This Ex-Firefighter Defied Trump. It May Cost Him the Presidency

Nebraska State Sen. Michael McDonnell was a firefighter for 24 years and proved his mettle by striding into burning buildings long before he ran for office.

Even so, political courage is so rare these days that it came as a surprise to many people when 58-year-old McDonnell resisted pressure by Republicans—including vice presidential candidate JD Vance—to support a last-minute change in how his state allocates its five electoral votes that would potentially give Donald Trump a decisive edge in the upcoming election.

The measure would have all but assured Trump one more electoral vote in a contest close enough that it could determine who goes to the White House. And the vote on the bill itself promised to be so close that it was doomed when McDonnell announced his decision on Monday.

“After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change,” McDonnell’s statement read.

McDonnell offered a guiding principle.

“Elections should be an opportunity for all voters to be heard, no matter who they are, where they live, or what party they support,” he said.

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That expression of equanimity echoed something McDonnell said as chief of the Omaha Fire Department (OFD) at a 2013 graduation for 47 new firefighters. He noted that the OFD had responded to 43,000 calls for help in Omaha that year and added, “Firefighters responded without knowing who it was, where they lived, if they were affluent or less affluent, what color their skin was, what religion they practiced, if they were a Democrat or Republican or independent. They responded because they wanted to help; they wanted to make a difference.”

McDonnell reported that the graduates included Dan Goessling, whose brothers Josh and Nathan were also firefighters. They joined the OFD even though their father, Capt. John Goessling, had been killed when a roof collapsed during a four-alarm arson blaze at a Family Dollar store in 1996.

“Knowing the pain of the ultimate sacrifice, why not not do something else?” McDonnell asked. “I could not be more proud of all three of John Patrick Goessling’s sons for saying, ‘We understand. We know what it feels like, but we still want to serve.’”

McDonnell’s own desire to serve continued after his retirement and led to his successful run as a Democrat for state Senate in 2016.

A portent of a future conflict had come during the graduation ceremony three years before when he blessed himself at the end of a chaplain’s invocation.

He was a conservative-enough Catholic that he became the sole Democrat to vote for a near-total abortion ban that ultimately failed. He also was the lone member of his party to support prohibiting transgender surgery and drugs for minors, which ended up passing.

This past March, the Nebraska Democratic Party censured McDonnell, saying he “adversely affected the reproductive rights of Nebraskans and the rights of transgender individuals in the state.”

In April, McDonnell responded at a press conference.

“Today, I am announcing I am now going to be a registered Republican in the state of Nebraska,” he declared.

He made clear that it was “not an easy decision.” He had been 10 when his grandfather taught him the three hallmarks of the McDonnells: “We’re Irish. We’re Catholic. And we’re Democrats.”

McDonnel then found himself as a Republican in the MAGA era—and by extension, he was expected to go along when Team Trump pressed for a change in the state law regarding the allocation of Nebraska’s five electoral votes.

Under current Nebraska law, two electoral votes go to whoever wins the state as a whole. The others go to the winner in each of the state’s three congressional districts. Two of them are deep red and all but sure to go to Trump. The third, McDonnell’s home district in and around Omaha, came to be called ”the blue dot” when it went for Barack Obama in 2008. Trump won it, along with the other two districts in 2016, but it reemerged as a blue dot for Biden. And it might well go for Harris in November.

The blue dot would have vanished into a sea of red if McDonnell had succumbed to the will of the GOP and supported the winner-take-all allocation.

As the country tuned in for the outcome, McDonnell’s firefighter background seemed no guarantee that he would buck Team Trump’s wishes. Many firefighters are possessed by the grace of selflessness only when an alarm comes in.

A disappointing number support a man who lied about what he did and how many friends he lost on 9/11. Trump did not attend an anniversary observance of the attack until this year when he needed votes. And he brought along the right-wing provocateur Laura Loomer, who once called the terrorist murder of 2,996 people, including 343 members of the FDNY, “an inside job.” Firefighters nonetheless invited Trump to a firehouse across town after the ceremony.

Given that, McDonnell might have been expected to back the effort to guarantee Trump an added electoral college vote.

He did not.

He was rewarded for his efforts with quick recognition from Trump, who called him out by name in a post on the former president’s Truth Social platform.

“I would like to thank Governor Jim Pillen of Nebraska for trying to help the Republican Party simplify the complexity of the State’s Electoral Map. It would have been better, and far less expensive, for everyone! Unfortunately, a Democrat turned Republican(?) State Senator named Mike McDonnell decided, for no reason whatsoever, to get in the way of a great Republican, common sense, victory,” he wrote. “Just another ‘Grandstander!’”

McDonnell would be a hero for sticking by his principles if his principles had not also led him to oppose the reproductive rights of women and gender-affirming health care for trans teens.

But there is no denying that he acted with courage, the kind that firefighters routinely demonstrate when there is a call for help—and the kind politicians seldom show anytime, anywhere.