"Article IV, Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government [emphasis added], and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
"Because eleven Southern states had declared secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, only twenty-five states participated in the election." — Presidential election of 1864.
That’s another plausible way to get around it, I suppose.
Some talking head on Newsmax backs you up, too. GMTA, I guess.
I would have been fine with that, since he could have feasibly done that with Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia (all GOP leges). Maybe Arizona, too. Nevada is Dem, so he would have been SOL there.