In a move that has sent the Harris campaign into immediate damage control, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz openly called for the abolishment of the Electoral College during a fundraiser in Sacramento, California.
Speaking at the private residence of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Walz stated, “I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go. We need, we need national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in.”
The Minnesota governor’s comments, made to a room of Democratic donors, quickly drew attention and raised questions about the Harris-Walz ticket — and left Harris’ team scrambling.
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At a separate fundraiser in Seattle, Walz emphasized the impact of the current electoral system on campaign strategy.
“This country is deeply divided, and because of that, this election is going to be very, very close — margin of error. And we know, because of our system of the Electoral College, that puts a few states in real focus,” Walz told supporters.
Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections, yet lost the Electoral College in two of those contests – most recently in 2016 when twice-failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received more votes than then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump but fell short in the Electoral College count.
However, Walz’s open call for abolishing the system — put in place by the Founding Fathers to ensure power of states over the mob — has put the Harris campaign on the defensive.
Campaign officials quickly moved to distance themselves from Walz’s statements, insisting that eliminating the Electoral College is not an official campaign position.
“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 told the Washington Examiner.
“He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts.”
Walz’s comments have provided ammunition for the Trump campaign, with spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt questioning on social media platform X if Walz is “laying the groundwork to claim President Trump’s victory is illegitimate.”
Of course, this is not the first time Walz has expressed his preference for a national popular vote. As governor of Minnesota, he signed legislation in May 2023 enrolling the state in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, a plan by Democrat-controlled states that would effectively bypass the Electoral College… if enough states join.
The incident also brings renewed criticism on Vice President Kamala Harris’s past statements endorsing the abolishment of the Electoral College.
Specifically, during her failed 2020 presidential campaign, Harris expressed openness to abandoning Electoral College. In a 2019 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, she stated, “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.”
A September survey from the Pew Research Center found that 63% of voters would likely prefer that the person who wins the most votes nationally become the president, while 35% said they favor retaining the Electoral College system.
Despite this public sentiment, there remains little political momentum for actually abolishing the Electoral College, a point Walz conceded in his remarks.
Any change to the system would require a constitutional amendment, an extremely difficult process — but one that Democrats are interested in pursing if they seize enough power.