Last Updated on October 21, 2023
Tom Emmer (R-MN), the latest member of Congress to be backed by Kevin McCarthy and the GOP establishment in their search for a new Speaker of the House, is a fierce opponent of the Electoral College system that was installed by America’s founders and has prevented the likes of New York and California from picking the nation’s president.
Kevin McCarthy’s Majority Whip, Tom Emmer, is the GOP establishment’s next man up after efforts to elect Majority Leader Steve Scalise as Speaker of the House failed, prior to establishment members moving to block Jim Jordan’s candidacy and attempting to hand broad powers over to unelected interim speaker Patrick McHenry.
Emmer is a longtime supporter of the “National Popular Vote” scheme that was widely embraced by the left after President Trump’s 2016 Electoral College victory.
Under the scheme, which has been signed into law in a handful of blue states, electoral votes are not given to the winning candidate of an individual state but are assigned to the national popular vote winner.
The program not only surrenders a state’s sovereignty by handing control over its votes to residents of other states but gives national electoral control to highly populated areas like New York and California, which just so happen to be some of the most left-wing regions of the United States.
According to a webpage devoted to promoting the popular vote legislation, the bills “will take effect when enacted into law by states possessing [a combined] 270 electoral votes.”
Watch Tom Emmer promote the destruction of the Electoral College in the video footage below:
Here is another video of Tom Emmer, Kevin McCarthy's endorsed candidate for Speaker, furiously defending ditching the Electoral College in favor of a National Popular Vote.
This is not a position a Constitutional Conservative can take.
Tom Emmer must NEVER be allowed to become… pic.twitter.com/xkQgOPUwvU
— Joey Mannarino (@JoeyMannarinoUS) October 20, 2023
Though Emmer has received the backing of deposed ex-speaker Kevin McCarthy, House conservatives and GOP voters are lining up to oppose him.
And they aren’t the only ones.
Reportedly, President Trump told his political allies that he won’t be backing Emmer, and Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn blasted Emmer on Friday’s episode of Bannon’s War Room.
As Epshteyn noted, in addition to calling for the destruction of the Electoral College, Emmer has refused to endorse President Trump for re-election in 2024, making him “out of step” with the vast majority of GOP voters.
“If somebody is so out of step with where the Republican electorate is, where the MAGA movement is, how can they even be in the conversation?” Epshteyn asked.
To make his run for Speaker of the House official, Emmer will have to file his paperwork by noon on Sunday. He’s joined in his bid by Reps. Byron Donalds, Kevin Hern, Austin Scott, Tom Emmer, Jack Bergman, and Pete Sessions, all of whom have announced their own runs for the gavel, and the list of declared candidates is expected to grow even more.
After canceling another Jordan speakership vote by way of a secret ballot, the GOP will meet on Monday for a speakership candidates’ forum, before convening on Tuesday to take another crack at nominating and electing a new speaker.
Related: Speaker Selection Schedule Released