Presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said she plans to be the last person elected president by the Electoral College.
"I want to get rid of it," Warren said during an Iowa campaign event on Sunday. "So here's my goal: my goal is to get elected and then to be the last American president elected by the Electoral College. I want the second term to be that I got elected by direct vote."
My goal is to get elected—but I plan to be the last American president to be elected by the Electoral College. I want my second term to be elected by direct vote. pic.twitter.com/a2Lj2a9F0F
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 2, 2019
"I just think this is how a democracy should work," Warren said. "Call me old-fashioned, but I think the person who gets the most votes should win."
A majority of the Democratic presidential candidates have expressed support for abolishing the Electoral College, including Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.). Most paths to abolition would require a constitutional amendment, although some states have tried to circumvent the Electoral College through "national popular vote" agreements pledging their votes to the candidate with the highest nationwide vote total.
The popular vote debate gained traction among Democratic voters following twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016. Clinton won the popular vote by almost three million votes, but lost the Electoral College to President Donald Trump, 304 to 227.
Trump's win marked the fifth presidential election in which the winner of the popular vote did not win the presidency. In all five instances—1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016—the popular vote was won by a member of the Democratic Party.