Democrats Quietly Picked Up the Statehouse Wins That Put the Electoral College On the Clock

Kamala Harris just promised to abolish the Electoral College outright.

Democrats did not wait for a constitutional amendment to get there.

Five statehouse wins just did the job for them instead.

The Interstate Compact Already Covers 222 Electoral Votes

Eighteen states and Washington, D.C. signed onto the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact years ago.

Member states agree to hand all of their electoral votes to whoever wins the national popular vote, even if that state's voters chose someone else.

The compact only switches on once member states combine for 270 electoral votes.

Until the 2026 midterms, that finish line looked a long way off.

Axios reported that Democrats won unified control of the governor's office and both legislative chambers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada in the November 2026 midterms, with Arizona positioned to join them.

Those five states combined hold 61 electoral votes.

Add that to the 222 already committed, and the compact clears 270 with room to spare, landing at 283.

Bills to join the compact have already been filed in all five of those legislatures.

If those bills pass in 2027, the compact could govern how America picks a president as soon as the 2028 election.

RedState's Teri Christoph called the scheme something that "should make every voter's blood boil," and described it as "a breathtaking betrayal of the voters."

Why Winning Your State Would Stop Mattering

Here's what the compact actually does to a single voter standing in line at the polls.

It doesn't matter who your state picks anymore.

Say Pennsylvania Republicans turn out in record numbers and carry the state outright for the Republican nominee.

Under the compact, Pennsylvania's electoral votes would still go to the Democrat if Democrats win the nationwide popular vote.

Every Republican who turned out and won gets overruled anyway, by a count taken in states they don't live in.

Lee Zeldin found a version of that same ceiling in 2022, winning forty-nine of New York's sixty-two counties and still losing the governor's race to Kathy Hochul by roughly six points.

The compact would raise that ceiling even higher, for a Republican who wins a blue state outright and not just a Republican who comes close.

The Heritage Foundation has argued for years that the scheme violates the Constitution's requirement that interstate agreements affecting federal power get Congress's approval first.

Proponents counter that the Constitution already lets state legislatures decide how electors are awarded in the first place.

Either way, the Washington Free Beacon reported that any constitutional challenge has to wait until the compact actually reaches 270 votes and a real presidential election hangs on it, because courts generally won't rule on a law before it affects anyone.

That means the five statehouse wins Democrats just picked up could decide whether this fight even reaches a courtroom before 2028.

Not one of the five states now weighing membership put the question to a statewide referendum.

Every vote happened, or will happen, inside a statehouse Democrats just won control of in a single election cycle.

Why 2007 Is Finally Catching Up to the Electoral College

This is not a plan Democrats pulled together after one bad night.

Democrats started building this compact after Al Gore and Hillary Clinton each won the popular vote and still lost the White House.

The compact has been collecting blue states one legislative session at a time since 2007, waiting for exactly the kind of statehouse sweep Democrats just got in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona.

The Electoral College is the reason presidential campaigns have to care about those five states and not just Los Angeles and New York City.

Hand the count to whichever five legislatures can get a bill to a governor's desk, and that piece of how America picks a president disappears with it, for Republicans in blue states and Democrats in red ones alike.

Sources:

• Rusty Weiss, "Democrats Just Quietly Won the Power to Sideline the Electoral College by 2028," RedState, November 6, 2026.
• National Popular Vote, "Midterm Election Results in 5 States Provide Way for National Popular Vote to Reach 270 During 2027," National Popular Vote, November 2026.
• Heritage Foundation, "Destroying the Electoral College: The Anti-Federalist National Popular Vote Scheme," Heritage Foundation, 2026.
• Washington Free Beacon, "Challenge to National Popular Vote Must Wait Until Compact Becomes Active," Washington Free Beacon, 2026.