By Ask Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs what voters wanted from Democrats in last week’s election, and she’ll tell you they wanted help paying their bills. Ask the incoming Democratic leader of the Arizona Senate what her caucus plans to take up, and the answer includes a proposal to give all 11 of Arizona’s electoral votes to a presidential candidate who could lose Arizona.
Democrats won full control of six state governments in the midterms. Within days, Wisconsin’s governor-elect was talking about doing away with the Electoral College, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was pledging to work with lawmakers on a national popular vote, and organizers said they had already lined up legislative sponsors, according The Independent.
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact commits each state that joins to award its electoral votes to whoever wins the most votes nationwide. It takes effect once its members control the 270 votes needed to win the White House. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have signed on, putting the count at 222. Minnesota is already in. Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin would bring the total to 266. Either Arizona or Nevada could put it over the top.
That’s a constitutional amendment in everything but name. Article V requires 38 states to ratify an amendment. The compact would let a much smaller group keep the Electoral College on paper while changing what decides the presidency for all 50 states. Democrats would also be betting that the Supreme Court will let them do it without congressional approval.
Even Akhil Amar, who helped develop the idea with his brother Vikram, sees a problem with putting it into practice. States run elections under different rules. Amar told MS NOW that a national vote would need uniform rules to treat voters equally. Then he raised a question Democrats might want to consider before 2028. Would they want Donald Trump, or any other sitting president, in charge of that system?
Even the minds behind the NPV Interstate Compact are already questioning whether it’s a good idea. Listen to @Akhil_Reed_Amar speak about the compact’s flaws:
“In my vision, I wanted it to be a bipartisan reform…As voted on by the various states so far, we haven’t gotten a lot… pic.twitter.com/gyLTWnVtr9
— Honest Elections Project (@honestelections) November 10, 2026
It’s easy to see the appeal for Democrats. In 2000, Al Gore won more votes nationwide than George W. Bush. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won more than Donald Trump. Democrats lost the White House both times. The compact offers the party a way to prevent a third such loss without having to persuade another Republican-leaning state to vote for its nominee. It also offers a more immediate question for Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, himself a potential 2028 contender. If Pennsylvanians vote against him for president but he wins nationally, should he still get all 19 of their electoral votes?
Shapiro’s interest fits an argument Kamala Harris made in May, when she urged Democrats to consider changing the Electoral College and expanding the Supreme Court. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin has endorsed taking the Court from nine justices to 13. Four new appointments under a Democratic president could turn a 6–3 conservative majority into a 7–6 liberal one without a single sitting justice retiring. www.newconservativepost.com
Liberals have found plenty worth preserving in Washington, too. Consider who benefited from the foreign aid system they rallied to defend. Beginning in 2014, the State Department and USAID awarded more than $27 million in grants to organizations affiliated with Tides, a major funder of progressive activism. The grants supported humanitarian and civil society programs, and some continued through Trump’s first term. A Republican could win the presidency and those organizations could still collect federal grants. The Electoral College has delivered Democrats fewer comforts.
The idea is simply not an actual “reform” as much as it is a tactic to steal presidential elections.
The National Popular Vote Compact is a proposal by which states pinky-swear to each other that they’ll give their electoral college votes to the winner of the combined national popular vote.
It raises enormous practical and constitutional questions that transcend party politics.… https://t.co/RuKsMnp0j7
— Max 📟 (@MaxNordau) November 4, 2026
Wisconsin Gov.-elect David Crowley was blunt about what he wants to do with the Electoral College. “We can do away with it,” he said. The compact gives Democrats a chance to do just that without having to persuade 38 states to amend the Constitution.
Democrats won these statehouses promising to bring down the cost of living. Now some of them want to use those majorities to rewrite the rules that cost Al Gore and Hillary Clinton the White House. Arizona voters heard plenty about what Democrats would do to help them pay their bills. They heard considerably less about why a candidate they reject in 2028 should get all 11 of their electoral votes.
