Harris campaign distances itself from Tim Walz's call to eliminate electoral college

The Kamala Harris campaign and Tim Walz himself tried to distanced themselves from comments made by the vice presidential candidate, who, less than a month before the presidential election, asserted that the electoral college should be eliminated. Walz made the comments at a fundraising event he hosted in California alongside Gov. Gavin Newsom.

"I think we all know that the electoral college has to go away. We need the national popular vote, but that's not the world we live in," said the Minnesota governor, who was later criticized by Donald Trump's campaign.

After a few days of silence, the Democratic campaign came out to soften this rhetoric a little, arguing that in reality Walz is excited about the presidential ticket that he is part of and looks to get the 270 electoral votes next November 5.

"Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket," a campaign spokesman said in a statement sent to some media outlets including CNN and USA Today.

"He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes. And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts," he added.

This rhetoric about the electoral college is not new to the Democratic Party, as in the 2020 primary as many as 12 candidates said they favored eliminating the electoral college. Among them were Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Beto O'Rourke and Pete Buttigieg. As for Kamala Harris, she said she was "open" to discussion about removal.

"I mean, there's no question that the popular vote has declined in terms of making the ultimate decision on who is the president of the United States and we have to deal with that," Harris added in 2020.