential election’s focus on the town’s influx of Haitian immigrants, on Sept. 24, 2024, in Springfield, Ohio. — Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images via AFP via Getty Images
(SPRINGFIELD, Ohio) — Springfield, Ohio, city officials declined to take a call with former President Donald Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance earlier this month, as the Trump campaign continued to spread unsubstantiated claims that Haitian immigrants were terrorizing the community by eating pets, according to emails obtained by ABC News.
The emails, obtained through a public records request, shed light on the contentious relationship between the city and the Ohio senator as officials have had to repeatedly debunk unfounded claims promoted in viral social media posts and by the Trump campaign about Haitian migrants in the city. Springfield city leaders have said the baseless claims have led to dozens of bomb threats and other threats of violence targeting the Haitian community that have forced Springfield law enforcement officials to evacuate schools, hospitals and other city facilities.
In one email obtained by ABC News dated Sep. 17, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told Vance’s acting state director James Coyne that he and other city leaders were declining to join a call after the senator’s office invited “third parties” to join who Vance’s team said had “first-hand experiences” with how the influx of Haitian migrants in Springfield was affecting their lives.
“It is disheartening to see our vibrant community drawn into the national immigration debate, leading to disruptions in daily life and increased security concerns. Over the past week, schools and public offices have been closed due to threats,” Rue wrote.
A Springfield city spokesperson said officials initially believed they were scheduling a private call between Vance, Rue and Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck.
“We later learned that they wanted to bring some constituents (without providing their names or how they selected them) into what was initially portrayed as a private call. We decided that it was in our best interest to decline,” Springfield’s Strategic Engagement Manager Karen Graves told ABC News in a statement. “While we appreciated them reaching out to us, we felt the scope of the initial invitation changed and this went from an opportunity to have an honest discussion to us potentially being drawn into more politicalization.”
Graves said another call has not taken place.
Coyne later replied to Rue’s email that the senator had been “inundated with constituent complaints” since the Ohio senator spoke before the Senate Banking Committee raising some of the housing concerns the city had expressed to him in recent months.
“Our intention in inviting some of these constituents to join the call was to help facilitate a dialogue between residents we have heard from with first-hand experiences and city officials to help him contextualize their perspective with yours,” Coyne responded.
Vance first spread unsubstantiated rumors of Haitian migrants on Sept. 9, despite one of his staffers being informed that same day by Heck — who is carbon copied on the emails obtained by ABC News — that such comments were “baseless,” a city spokesperson said. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report about the Sep. 9 call, and ABC News later confirmed the details.
Still, the Trump campaign has doubled down on the unfounded claims about Haitian. Trump repeated the rumors on the national stage during the presidential debate hosted by ABC News.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said during the debate.
Vance himself has repeated the baseless claims, including in a post on X saying, “reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.”‘
Despite the Trump campaign’s efforts to substantiate the unfounded claims, city and state officials have repeatedly rebuked them. In one case, a resident who initially blamed their Haitian neighbors for the disappearance of her cat admitted she was mistaken and reportedly apologized.
Vance has also repeatedly portrayed the Haitian migrants not only in Springfield but the thousands across the nation as being brought into the U.S. illegally by Vice President Kamala Harris. However, most of the Haitian migrants in Springfield are there legally.
Many of the migrants have been granted Temporary Protected Status, and once that is granted they are insulated from deportation and are allowed to temporarily work in the U.S.
“What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said on ABC’s This Week.
Rue has publicly urged those amplifying rumors about the city to stop, adding, “we need help, not hate.” But the email obtained by ABC News shows his most forceful rebuttal of Vance’s comments.
“On a personal note, it is disappointing that, as an Ohio native and elected official, you would speak about our community without first reaching out to me or my team to better understand the situation,” Rue told Coyne. “We are always open to working with you to ensure that any claims made about our community are accurate and based on a full understanding of the facts.”
Spokespeople for Vance and the city of Springfield dispute which party initiated the call request.
“Senator Vance’s office was confused by the last-minute cancellation of a meeting requested by Springfield officials. However, the door is always open for future discussion,” a spokesperson for Vance told ABC News in a statement.
“Any dialogue about our community should be grounded in facts and a comprehensive understanding of the situation,” Rue told Coyne in one of the emails. “Unfortunately, recent communications have not consistently reflected this approach. The safety of our residents is a responsibility we take seriously, and it should not be politicized.”
Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz participate in the Vice Presidential debate in New York City, October 1, 2024. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz met on stage Tuesday for what was likely the last debate of the 2024 presidential election.
The two vice presidential candidates struck a cordial tone as they spoke in-depth about everything from immigration to health care and democracy.
Looming large over the showdown was Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, as Walz and Vance were forced to answer for their running mates’ records while also presenting their own visions for the future.
Here are some key takeaways from the CBS News debate:
Civility ruled the day
While Walz and Vance sparred on issues, they did so with decorum and largely steered clear of the personal attacks that defined the past two presidential debates.
They started off by shaking hands and ended the night with closing statements in which they thanked each other and the American people for tuning in. As one commercial break came to a close, they were seen smiling at each other.
At times, they tried to highlight areas where they might be in agreement. In one exchange on gun violence, Walz spoke about his son witnessing a shooting at a local recreation center.
“First of all, I didn’t know your 17-year-old witnessed a shooting and I’m sorry about that,” Vance said, to which Walz said he appreciated the comment.
At other times they were more pointed, though, especially when it came to immigration and democracy. Walz said he was troubled by Vance’s indirect response when asked if he’d challenge the results of the 2024 election.
A more policy-focused debate
Viewers got to hear several substantive policy exchanges.
