By Moira Warburton
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Republican U.S. lawmaker proposed this week that the storm-hit state of North Carolina should award its Electoral College votes to Republican Donald Trump before the Nov. 5 election, drawing criticism from Democrats .
Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, chairman of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, said in a video-captured conversation Thursday that given the devastation caused in North Carolina by last month’s Hurricane Helene, the state Legislature is taking preemptive should declare that Trump won the state’s 16th primary. College voting, to avoid “disenfranchised voters”.
His comments were first reported by Politico.
North Carolina is one of seven battleground states expected to play a decisive role in determining whether Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris becomes the next US president. Polls show Trump with a marginal lead in the state.
Democrats have rejected Harris’ suggestion.
“The voters decide the elections, not the far-right politicians,” Viet Shelton, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said in a statement.
“It is very important to understand the mainstream Republican goal – to make Donald Trump president regardless of whether he wins the election or not,” Senator Chris Murphy said in a social media post.
Harris’ campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
Twice this century, Democrats have won a majority of the national popular vote without securing the 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House: in 2000, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Republican George W. Bush declared the winner of the election and in 2000 and 2016, when Trump was first elected.
(Reporting by Moira Warburton in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)
