Incoming Wisconsin Governor David Crowley said that he wants to get rid of the Electoral College as Democrats across the country plot to fundamentally change the American electoral system.
In a recent interview, Crowley said he thought the Electoral College was an outdated way to elect a president. He said the president should be the one who gets the most votes total across the country and not the most electoral votes.
“We can do away with it,” Crowley told the Associated Press, referring to the Electoral College. “I am interested in having those conversations with the state Legislature.”
Without the Electoral College, Wisconsin’s votes would have gone for Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she lost to President Donald Trump. Trump narrowly won the Badger State, but lost the national vote thanks to massive Democrat margins in states like California and New York. Trump won the popular vote in 2024, becoming the first Republican to do so since 2004.
Crowley called his election “an opportunity for us to get with it to the times of where we are.” Democrats in Wisconsin took control of the state Assembly and Senate on Election Day for the first time since 2010.
“We understand the historic nature of the Electoral College, which pretty much diluted people’s ability or diluted peoples’ citizenship, here across the entire country. Our job is to make sure that our votes are representing those who win our state,” he added, per the Associated Press.
The Daily Wire reached out to Crowley for comment on his position on the Electoral College.
Several Wisconsin State Democrats have pushed to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact in the past, an effort to effectively nullify the Electoral College’s design by creating a coalition of states that pledge their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The total number of states that have joined sits at 222, short of the 270 needed to win the presidency.
But Democrats now have an opportunity after taking control in states like Wisconsin, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona.
Potential 2028 Democrat presidential candidate and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also recently said he was open to changing the system.
“I think that the national popular vote makes sense. My views on that have not changed,” Shapiro said. “I’ll work with lawmakers to figure out what the right mechanism is for moving forward on that.”
The push to get rid of the Electoral College has drawn criticism from Republicans who say it would dilute the influence of smaller states in favor of larger urban states that typically favor Democrats.
“Our Constitution gives states a voice in choosing the president for a reason,” Republican Rep. Tyler August, current majority leader of the Wisconsin Assembly, told the Associated Press. “This would undermine that balance and disenfranchise Wisconsin voters by letting results in other states override their choice.”
Former Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker also criticized Crowley for his comments on the Electoral College.
“Why eliminate the influence of Wisconsin in national elections?” Walker said. “Without an Electoral College, candidates will go to big population areas like Los Angeles and New York City instead of Wisconsin. How dumb is that for people in our state?”
.png)
.png)
