'A Constitutional Coup by Any Other Name' by Steve

Presidents FDR, LBJ, JFK…AOC? Could happen if an extreme progressive association has its way. 

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger has signed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact into law, moving the country toward potentially sidelining the Electoral College. As of April 2026, 19 states and the District of Columbia have signed the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, representing 222 electoral votes. The compact will take effect when enacted into law by states possessing 270 electoral votes (a majority of the 538 electoral votes), and enough to win the presidency with.

The architects of American federalism designed a presidential selection system that balanced popular sovereignty against the tyranny of sheer majority rule. The Electoral College was never meant to be perfect—it was meant to be democratically accountable while preserving the role of states in the federal union. Today, that system faces its greatest constitutional threat not through the amendment process prescribed in Article V, but through a state-by-state end run known as the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC). Under Article I, Section 10, Clause 3 of the Constitution—"No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State"—this scheme is constitutionally suspect, strategically calculated, and politically dangerous.
 
The legal argument against the NPVIC rests on the very text the compact's proponents claim to honor. While the Constitution grants states plenary authority to appoint electors "in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct," this authority was never understood to permit multi-state coordination that effectively nullifies the Electoral College system as designed. Legal scholars including Professor Norman Williams of BYU Law School and Patrick Valencia of Harvard Law's Journal on Legislation have demonstrated that the NPVIC functions less like technical interstate agreements governing water rights or port facilities—which have historically operated with or without congressional consent—and more like a constitutional amendment disguised as state legislation. When multiple states bind themselves to cast their combined electoral votes for the national popular vote winner regardless of their own voters' preferences, they create a binding agreement that "enhances state political power vis-à-vis the federal government," the precise circumstance in which the Supreme Court has historically required congressional approval under *Virginia v. Tennessee* (1894). Moreover, the NPVIC effectively disenfranchises non-participating states by allowing compact members to nullify the electoral weight of holdout states through coordinated bloc voting—a federalism violation the Framers would have recognized as anathema to the constitutional design.
  Understanding the origins and financial architecture of the NPVIC reveals that this is no grassroots movement but rather a well-funded, top-down campaign by progressive donors and Democratic operatives. The organization was founded in 2006 by **John Koza**, a computer scientist and former Democratic elector who made his fortune co-inventing the scratch-off lottery ticket at Scientific Games, and **Barry Fadem**, an election law attorney who partnered with Koza in the 1980s to expand state lotteries. Their vehicle, National Popular Vote Inc., published the movement's manifesto, *Every Vote Equal*, which provides the legislative template now adopted by seventeen states and the District of Columbia.

The funding reveals concentrated wealth backing structural change. **Tom Golisano**, the Rochester-based billionaire founder of Paychex, reportedly contributed **$10 million** personally to the NPV campaign between 2011 and 2017. Golisano, who founded New York's Independence Party and ran unsuccessfully for governor, has historically supported Democratic presidential candidates including John Kerry. Additional support comes from **Project FairVote**, a 501(c)(4) organization that served as an "incubator" for the NPV concept, with longtime board members Robert Richie and the late Representative John B. Anderson contributing to its advocacy infrastructure. The organizational strategy targets Democratic-controlled state legislatures with model legislation, bypassing the constitutional amendment process that has defeated every Electoral College abolition attempt since 1813.
  The convergence of the NPVIC with the rising power of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) creates a clear pathway for transformative electoral outcomes. The DSA, which claims 78,000 to 100,000 members across chapters in all fifty states, has made Electoral College abolition a centerpiece of its political strategy. This is not coincidental—socialist candidates historically struggle in rural and working-class swing states where the Electoral College forces coalition-building. A national popular vote system would empower exactly the demographic the DSA targets: ideologically coherent, highly motivated urban voters concentrated in deep-blue states who turn out reliably in primaries and general elections.

No figure embodies this convergence more than Representative **Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez**, who has publicly called the Electoral College a "scam" and "a shadow of slavery's power," urging supporters to petition for its abolition. At 35, AOC meets the constitutional age requirement for the presidency. Under the current Electoral College system, her brand of democratic socialism—centered on Green New Deal expansion, Medicare for All, and defunding enforcement agencies—faces structural disadvantages in swing states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan where moderate working-class voters determine outcomes. But under an NPVIC system, a candidate like AOC could win the presidency with pluralities drawn from New York, California, Illinois, and other compact-member states where progressive activists dominate primary electorates. The constitutional remedy is clear: Congress must withhold consent from this compact, or the courts must enforce the Compact Clause as written. The NPVIC is not a technical interstate agreement but a coordinated assault on the electoral architecture designed to prevent exactly the kind of pure majoritarian factionalism the Framers feared. If allowed to take effect upon reaching 270 electoral votes, the compact would transform presidential elections without a single constitutional amendment, funded by billionaires, engineered by Democratic operatives, and exploited by a rising socialist movement that has openly declared its intention to capture the Democratic Party and remake American government.

The Electoral College has been the target of 700+ constitutional amendment proposals in American history. All have failed because they lacked sufficient support. That the NPVIC attempts the same outcome through unconstitutional means should tell Americans everything about its legitimacy—or lack thereof.

Editorial comments expressed in this column are the sole opinion of the writer