State Sen. Mike McDonnell’s switch to GOP spurs new push for winner-take-all in Nebraska

LINCOLN — State Sen. Mike McDonnell’s slow march toward the Nebraska Republican Party reached its destination Wednesday after years as a firefighter, union leader and sometimes kingmaker in Democratic politics.

McDonnell, a 40-year Democrat, ran for the Legislature in 2016 in South Omaha as a Catholic who openly opposes abortion. He said the Nebraska Democratic Party no longer felt like a place where he could reconcile his faith with his political affiliation.

He said that he had asked fellow Democrats to respect his “religious-based, pro-life position” and that they had instead sought in recent months to punish him. The county party withdrew its support of him and the state party’s leading committee censured him.

He pointed to the county party resolution closing off his access to local party resources as pivotal.

McDonnell has been weighing a bid for Omaha mayor and said Wednesday he might still run regardless of the Republican incumbent mayor entering the race.

Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert recently announced that she is running for a fourth term. She has said there is more for the city to accomplish, including the completion of several projects begun under her watch. She and McDonnell feuded often when he led the city’s fire union and she was on the City Council and later as mayor.

Stothert, in a statement Wednesday, welcomed McDonnell to the party.

“As a lifelong Republican, I have appreciated that the Republican Party continues to be a big tent that welcomes a wide array of views,” she said. 

Stothert faces at least one Democratic challenger and possibly more. Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing intends to announce his bid this month. And Democratic City Council President Pete Festersen has said he is considering running.

Significance of a 33rd Republican 

McDonnell’s switch, confirmed by Douglas County election officials, gives the GOP 33 members in a one-house Legislature. That’s a significant number in a 49-member body with rules that require 33 votes to overcome a filibuster. Democrats would then hold 15 seats, plus a progressive who is a registered nonpartisan.

The Legislature is officially nonpartisan and often splits along different fault lines than political party. On controversial votes, however, senators tend to vote more often along party lines.

The timing of McDonnell’s switch could matter. Gov. Jim Pillen on Tuesday joined former President Donald Trump and his supporters in calling for Nebraska to award all its presidential electoral votes to the statewide winner of the popular vote.

Currently, Nebraska and Maine award a single Electoral College vote to the winners of the presidential popular vote in each of the state’s congressional districts. Trump won four of Nebraska’s five votes in 2020. Biden won one vote, in the Omaha-based 2nd District.

McDonnell was asked whether he would support cloture, a procedure to end debate, on any bill that contains language that would switch Nebraska to a winner-take-all approach in presidential elections, including if it gets folded into legislation he supports.

“No, next question,” he said. 

Asked to elaborate, he said, “I’m not supporting winner-take-all. I haven’t in the past when that question came up. Years ago, I was pretty clear on my position.”

Local Republicans have for years sought to switch the state to a winner-take-all approach that would benefit the GOP. State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City carried this year’s proposal but did not label it as one of his priority bills.

On Wednesday, Speaker John Arch said Lippincott’s proposal, Legislative Bill 764, was likely out of time this year, because it was not prioritized and is still in committee. He must schedule any new measures to the floor this week. Arch also acknowledged the possibility the Legislature could attach the measure to another bill.

Paths forward for winner-take-all approach

Early Wednesday, Lippincott said he likely lacked the five votes to get LB 764 out of the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee as a stand-alone bill.

The committee chair, State Sen. Tom Brewer, briefly scheduled an executive session of the committee to vote Thursday on whether LB 764 would advance to the floor. He canceled the planned vote after a series of unfriendly amendments were added to that bill and to other potential vehicles for the change.

Lippincott also confirmed the Examiner’s separate 31-vote count of support of overcoming a likely filibuster if the proposal is pursued by attaching it to other legislation. That’s two votes short of the 33 needed. 

Others put the number of supporters lower.

“The mechanics exist and are generally possible,” Lippincott told the Examiner. “But it is highly improbable.” 

