NBC News claims that Vice President Kamala Harris has won Nebraska’s second congressional district, securing one vote in the Electoral College.
While 48 of the 50 states award all their electoral votes to the winner of the popular vote, Nebraska and Maine award two votes to the statewide winner and divide the rest by congressional district. Barack Obama won this district in 2008, as did Joe Biden in 2020 – the only electoral votes in Nebraska that Democrats have won since 1964.
The 2nd District is centered around Omaha, the state’s most populous city. “The District is whiter, better educated and slightly more affluent than the U.S. average,” Politico reported earlier this year, “although it is an average enough place to be used by Taco Bell as a test market for new products.” And despite some gerrymandering by the state Legislature, the district has actually become more Democrat-friendly in recent years, leading local Democrats to call it the “blue dot” in a sea of red states.
Harris’ victory was widely expected, barring an all-out Democratic collapse, as public opinion polls gave her a small but consistent lead over the former president. Trump and his allies tried several times over the course of the year to change the state system to a winner-takes-all setup, but failed to convince enough Republican senators to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
Because she won the one vote here, a draw in the Electoral College is not possible.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
