CNN
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Donald Trump believes he will win four electoral votes in Nebraska, but he is increasingly worried about the fifth, prompting the former president and his Republican allies to launch a final attempt to change the state’s election law just weeks before the vote.

Trump spoke briefly by phone this week with Republican lawmakers from Nebraska who were meeting with Republican Governor Jim Pillen to discuss the possibility of repealing a 30-year-old law that awards electoral votes based on congressional districts rather than the nationwide winner-takes-all principle.

Previous attempts to change the law have failed – this year and in years before – but Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina flew to Nebraska on Wednesday to speak with lawmakers in hopes of supporting Trump’s argument. The former president attended the meeting briefly, a GOP official told CNN, hoping to rally support and impress upon them the importance of a single electoral vote.

It’s another sign of how close the election against Vice President Kamala Harris could be, with a single electoral vote from an Omaha-area congressional district potentially decisive. Even if Harris wins the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania but fails to win other key districts, she would still need the so-called “blue dot” of Nebraska’s 2nd District to reach 270 electoral votes and capture the White House.

“I hope the people of Nebraska will understand that this could come down to one electoral vote, and I just don’t think a Harris presidency would be good for Nebraska,” Graham said. “I don’t think it would be good for America’s foreign policy interests.”

Trump won all five of Nebraska’s electoral votes in 2016, but won four in 2020, with Joe Biden winning the Omaha-area district. The Harris campaign is spending millions to win that single electoral vote again. A grassroots movement is taking place in Omaha’s front yards, putting up blue-dot signs – a hopeful symbol for Democrats in a sea of ​​Nebraska’s red.

In the call Wednesday, the GOP official told CNN that Trump was neither threatening nor overly persuasive in his brief remarks. His campaign has spent virtually no money to run in the state, a point of contention for some Republicans who believe he should try as hard as Harris to win the election rather than fight for a change in the law.

The Washington Post was the first to report on Trump’s call.

Pillen has said he is still willing to call a special session of the Nebraska legislature before the November election to change the law, but he would only do so if there was enough support. An attempt earlier this year to change the law, which applies only in Nebraska and Maine, failed.

“At this point, I have not received any concrete and public indication that 33 Senators would vote for WTA,” Pillen said in a statement last week, referring to the winner-take-all legislation. “If that changes, I will enthusiastically call a special session.”

A handful of holdouts remain, including State Senator Mike McDonnell of Omaha, who switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party earlier this year but has so far resisted calls to support an all-or-nothing voting system.

His spokesman Barry Rubin told the Nebraska Examiner on Thursday: “Senator McDonnell has heard compelling arguments from both sides. And to this day, he still opposes it.”

Democrats have announced they would block any attempt to change the law at the last minute before the November elections.

“We’re watching very closely to see if it happens or not,” said Tony Vargas, a state senator who is challenging Republican Rep. Don Bacon in the 2nd District, one of the most hotly contested seats in the country. “Theoretically, it can still change by Election Day.”

Bacon and the four other members of the state’s federal delegation, all Republicans, renewed their call this week to support a change in Nebraska’s law, writing in a letter: “It is high time that Nebraska joined 48 other states in adopting a winner-take-all approach to presidential elections.”

The Harris campaign and Nebraska Democratic officials are closely monitoring any last-minute efforts to change election law. When the issue came up for a vote during the regular session of the House earlier this year, the measure fell 17 votes short of passing.

Jane Kleeb, chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said those 17 votes were “very solid.”

“Both Trump and Harris have the ability to compete for Nebraskans’ votes,” Kleeb told CNN. “We Democrats take our responsibility seriously and spend our time knocking on doors, calling voters and putting up campaign signs instead of wasting our time intimidating elected officials, which is all Republicans seem to do these days.”

Trump benefited from the system in Maine, a Democratic-majority state, where he won a single electoral college vote in both 2016 and 2020 despite statewide defeats. Party officials say Democrats are less optimistic about winning Maine than they would be if they won one of Nebraska’s electoral votes.

Maine is running out of time to change its law, state officials said, requiring 90 days for a law to take effect. That has brought even more attention to Trump’s efforts to change the system in Nebraska.

Democrats dominate ad spending in the key Omaha media market. Since Harris rose to the top of the Democratic ticket in July, her campaign has spent about $4.4 million, according to a CNN analysis of AdImpact data, while some allied outside groups have spent just over $1 million more.

The Democrats are likely to have a big advertising advantage going forward. According to AdImpact data, the party has booked about $6 million in Nebraska for future elections, and more than $1 million worth of airtime is booked each week for the final month of the campaign.

According to AdImpact data, Republicans have invested very little in the state; about $103,000 came from the Trump campaign.

CNN’s Alayna Treene, David Wright and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.