U.S. Sen. Angus King called for abolishing the Electoral College on Wednesday in the final debate of his race against three longshot challengers.
It was the strongest statement ever on the topic from the former two-term governor who remains an independent but has overwhelmingly voted with Democrats during his two Senate terms. Switching to a national popular vote would take a constitutional amendment or a successful interstate compact that the Democratic-led Maine Legislature joined earlier this year.
In response to a question from News Center Maine moderator Rob Caldwell, King called the method of electing the president “a gun pointed at the head of democracy,” noting that Tuesday’s election could be the third one since 2000 in which the winner gets fewer votes.
“That goes against what we learned in kindergarten: The most votes wins,” he said.
His chief opponent in the four-way race, Republican Demi Kouzounas, disagreed by saying Maine would lose influence under such a change. Democratic nominee David Costello is running on a progressive “reform agenda” that includes ditching the Electoral College, while independent Jason Cherry said he opposed such a change.
King is the second member of Maine’s congressional delegation to oppose the Electoral College after Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from the 1st District who helped come up with the interstate compact that Maine joined as president of Common Cause, a progressive group.
She cheered the Legislature’s move earlier this year, which passed the House of Representatives by just a one-vote margin, with some rural Democrats joining Republicans in opposition. Gov. Janet Mills allowed the change to take effect without her signature in April.
It has no practical effect for now. The law will only take effect if states accounting for at least 270 electors — the minimum number needed to win the presidency outright — adopt it. With Maine, the compact now has 209 votes. The legality of the compact is hotly contested, and a Congressional Research Office report predicted it being settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.
King’s nod to the 2024 election was prompted by former President Donald Trump, who won the 2016 election over Democrat Hillary Clinton despite losing the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million. He is narrowly leading national polls in Tuesday’s election with Vice President Kamala Harris and is a slight favorite to win, according to Decision Desk HQ.
National progressives like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren have embraced ending the Electoral College in recent years, but it has still been a difficult sell in smaller states like Maine that have a larger share of influences in elections relative to their population.
“King likes to brand himself as a moderate, but this is a far cry from moderation,” Jason Savage, the executive director of the Maine Republican Party, said in a statement. “Mainers deserve a leader who respects our constitutional framework and the voices of every state in this country.”
