The candidate who receives the most votes should be President of the United States, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a town hall event in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“One thing that would make a huge difference is if we selected our president by letting the person who got the most votes actually take the office instead of the national Electoral College,” Buttigieg said during the town hall, deeming it a “really good idea” that he believes would be better for America.
“It would be a really good idea, because then any Democrat wanting to be president would have to campaign in Oklahoma, by the way, any Republican would have to campaign in Brooklyn. That would be good for our democracy,” he said.
Unfortunately for Buttigieg, President Donald Trump actually won both the Electoral College as well as the national popular vote in the 2024 presidential election. Trump far surpassed the needed 270 electoral votes, garnering 312 to former Vice President Kamala Harris’s 226. Further, Trump bested Harris in the national popular vote as well by over 2 million votes.
The Electoral College has long been under attack from Democrats despite its status as a safeguard against the “tyranny of the majority,” giving less populated states more of a proportional say and thereby preventing the country from being steered solely by the coastal elite in major metropolitan areas.
Based on the actual model, Buttigieg’s assertion — that forgoing the Electoral College would force candidates to go to flyover country — is false. In fact, it would make them even less relevant in presidential elections.
Notably, President Trump also campaigned in traditionally blue areas and states, including New York, holding a rally in Madison Square Garden during his 2024 presidential campaign. Early on in his campaign Trump announced his plan to go into blue territory.
“One of the other things I’m going to do — and I may be foolish in doing it — is I’m going to make a heavy play for New York, heavy play for New Jersey, heavy play for Virginia, heavy play for New Mexico, and a heavy play for a state that hasn’t been won in years, Minnesota,” Trump told Breitbart News at the time, previewing his plans for an aggressive expansion of the electoral map.
Buttigieg told KJRH he was happy with the turnout for the town hall, which took place in an area he believes too many leftists have written off.
“To have this capacity proud in this big space, in a place that I think too many around the country have maybe written off as so conservative that only one viewpoint, only one party, ever wins,” he remarked, hoping to invigorate the leftist base ahead of the midterms.
“These votes that are coming up are going to be critically important to your future,” he added.
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