Progressive Podcast Host Says Electoral College Sidelines Red-State Voters

Jennifer Welch, host of the I've Had It podcast, said that the Electoral College leaves progressives in deep-red states feeling their votes are worthless. In 2024, Kamala Harris won more than 8 million votes in the six states Welch named and no electoral votes there. Welch added that she has long wished the system were abolished so presidential candidates would have a reason to campaign in places like Oklahoma.

Welch was responding to a voice memo from a listener in Florida who said the dedication in Welch's new book, Not Today, Fascists, had made her cry. Welch read the one-line dedication on air: "to all the blue dots in red states you're not crazy they are."

The remark was brief, and it came in reply to a listener rather than as part of a policy argument. Welch did not say she is pushing for a constitutional change. A Gallup poll found 82 percent of Democrats favor a popular vote, so she was not breaking with her own side.

Jennifer Welch on the Electoral College and Red-State Voters

Welch said the book is dedicated to "a portion of the electorate that is always overlooked it's always dismissed." She named Louisiana, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia and Tennessee.

"The way our elections are set up treat you as though your voice doesn't matter due to the electoral college and it's really frustrating," Welch said. She called it "a really frustrating existence being a progressive in a red state where your existence and your vote is just kind of you know being completely pushed aside."

Welch said that "for my entire life I've been a blue dot in a red state." Oklahoma went to Trump in 2024.

"I wish that we'd do away with the electoral college so every vote actually counted and politicians could come to Oklahoma," she said, before adding, "but you know it doesn't happen."

8.1 Million Democratic Votes, Zero Electoral Votes

The numbers back up her basic point. In the six states Welch named, Kamala Harris received a combined 8,144,705 votes in 2024, according to the Federal Election Commission's official results, which are compiled from state-certified totals. All 79 of those states' electoral votes went to Donald Trump under winner-take-all rules.

Texas made up most of that total. Harris won 4,835,250 votes there, more than she received in Georgia, Michigan or North Carolina. In Oklahoma, she got 499,599 votes, or about 32 percent of the ballots cast.

Campaigns concentrated their attention elsewhere. National Popular Vote, a group that backs electing presidents by nationwide vote, counted 262 general-election campaign events in 2024. Of those, 246, or 94 percent, were held in seven closely divided battleground states.

What Polling Shows on Abolishing the Electoral College

A majority of Americans agree with Welch, but the split is sharply partisan. A Gallup poll conducted September 3–15, 2024 found that 58 percent of U.S. adults favor amending the Constitution so the popular vote decides presidential elections, while 39 percent want to keep the Electoral College.

By party, 82 percent of Democrats favored a popular vote, compared with 32 percent of Republicans. Sixty-six percent of Republicans said they would rather keep the current system.

According to Gallup, overall support for a popular vote has held steady in most of its surveys since it first asked the question in 2000. The one exception was an even split after the 2016 election, when Trump won the Electoral College and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. Republicans and Democrats were once about equally supportive of a popular vote, but the parties split apart in the 2000s and especially after 2016, when Republican support fell to 17 percent. Republican support has recovered somewhat since then, reaching 32 percent in 2024, while the share of Republicans who want to keep the Electoral College has dropped from 81 percent to 66 percent.

What Happens Next

Abolishing the Electoral College would take a constitutional amendment. That requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress and ratification by three-fourths of the states. Only 32 percent of Republicans backed a popular vote in Gallup's survey.

Welch did not suggest an amendment was coming. She said of her wish to end the Electoral College, "but you know it doesn't happen."

Defenders of the Electoral College argue that it forces candidates to build support across many states and gives smaller states a voice in choosing the president. An amendment would also need approval from 38 states, including many small and Republican-leaning ones.