ELECTORAL COLLEGE
Riding the Mini-Mart Electoral Vortex
The Omaha Blue Dot, the Universe, and 45th & L Street
This series chronicles the clash for Nebraska’s ‘Blue Dot’ in the lead-up to the 2024 Presidential Election. Click here to begin the series. For the previous installment, click here.
The aftermath: the vortex battle for “winner-take-all”
On September 23rd, 2024, a Republican politician in Nebraska named Mike McDonnell took a stand. For six months, Donald Trump, barking orders from his golf cart on a Mar-a-Lago fairway, marshaled his MAGA forces in attempting to force Mike, who usually gassed up at an Omaha mini-mart, to support “winner-take-all” electoral voting. The Mar-a-Lago vortex barreled head-on into the mini-mart vortex, and the “smart” money was on Mar-a-Lago.
But despite intense pressure from outside and within Nebraska, Mike did what he believed was right and what he thought his constituents wanted him to do. His position: “Now, six weeks before a presidential election, is not the time to change how Nebraska allocates its five electoral votes.”
Mike’s resistance meant that the Omaha, Nebraska “Blue Dot” would remain open for business on November 5th, and it continues to poll blue. The GOP…
