WASHINGTON — During a fundraiser on Tuesday, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz expressed his support for eliminating the Electoral College, prompting his campaign to clarify that this isn’t an official stance.

Walz, who has served two terms as the governor of Minnesota, raised the topic of the Electoral College— which has been the system for electing presidents since the U.S. was established— while addressing a gathering of supporters at a Kamala Harris fundraising event hosted by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

“I think we all understand, the Electoral College has to be abolished. We need to go for a national popular vote,” Walz mentioned, receiving applause from attendees. “But that’s not the reality we’re living in.”

“Therefore, we need to win in places like Beaver County, Pennsylvania. We have to secure victories in York, Pennsylvania, and western Wisconsin. We also must win in Reno, Nevada. Your support today is crucial in making this happen,” Walz added.

A Harris campaign official informed YSL News that abolishing the Electoral College does not represent an official position of their campaign.

The Electoral College awards electors based on each state’s congressional representation and has favored Republicans in recent elections, largely due to its structure which benefits smaller, rural states.

Since 1992, Democrats have won seven of the last eight nationwide popular votes in presidential elections. However, they lost the Electoral College twice, with Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Al Gore in 2000 winning the popular vote but not the presidency.

Current polls show Harris leading former President Donald Trump nationally for next month’s election, but the race for the 270 electoral votes is extremely close, likely to be decided in seven key battleground states.

“Governor Walz believes that every vote counts in the Electoral College, and he is honored to travel to battleground states to gain support for the Harris-Walz ticket,” stated a spokesperson for the Harris campaign. “He was sharing insights with a group of dedicated supporters about the campaign’s strategy to secure 270 electoral votes while expressing gratitude for their support that facilitates these efforts.”

The Trump campaign reacted sharply to Walz’s comments. “Is Tampon Tim trying to lay the groundwork to claim that President Trump’s victory is illegitimate?” asked Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt on social media. The moniker “Tampon Tim” is associated with a policy Walz supported in Minnesota, which provided menstrual products to students in grades four to twelve in public schools.

Since being selected as Harris’ running mate in August, Walz has faced criticism for various past comments and mistakes. During his recent debate with Republican nominee JD Vance, he referred to himself as “a knucklehead” when questioned about inconsistencies regarding his travel dates to China amid the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

Proponents of the Electoral College argue that it ensures candidates engage with voters in all regions, rather than focusing solely on densely populated urban areas under a popular vote system. Conversely, opponents argue that it reduces elections to a few competitive states, rendering voters in more politically homogenous areas irrelevant.

A constitutional amendment could be one way to eliminate the Electoral College, but that would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states—an extremely difficult task.

Another option is the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, established in the mid-2000s. This agreement mandates that participating states allocate their electoral votes to the candidate who wins the national popular vote. This compact will only be effective once enough states sign on to total 270 electoral votes.

In 2023, the Democrat-controlled Minnesota legislature passed a law joining the compact, increasing the total to 205 electoral votes. Walz signed this legislation while serving as governor.