Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) defended the Electoral College on Thursday in response to Kentucky governor Andy Beshear’s call for a national popular-vote system, which has increasingly gained support from Democrats.
“I wish I could say I’m surprised by Governor Beshear’s latest calls to abolish the Electoral College – but I’m not,” McConnell said in a statement. “Democrats’ disregard – and borderline disdain – for the constitutional guardrails that safeguard our political system has lurked below the surface of their rhetoric for a long, long time.”
In favor of the popular vote as the sole means for electing presidents and their running mates, Beshear said Wednesday that the U.S. needs to “move to a place where seven states don’t decide the presidency,” according to the Kentucky Lantern. He claimed the country will have “better government,” “better politics,” and “better elections when we get to that point.”
The Democratic governor later clarified his comments during a Thursday press conference, directly saying he is in favor of abolishing the Electoral College.
“We would ultimately have to abolish the Electoral College,” he said. “I know that’s been with us a long time, but we see where things currently stand.”
A candidate needs to pass 270 of the total 538 electoral votes in order to win the presidency. Whoever wins the popular vote in a given state receives all of that state’s electoral votes. Forty-eight states use this system, while Maine, Nebraska, and Washington, D.C., divide the electoral votes proportionally.
Only five U.S. presidential elections have seen the winner of the popular vote lose the race, with the last two occurring in 2016 and 2000. Both elections saw former president Donald Trump and former president George W. Bush best their respective Democratic opponents, despite gaining fewer popular votes. Bush later won the popular vote in 2004.
McConnell was the most senior Kentucky Republican to denounce Beshear’s statements.
“No institution is too dear if it stands between a Democrat and their progressive ‘reforms’ to ‘preserve democracy’ – the standard euphemism for partisan power grabs on the Left,” McConnell said. “Those genuinely concerned about the future of our country should call for strengthening our constitutional guardrails, not obliterating them.”
“At its core, the Electoral College protects Americans from the whims of the majority, something I’m familiar with in the Senate,” he added. “It’s what makes our democracy, and our sprawling nationwide elections, feasible. And it’s what compels presidents to govern nationally rather than pandering to the interests of New York and California. Without it, no presidential candidate would ever travel to a small state in Middle America, like Kentucky.”
Beshear joined the likes of Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who said while campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris last month that the “Electoral College needs to go.” Walz added the current electoral system should be replaced by the national popular vote, but he acknowledged “that’s not the world we live in.”
The Harris campaign distanced itself from Walz’s comments, saying the running mate’s call for abolishing the Electoral College is not an official campaign position.
A recent Pew Research Center survey found 63 percent of Americans supporting the move away from the Electoral College toward a popular-vote system. By contrast, 35 percent said they would favor retaining the Electoral College.