- Kamala Harris is projected to have won a potentially critical Electoral College vote in Nebraska.
- Thanks to Nebraska’s unusual way of awarding votes, she has carried a district containing Omaha.
- Democrats have now won an electoral vote in Nebraska in three elections since 2008.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ increasingly perilous path to the White House was still alive early Wednesday thanks to her projected win of Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, carrying an area that was once reliably Republican.
With over 80% of the expected vote in, Fox News and The New York Times called the district and its Electoral College vote for Harris.
Democrats needed some good news after former President Donald Trump won the first battleground state to be called — North Carolina — and led in most others.
Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that award some of their Electoral College votes by congressional district. By winning the Omaha area, Harris would probably become president by sweeping the “blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin even if she were to lose every other battleground state. Provided there are no unexpected upsets, she would win with 270 electoral votes to 268.
The bad news for Harris as Tuesday night turned to Wednesday morning was that Trump was also leading in all three blue-wall states with votes continuing to be counted.
Trump and his allies had tried to pressure Nebraska lawmakers to change the state law just months before Election Day, seeking to keep Harris from picking up an electoral vote in a state that is overall red. Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, had promised to call a special session to push through the change, but Republicans in the officially nonpartisan state legislature were unable to overcome a likely filibuster. A complete Harris defeat in Nebraska would have increased the chances of an Electoral College tie, which would prompt the election to be turned over to the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives to decide. Only twice in US history, most recently in 1825, have lawmakers settled the election.
Republicans easily won the statewide popular vote, but Democrats for the third time in five presidential cycles have now been able to win just enough votes in and around Nebraska’s largest city. Barack Obama narrowly won the district in 2008, and Joe Biden beat Trump by nearly 7 percentage points in 2020. Democrats have gleefully labeled the area “the Blue Dot,” and yard signs with such an image were sprinkled around the city synonymous with the billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Neither Harris nor Trump campaigned in the city, though both of their running mates — Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio — campaigned in the Omaha area. Walz is a Nebraska native.