Republican pollster Jim Hobart said in an interview that aired Tuesday on “What America’s Thinking” that political opinions on the Electoral College tend to be cyclical.
“There are no permanent rules in electoral politics,” Hobart, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on Monday.
“Right now, it looks like hey, it would be great for the Democrats if there was a national popular vote, but in a little bit, or a number of years from now, it may be that Republicans are saying ‘hey, we want to go by the national popular vote too,’ ” he continued.
“California used to be the bedrock of the Republican vote in presidential elections, it’s not that way anymore, and so there’s more value for Democrats to say ‘hey, instead of all of these electoral votes, let’s get all these popular votes from California, that’ll help me out,’ ” he said. “I’m of the opinion that these types of things are cyclical.”
A number of Democrats have called for getting rid of the Electoral College in the wake of President Trump‘s 2016 victory, in which he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton, but won the Electoral College.
Polling shows that views on the future of the Electoral College are divided heavily along partisan lines.
An NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey released last week found that 79 percent of Democrats said the popular vote should be the deciding factor in presidential elections, while 74 percent of Republicans say the Electoral College should remain.
— Julia Manchester
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