Other potential options might also be limited by unfriendly amendments that were filed Wednesday, including the possibility of adding the proposal to Brewer’s broader election cleanup bill, LB 287. 

Nebraska effort to revive winner-take-all might be lost for 2024 presidential race

State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar forced discussion Wednesday on winner-take-all by filing an amendment to LB 1300, an unrelated bill by State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln. It fell to a procedural vote, 36-9.

“The people deserve to know where we stand on this,” she said.

Lippincott said after the vote that he plans to amend his bill into LB 541 on Thursday, a bill on elections involving public power boards.

Democrats have pledged to filibuster winner-take-all amendments. Some opponents pledged a ballot initiative if it passed.

‘Mike has found his way home’

Pillen was among a noteworthy list of Nebraska Republicans who attended the noon-hour press conference announcing McDonnell’s party switch in the Capitol Rotunda. Others included Attorney General Mike Hilgers, State Auditor Mike Foley and dozens of senators.

“Things change over decades of time, and Mike has found his way home to becoming a registered Republican,” Pillen said. “We have to grow the Republican Party and bring numerous, numerous Nebraskans to the party who might not realize who they are.”

In a letter explaining his party switch, McDonnell recounted that he had tried to serve as a delegate for the Douglas County Democratic Party and was rebuffed. He said some party leaders made plain that he had no real home in the Democratic Party.

“Being a Christian, a member of the Roman Catholic Church and pro-life is more important to me than being a registered Democrat,” he wrote. “Today I am changing my party affiliation to Republican.”

Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said the decision to censure McDonnell was never about his being “a pro-life Catholic.” She echoed her statement from last month when she said it was about reaffirming the party’s core values.

“The Nebraska Democratic Party will continue to stand up for reproductive freedom and the human rights of the LGBTQ community,” Kleeb said. 

McDonnell provided the critical 33rd vote in 2023 that helped abortion opponents pass a ban set at 12 weeks gestational age. The same law sharply curbed health care options for transgender minors, including hormone treatments and transition surgeries.

State Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston, a Republican who worked with McDonnell on a stricter abortion ban, said she appreciated that McDonnell kept his word on his support for her bills, even when he paid a price. 

State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, also a Republican, said McDonnell means what he says and stands by it.

Pillen said he hopes McDonnell and the other 32 Republicans in the Legislature might come around to the idea of winner-take-all being Nebraska’s next approach to presidential politics.

“We ought to be able to get along, and the vast majority of Nebraskans support that we ought to be able to get that across the finish line…,” he said. “It would sure seem to me that that’ll be a bill that would get to my desk and I can sign.”

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who as governor got within one vote of getting winner-take-all past a legislative filibuster, said he expected a filibuster-proof Republican majority in the Legislature to be able to make the change this year.

“This timing heading into a presidential election is an awesome opportunity to mobilize our Republican majority to a winner-take-all system and put one more electoral vote in the Republican column for 2024!” Ricketts said.

Nebraska GOP chairman Eric Underwood applauded McDonnell’s move and said the GOP was pleased to see Pillen and other Republicans pick up the party’s effort to pass winner-take-all.

“The time is now to act and the Senators are hearing from their constituents, requesting their support of Senator Lippincott’s’ LB764,” Underwood said in a statement.

Pressure, party shifts and personal responses

In a joint interview with fellow former Democrat Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, McDonnell said he had not changed. He and Kleine said it’s the Democratic Party that has changed, moving away from working people to meet the interests of progressives.

He and Kleine said that they were better off as Republicans and that they felt welcome. 

“It was a difficult decision, but having people like Don to talk to and other people, family, friends, neighbors … going through that process over the last year, I felt I made the right decision,” McDonnell said.

McDonnell could be trading Democratic Party anger over the abortion issue for Republican Party anger over his opposition to Trump’s push for winner-take-all. 

“If you’re pleasing everyone, you’re lying to someone,” McDonnell said. “I’m never going to please everyone. But I’ll listen. We’ll have those discussions and try to find compromise, but you’re not always going to agree on everything.”