WASHINGTON — The little-known work of a House Republican who worked with Democrats to change US elections and elect presidents by popular vote threatens to reverse his bid to climb the Republican ranks, The Post has learned.
House Republicans’ three-way race between Reps. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) is expected to be the only leadership vote of the contested GOP and will be decided by secret ballot about a week later the mid-term elections on November 8that Republicans are favored to win.
Emmer, who is seen as the more moderate choice, is overseeing the House Republican campaign efforts as chairman of the Republican National Congressional Committee, giving him a possible record of success to cite in his bid.
But Emmer’s opponents say his decade-long work as a traveling national spokesman for the National Popular Vote initiative calls into question his suitability for the role of rallying opposition to President Biden’s agenda.
“Emmer is supposed to be the man who helps us win the elections and he cares deeply about the party,” a Republican member of Congress who does not support Emmer told The Post on condition of anonymity. “This will cause him problems within the conference.”
Three other Republican members of Congress defended Emmer, also speaking on condition of anonymity, saying Emmer had discredited his past position in the Electoral College, which currently favors Republican presidential candidates by giving more weight to smaller states.
The National Popular Vote campaign was launched in 2006 to support efforts to reform the Electoral College by passing laws binding state electors to the candidate who wins the national popular vote.
About five years after the initiative was launched, Emmer took a job as a paid spokesperson for the group.
“I think it’s going to end up favoring the Republicans … if you believe in our message,” Emmer said in one Video interview 2011 published on the website of Pennsylvania public affairs firm Triad Strategies.
“The current system is not producing candidates and campaigns that campaign to everyone in the country. In fact, they focus on certain areas and the result is not necessarily the best policy for the country,” Emmer added at the time.
David Bossie, a close ally of former President Donald Trump and president of the advocacy group Citizens United, told The Post, “The plan to abolish the Electoral College has been a dedicated effort on the radical left for years because they want coastal elites from California and New York to decide the direction of America.”
Hans von Spakovsky, a former Republican member of the Federal Election Commission and leader of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative, said there is a reason for the Electoral College, which forces candidates to focus – to appeal to swing state voters across the country. instead of the main population centers.
“Anyone who supports the National Popular Vote plan has contempt or a basic ignorance of our federal system and the very careful structure that the framers of the Constitution put in place to ensure that the most rural and least populated states are not ignored by individuals. presidential candidate,” said von Spakovsky.
The initiative was overwhelmingly funded by Democratic donors, according to the conservative Capital Research Center’s Influence Watch, what notes a $1 million contribution in 2011 from the Jennifer and Jonathan Allan Soros Foundation. Jonathan Soros is the son of left-wing mega-donor George Soros.
It’s unclear how much Emmer was paid to be a spokesperson, or precisely how long he worked for the group. Emmer did not provide the information to The Post, but a source close to him said it was a part-time job. NPV did not respond to a request for comment.
The push to reform the Electoral College was fueled by Republican George W. Bush’s narrow 2000 victory over Democrat Al Gore, despite getting 543,000 fewer gross votes, and regained attention in 2016 , when Republican Donald Trump won in a shock upset despite Democrat Hillary Clinton winning nearly 2.9 million more popular votes.
So far, only 15 Democratic-led states and DC have passed legislation to commit presidential electors to the winner of the national popular vote.
A spokesman for Emmer said that despite his previous work, “Rep. Emmer supports the Electoral College, voted against [Democratic election overhaul bill] HR1, and has consistently opposed Democrats’ efforts to federalize congressional elections.”
“He is focused solely on winning back the House and sees the continued defection of the House as a distraction from that goal,” Emmer’s spokesman said.
It is not clear when exactly Emmer’s position on the matter changed.
“He tells me there isn’t, this after he ran [Minnesota] governor [in 2010] it was intriguing to him,” said a fellow House Republican. “My own position has always been 100 percent against it.”
The lawmaker called on whip candidates to avoid criticizing each other until after the November 8 election, saying: “let’s pass the tape and then in the days after if they want to poke at each other to others, this would be the time to do it. Not now.”
A different GOP lawmaker noted that baton elections would be by secret ballot, meaning outside advocates won’t be able to pressure Republican lawmakers the way they could for legislation.
The lawmaker said he expects Emmer to win the batting race on the first ballot, saying preliminary vote counts show him far ahead of Banks, the chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, and Ferguson, the current vice president.
A House Republican aide who doesn’t support Emmer fired off Friday night, telling The Post the lawmaker “does himself and Tom Emmer no favors by lying to the press about the vote count.” .
“It’s unusual for outside groups to be involved in a leadership race like this,” said another GOP congressman. “And by doing that, I think they’re turning people off. This is a family issue and we’re going to work it out within the family.”
“I think everyone has 12-year-old aberrant positions,” the person added. “The world has changed and I don’t think it reflects on Tom’s ability to lead.”
Former President Donald Trump, who still plays a significant role among Republican incumbents, has not influenced the race, but his son Donald Trump Jr. he tweeted October 23 that Emmer was “a pathetic coward”.
The younger Trump was reacting to the falls of a Daily Beast article which quoted an unnamed “GOP strategist” criticizing Banks for hiring Buckley Carlson, 25, to serve as spokesman. The anonymous Republican said, “At the bottom of it, [Banks] dying to please the establishment. He hires [Fox News host] Tucker Carlson’s son, a 24-year-old guy, will be his director of communications.”
Emmer reportedly tried to shift the blame to a different House office for the anonymous quote, prompting Trump Jr. write, “It was bad enough that RINO Tom Emmer had his minions attack Tucker Carlson’s 25-year-old son at the Daily Beast, but now Emmer is trying to throw another member of Congress’s staff under the bus to cover himself the ass?”
The whip position will be the third-ranking position in the GOP caucus if Republicans take back the House, behind the House speaker and the majority leader.
The current third-place Republican, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, intends to remain chair of the conference, which will become the fourth-ranking seat. Incumbent GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) is expected to be elected unopposed as majority leader in a GOP majority, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) still has no open competition for the gavel. the speaker
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