NASHVILLE - Ex-U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson has been tapped as a leader to a non-partisan campaign to elect the president by popular vote.

Thompson, briefly a presidential candidate in 2008, was named national co-champion of the National Popular Vote campaign at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

Thompson told The Tennessean that the country cannot "run the risk of having a president who is handicapped by not having won the most popular votes."

Proponents of the idea say the current system, in which the winner of a state earns all the electoral votes, means that a few states decide who is president and other states, including Tennessee, are ignored.

Joining Thompson on Thursday as co-champions were ex-Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, and former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar of Illinois.