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This is from a news article :

Cooper has called out four GOP legislators — three House members and one senator — whom he said told voters last year that they would protect abortion access.

I think the relative pronoun 'whom' should be changed to 'who' here because it is the subject of the verb 'told'.

Am I wrong?

MarcInManhattan
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    Yes, it should be subjective "who" because it is subject of the bracketed embedded "told" clause: "Cooper has called out four GOP legislators — three House members and one senator — whom he said [ ___ told voters last year that they would protect abortion access]". The gap notation '___' indicates the subject position in the embedded clause. – BillJ May 15 '23 at 07:18
  • @BillJ Thank you very much. –  May 15 '23 at 07:47

1 Answers1

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"Who" is correct. How can you tell? Simplify the statement by removing the descriptive material: Cooper called out four legislators who told voters.... You wouldn't say "whom" here, so you wouldn't say it in the original, more elaborate sentence, either.

Charles B. Cameron
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