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There is a funny thing happening in Ohio.
As Ohio Republicans rush to get an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, they're trying to court the ahistorical wing of the GOP that shares with the former reality star an affinity for ignoring history. J.D. Vance, a former hedge funder who made him into a star among those looking for a rational explanation of Trump's power, is now leaning into the idea. The alternate history of this country had Presidents Al Gore and Hillary Clinton, both of whom won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College. They know who the winners are after the polls closed. France's presidential election that had the top two vote-getting candidates advance to a second round will be decided by a simple majority.
The group that every four years convenes to allocate presidential electors based on each state's population was created by the original Constitutional Convention, which gave the United States its byzantine and cumbersome Electoral College. Texas and California get a lion's share of electoral votes, while states with a lot of land get less. It ruins the myth that every state's election matters, but preserves the quaint notion that every vote counts, otherwise giving New York and Montana the same clout would affect the system. Where that is, in fact, is in the Senate.
The system is not perfect. No one will say it is not. It divides the states into red, blue, and purple ones. You wouldn't be able to see a Democratic presidential candidate campaigning in Mississippi or Republicans campaigning in California after the general election. The result is that the Electoral College system reduces a national campaign for President to a handful of swing states, a fact that campaign veterans don't mind because it allows them to prioritize states. No Democratic campaign manager has ever prioritized a call with an Idaho supporter over one from Ohio.
The Senate race in Ohio is messy. When Senator Rob Portman retires at the end of this term, he will be replaced by a potential rockstar, and that's why he chased the history-averse wing of his Republican Party. France and the United States both choose their leaders by popular vote. In close states like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio, a vote is more important than one in South Carolina or Oregon. It takes longer to tally our votes and the way the maps look on election night don't accurately reflect that outcome. There is a lot of red stretching from Oklahoma City to Raleigh, but all land mass isn't made equally in politics. If the number of popular votes were determined, the two most recent Republican Presidents wouldn't have been seated.
Many here in Washington thought that he was going to win the race. The author of Hillbilly Elegy was a rural Republican who could use a lot of GOP cash on narrative and pragmatism. He was once a #NeverTrumper welcomed at the well-heeled donor conference near Palm Springs, Calif., to discuss strategy with billionaires, only to admit three years later he was a flip-flopsper.
Republicans are chasing the remnants of Trump's power. The ex-president may be sent to his Florida club, but he is planning his comeback. The Republican Party still sees Trump as the leader and demands fealty to him. A lot of Republicans in this country are dismissing their own knowledge of politics and history in favor of what the former President wants to hear. It's why you have people like Vance who have ahistorical understanding of American politics while pushing rhetoric that has a distinct whiff of past populist Know Nothings. Not everyone has to understand how elections work in France, but it's not hard to know about the American system if you run for a seat in Washington.
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Send your letter to Philip Elliott at philip.elliott@time.com.
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