Walz Tries to Walk Back Call to End Electoral College

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is running for vice president on the Democrat ticket, made an apparent attempt to walk back his call to end the Electoral College on Thursday during an interview on "Good Morning America."

"Well, it's not the campaign's position, and the point that I'm trying to make is that there's folks that feel like every vote must count in every state," Walz said during the appearance.

"And I think some of the folks feel that that's not the case," he added.

GMA co-host Michael Strahan asked Walz about the internal scuffle over his comments about axing the Electoral College.

The governor told attendees at a campaign fundraiser on Tuesday night that the Electoral College "needs to go" and called for deciding presidential elections by the popular vote.

"We need a national popular vote that is something," Walz said. "But that's not the world we live in."

Later that same night, Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign put out a statement distancing itself from her running mate's remarks.

"The campaign's position is clear — that that's not their position," Walz told Strahan. "Their position and my position is to make sure that everybody understands their vote — no matter what state they're in – matters.

"I have spoken about it in the past, and she's been very clear on this, and the campaign and my position is the campaign's position," he said.

In 2004, George W. Bush was the last Republican to win the popular-vote majority.

While Democrats Al Gore and Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in 2000 and 2016, respectively, they both failed to garner the requisite number of Electoral College votes to win the White House.

"Gov. Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College, and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket," a Walz spokesperson said.

"He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes," they added. "And, he was thanking them for their support that is helping fund those efforts."

When running for president in 2019, Harris told "Jimmy Kimmel Live" that she was "open to the discussion" of abolishing the Electoral College.

"There's no question that the popular vote has been diminished in terms of making the final decision about who's the president of the United States, and we need to deal with that, so I'm open to the discussion," Harris said at the time.