The ONME Network · Julia Ann Dudley Najieb

CPN: Learn more about the Electoral College process and a review of the top 20 fundraisers among the 2024 presidential candidates

December 19, 2023·22 min·1 clip

The video explains why candidates focus on swing states and the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

1. ONME Network host Julia Dudley Najib presents a 'California Politics Now' segment on December 18, 2023, focused on the 2024 presidential election cycle and California's March 5 primary. 2. Najib is the sole host; the episode incorporates an embedded explainer video (approximately 4.5 minutes) on the Electoral College from an unspecified educational source. 3. The episode's primary goal is civic education: explaining what the Electoral College is to viewers who may be unfamiliar, before the March 5, 2024 California primary. 4. The Electoral College is defined as the process by which the United States elects the president; the term does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. 5. California has 54 electoral votes in 2024 (reduced from 55 after the 2020 census), based on its two U.S. senators and 52 House representatives. 6. Electors are chosen in a two-part process: political parties select slates of potential electors before the general election, then voters determine which party's slate is activated by casting their general election ballots. 7. The U.S. Constitution bars senators, representatives, and federal officeholders from serving as electors; the 14th Amendment bars those who participated in insurrection — Najib notes this may be relevant to January 6, 2021 participants. 8. Of 538 total electoral votes, 435 come from House representatives, 100 from senators, and 3 from the District of Columbia; a candidate needs 270 to win. 9. The counterintuitive mathematical implication of winner-take-all: a candidate could win the presidency without a single vote from 39 states, by winning only California, New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia. 10. States with consistent partisan patterns are 'safe states'; swing states in the most recent cycles cited include Ohio, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Wisconsin — with Vito's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics predicting the 2024 race could come down to 43 electoral votes across Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Nevada. 11. The 2000 election is cited as an example of the popular vote winner (Al Gore) losing the presidency by failing to reach 270 electoral votes. 12. Maine (since 1972) and Nebraska (since 1972) use the congressional district method: two electoral votes go to the statewide popular vote winner, and one per congressional district; the first split occurred in 2008 when Barack Obama won Nebraska's second district (Omaha). 13. Maine's first split occurred in 2016 when Donald Trump won Maine's second congressional district; the state had not voted Republican overall since 1988. 14. Najib cautions that the embedded video's electoral map is slightly dated — it still shows California with 55 electoral votes rather than the 2024 figure of 54. 15. The top 20 presidential fundraising totals from January 2021 through late 2023: Trump (Republican, $60M+), Biden (Democrat, $56M+), DeSantis (Republican, $31M+), Ramaswamy (Republican, $26M+), Haley (Republican, $18M+). 16. Rankings 6-10: Doug Burgum (Republican, $15M+), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent, $15M, noted as significant for an Independent), Perry Johnson (Republican, $14.5M), Ryan Binkley (Republican, $7M+), Chris Christie (Republican, $5M). 17. Rankings 11-20 include Mike Pence ($4.5M), Marianne Williamson (Democrat, $2.6M), William Hurd ($1.3M), Larry Elder ($1.4M), Francis X. Suarez ($1.4M), Roland Roberts ($1.2M), Asa Hutchinson ($1.2M), Alan Der Pulliam (Independent, $1M+), Jim Alexander Norris ($780,000), and Cornel West (Independent, $321,000). 18. Najib notes that in the 2020 cycle, Trump raised approximately $1.96 billion to Biden's $1.69 billion yet lost the election, using this to argue that fundraising totals are one indicator, not determinative. 19. The episode's tone is civic-educational — Najib explicitly invites questions, acknowledges her own need to research Electoral College details, and positions the content as voter preparation ahead of the March primary. 20. This episode suits voters unfamiliar with the Electoral College mechanics and anyone tracking early 2024 presidential race fundraising dynamics; those already familiar with these topics will find limited new information.

As heard by us

A plainspoken civics refresher that makes the Electoral College legible.

The piece lays out the Electoral College in plain civic terms: 538 electors, 270 needed to win, and the way census-based population counts shape each state's weight.

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Get the Electoral College basics in plain English.

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