Trump's allies are making another push to change Nebraska's election law…

A key Donald Trump ally is pressuring Republicans in Nebraska to award all of their state's Electoral College votes to the statewide winner, a late rule change that could potentially help Trump return to the White House.

Nebraska and Maine are the only states that apportion their electoral votes by congressional districts, and both did so in the last presidential election. In Nebraska, which is firmly in Republican hands, this means that one of the state's five votes is contested for Democrats.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., recently met with Republican lawmakers in the state to encourage them to pass a change that has the support of the state's all-Republican congressional delegation and Republican Gov. Jim Pillen. The change was discussed earlier this year, but lacked the votes to pass it. Now, with Trump in an extremely close race against Democrat Kamala Harris where every electoral vote counts, his allies are making another push.

“For my friends in Nebraska, this one vote could make the difference between whether Harris becomes president or not, and it is a disaster for Nebraska and the world,” Graham said Sunday on NBC's “Meet the Press.”

Trump's allies have been urging Republicans in Nebraska to change their position for months, despite lacking support in the state legislature. But now, with the election less than 50 days away and Trump and Harris neck and neck in several battleground states, their push is more urgent than ever.

There is a plausible scenario in which the election will ultimately be decided by voters in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, a swing district in the Omaha area.

If Harris wins the three so-called “Blue Wall” battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania this year, but Trump wins the four “Sun Belt” battlegrounds of North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, the Electoral College result would be 269 to 268 in Harris' favor.

Nebraska's 2nd District, which went for President Joe Biden four years ago, could give Harris the crucial 270th electoral vote. If Trump wins, the election would end in a 269-269 tie. In that scenario, the president would be chosen by the House of Representatives, with each state's delegation receiving just one vote – a scenario that favors the former president.

The five Republicans who represent Nebraska in Congress urged their colleagues in the state to change the law in a letter Wednesday, arguing that “the state should speak with a unified voice in presidential elections.”

Any change to the law would require Gov. Pillen to call lawmakers into a special session. In a statement, he said he would do so “with enthusiasm” if he received a “clear and public signal” that 33 votes were in favor, the minimum majority needed for passage in Nebraska's single legislative chamber.

Democrats in Nebraska have begun to voice their support for splitting the electoral votes in their state, putting up campaign signs with a blue dot on a white background, symbolizing their potential role of the Omaha metropolitan area as an island of blue surrounded by Republican red in the rest of Nebraska.

Republicans currently control 33 seats in the House, but they are not unified in their support. One of those Republicans, Senator Mike McDonnell, recently switched parties but still represents a district that includes Democrats who oppose changing the Electoral College.

A spokesman for McDonnell told KETV in Omaha on Thursday that the senator had “heard compelling arguments from both sides and remains committed to his 'no' vote to this day.”

This system has long puzzled Republicans. Since Barack Obama became the first presidential candidate to claim one of the state's five electoral votes in 2008, they have failed to force the state into a winner-takes-all system. Biden was the only other Democrat to win the electoral votes in Nebraska's 2nd District in 2020.

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This story has been updated to correct the spelling of a state senator's name as Mike McDonnell, not McDonald.