Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the end of the Electoral College in favor of a national popular vote during a campaign fundraiser in California on Tuesday, but acknowledged that its dissolution was unlikely to ever actually come about, according to a pool report.
“I think all of us know the Electoral College needs to go,” Walz told supporters gathered at California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s private residence in Sacramento. “We need a national popular vote, but that’s not the world we live in.”
So, he continued, “We need to win Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We need to be able to go into York, Pennsylvania—win. We need to be in western Wisconsin and win. We need to be in Reno, Nevada, and win.”
He’d made similar comments at a different fundraiser earlier that day, telling an audience in Seattle that he was “a national popular vote guy,” according to pool reports. Like in California, he ceded to the reality of the situation, adding “that’s not the world we live in.”
A Harris-Walz spokesperson clarified to Politico that Walz’s remarks did not represent an official stance taken by the campaign.