Tipsheet

Democrats Are Still Looking to Get Rid of the Electoral College

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  December 16, 2024 10:00 PM

We're that much closer to President-elect Donald Trump once more taking office on January 20, just over a month away now, and Democrats still can't get over losing. On Monday, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Peter Welch (I-VT), introduced a plan to abolish the Electoral College via a constitutional amendment. The president would thus solely be elected by popular vote. The senators even went with the oft-repeated Democratic talking point, that their plan is about "restoring democracy," with Schatz referring to the plan as "undemocratic." 

A post from the Judiciary Democrats' X account refers to their plan as a "bill." In order to abolish the Electoral College, though, which is described in the Constitution, Democrats have to do so through via the amendment process and cannot do so merely through a bill.

The Committee, including and especially Durbin, who is also the chairman and majority whip, should know better when putting out social media posts about their plan. This is nothing new from Durbin, considering he said he first introduced a resolution in 2000. 

Even the far-left outlet, The New Republic, referred to the plan as "a massive boondoggle for Democrats." The headline also declared that it shows how "clueless" the Democrats are. 

Democrats love to rant and rave about "democracy," and the supposed threats to it and who poses it. The 2024 election was all about that, with Trump being denigrated as that throughout the campaign, even after there were multiple attempts on his life. The United States isn't a democracy, but rather a constitutional republic. Further, we've only ever known the Electoral College, so it's particularly nonsensical that abolishing it would be about "restoring" anything.

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Durbin put out a quoted repost of his Committee's post, though he wasn't the only one to chime in. Many offered replies reminding that the process can't simply be done with a bill, to the tune of over 7,000 replies. 

While Trump won both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote last month, with close to 50 percent of the vote and 312 electoral votes, that doesn't mean Democrats still don't believe they'll have a better chance at winning if elections were decided by the popular vote. Trump was the first Republican to win the popular vote since President George W. Bush did in 2004. 

It also reflects a losing attitude, though, and a refusal to play by the rules that are in place. As The Hill mentioned on Monday in covering Democrats' plan, and listing out their grievances against the system:

Democrats are worried that it has become increasingly difficult to win on the presidential ticket in battleground states while advocating for the progressive agenda that candidates need to embrace in the primary to appeal to the party’s base.

“It’s always worth reminding people: It’s really hard for Democrats to win battleground states, OK?” David Plouffe, a senior adviser to Harris’s presidential campaign, told Crooked Media’s “Pod Save America” last month.

“Let’s look at Pennsylvania: 25 percent of the electorate is liberal, roughly, 34 percent is conservative,” Plouffe explained. “So in every battleground state, there’s more conservatives than liberals.”

Democrats felt all the more demoralized by Harris’s loss because she dramatically outspent Trump, raising $1 billion for her campaign while a super PAC supporting her, Future Forward, raised nearly another $1 billion.

Trump didn't just win the presidency once more, and do so with both the popular vote and Electoral College, he did it by winning all seven battleground states, including the blue wall. Republicans also kept control of the House and took back control of the Senate, including through ousting vulnerable Democratic incumbents.

Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris lost last month, Democrats have been in a state of denial and disarray, from complaints like those coming from the "Pod Save America" hosts, to Durbin and others introducing constitutional amendments that have no chance at succeeding. They're just going to keep losing with such an attitude.