Analysis: Trump’s defensive defense of the Electoral College doesn’t make much sense
Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a campaign rally on Jan. 10, 2016, in Reno, Nev. By Philip Bump Philip Bump National correspondent focused largely on the numbers behind politics Email Bio Follow March 20 at 11:32 AM When he thought that his endorsed 2012 candidate, Mitt Romney, might hand Barack Obama a second term by losing the electoral vote but winning the popular vote, Donald Trump was livid.Romney ended up losing both, and Trump dropped the subject.
“Campaigning for the Popular Vote is much easier & different than campaigning for the Electoral College,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s like training for the 100 yard dash vs. a marathon. The brilliance of the electoral college is that you must go to many States to win. With the Popular Vote, you go to just the large States — the Cities would end up running the Country. Smaller States & the entire Midwest would end up losing all power — & we can’t let that happen.
As for the idea that “Smaller States & the entire Midwest would end up losing all power,” Trump is forgetting two things. First, that smaller states would retain the disproportionate power allocated to them in the Senate, a not-insignificant bulwark. Second, that Midwestern states also have some big cities that would be appealing to candidates: Chicago, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Des Moines.
It’s also worth remembering that we have existing popular-vote contests that cover a mix of urban and rural areas: governors’ races.
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