House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) has begun mobilizing Democrat support for the possibility that the House will be the body that picks the next president.
If neither President Trump nor Joe Biden wins an outright Electoral College victory on Election Night, the result could be the House deciding who wins the election.
Under that scenario, every state delegation gets a single vote, with each vote determined by an internal vote within that state’s delegation. Currently, Republicans are the majority in 26 state delegations and Democrats 22 (Pennsylvania and Michigan are tied).
Therefore, it is entirely possible that the presidency will be decided by the party that controls more state delegations, not the one that holds the majority in the body.
Pelosi, as if conceding defeat in the general election and gearing up for a showdown in Congress, urged Democrats in a letter last week to consider House races when deciding on where to focus energy and resources.
“The Constitution says that a candidate must receive a majority of the state delegations to win,” Pelosi wrote. “We must achieve that majority of delegations or keep the Republicans from doing so.”
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