On health care, Vance was pressed on Trump’s comment that he only had “concepts of a plan” to replace the Affordable Care Act and how their administration would protect people with preexisting conditions.
“We have current laws and regulations to protect people with pre-existing conditions and want to keep the regulations in place and help the insurance marketplace function a little better,” Vance said though he did not dive into specifics.
He also distorted many of Trump’s actions on the ACA and claimed Trump made the law stronger, which was false.
Walz was asked about Harris’ plan to build three million new homes (which he argued would not drive up prices and would lead to generational wealth) and whether he believed it was likely Congress would agree to her proposal for an enhanced Child Tax Credit. He said both high housing and child care costs were the biggest burdens on American families.
Amid the devastating damage from Hurricane Helene, both were asked if climate change was contributing to such extreme weather events. Walz emphatically said climate change was “real” while Vance expressed skepticism about “weird science,” stating carbon emissions were contributing to the climate crisis.
In one notable moment on abortion, Vance adopted a different tone from the one he and Trump have voiced in the past.
“We’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don’t trust us and I think that’s one of the things that Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do,” he said.
At the same time, he claimed during the debate that he never supported a national abortion ban, despite previously signaling support for a bill introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham that would ban abortion after 15 weeks nationwide.
Walz, meanwhile, spoke about the women whose health has been negatively impacted by state-level restrictions since the fall of Roe v. Wade. Walz blamed Trump for the Supreme Court nominations he said “put this all into motion.”
Both forced to answer for past comments
For Vance, it was his calling Trump unfit to be president and likening him to Hitler in 2016. The moderator addressed Vance about his past criticisms of Trump and his shifts in policy to align with the former president’s, asking why should Americans trust that he will give Trump the advice he needs to hear.
“Because I’ve always been open and sometimes, of course, I’ve disagreed with the president, but I’ve also been extremely open about the fact that I was wrong about Donald Trump,” Vance said.
Vance blamed the media for its coverage of Trump and then said he changed his mind in part because of Trump’s record in office.
Walz, meanwhile, was asked why he previously said he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing.
The governor has repeatedly claimed he was in China during the protests during his year-long stint as a high school teacher in the southeastern Chinese town of Foshan starting in 1989, though according to local newspaper clipping obtained by ABC News, it appears he did not actually travel to the country until August 1989, about two months after the protests ended.
Asked about that discrepancy during the debate, Walz said that he’s “a knucklehead at times” and that his extensive travel to China “is about trying to understand the world, it’s about trying to do the best you can for the community.”
When pressed by the moderator further, he conceded that he “misspoke” and that he was in Hong Kong the year of the massacre but not at the time it happened.
Vance refused to say if he will accept election, doesn’t condemn Jan. 6
As the debate winded down, Vance was asked if he would seek to challenge the 2024 election even if every governor certified the results. However, the senator sidestepped the question and pivoted to what he claimed was Harris and tech companies censoring people. He also brought up the endorsements of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard.
Walz said he was troubled by Vance’s statement and said such denials needed to come to an end.
“Here we are, four years later, in the same boat. I will tell you, that when this is over, we need to shake hands, this election, and the winner needs to be the winner. This has got to stop. It’s tearing our country apart,” the governor said.
Walz continued to deflect from the question and at one point attacked Hillary Clinton.
“Did he lose the 2020 election?” Walz asked Vance, referring to Trump.
“Tim, I’m focused on the future,” Vance responded.
“That is a damning non-answer,” Walz shot back.
Vance did not back down on false claims about Springfield
The ongoing controversy stemming from Vance’s false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, continued when Walz talked about the dangers it created for the community.
“The governor had to send state law enforcement to escort kindergartens to school. I believe Senator Vance wants to solve this but by standing with Donald Trump and not working together to find a solution, it becomes a talking point. And when it becomes a talking point like this, we dehumanize and villainize other human beings,” he said.
Local leaders and law enforcement have said there have been no valid reports of the Haitian immigrants stealing pets or spreading diseases that Vance has promoted. Vance did not promote those falsehoods on Tuesday but did continue to call the protected migrants with legal status “illegal.”
Vance also reiterated his claims that undocumented immigrants are contributing to a housing crisis and leading to a rise in crime.
“The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’s open border,” he said.
Vance got heated when CBS News moderator Margaret Brennan again brought up the fact that the Haitian immigrants in Springfield were in the U.S. legally by being granted Temporary Protected Status.
As Vance tried to dispute her statement — and went back and forth with her and with Walz, the moderators said they needed to move on to the next topic before resorting to muting the candidates’ microphones.
(PHILIDELPHIA) — The presidential debate set to be held by ABC News will take place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, the network announced on Friday.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump had previously committed to attending.
The Sept. 10 debate will be moderated by “World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis.
It will be produced in conjunction with ABC station WPVI-TV/6abc, and will air live at 9 p.m. ET on the network and on the ABC News Live 24/7 streaming network, Disney+, and Hulu.
ABC News will also air a pre-debate special, “Race for the White House,” at 8 p.m. ET, anchored by chief global affairs correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, chief Washington correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, chief White House correspondent Mary Bruce and senior congressional correspondent Rachel Scott.
As previously announced by ABC News, to formally qualify, presidential candidates will need to hit various qualification requirements, including in polling thresholds and in appearing on enough state ballots to theoretically be able to get a majority (270) of electoral votes in the presidential election.
The National Constitution Center, which hosts exhibits and events about the U.S. Constitution and about civic engagement, is right by Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were both signed.
ABC News hosted town halls at the National Constitution Center with then-candidate President Joe Biden and then-incumbent President Donald Trump in 2020.
