Sources: Trump Pressured Nebraska Pol Over Winner-take-all Plan

by Paul Hammel, Nebraska Examiner
April 5, 2024

LINCOLN — Former President Donald Trump picked up a phone to pressure a Nebraska state senator to revive a winner-take-all system of awarding its Electoral College votes for president, sources told the Nebraska Examiner on Friday.

Trump, the sources said, called State Sen. Tom Brewer, who chairs the State Legislature’s Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, and urged him to take action to get a winner-take-all bill up for debate in the waning days of the 2024 session.

Four working days remain in the 60-day session.

Brewer, the sources said, responded that it doesn’t work that way. The deadline is past to vote a bill out of a committee and get it passed this year. In addition, the Speaker of the Legislature on Friday said it’s also too late to amend a bill into another bill.

Weeklong pressure campaign

Trump then reportedly told Brewer, who is term-limited this year, that his political career was over.

Brewer, 65, is a decorated military veteran who represents Nebraska’s Sandhills area.

When asked about the call Friday evening, Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of the Trump campaign, said Trump “absolutely, 110% did not speak with anyone in the State of Nebraska in the last six weeks.”

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