Bacon, Vargas locked in tight Nebraska congressional race

Republican Rep. Don Bacon is again in a tight race to hold on to the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District

Republican Rep. Don Bacon is again in a tight race to try to hold onto the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, which is typically Nebraska's only competitive U.S. House district and is one the GOP has tried to tighten its hold on through redistricting.

In Tuesday's election, Bacon will face Democrat Tony Vargas, a state lawmaker from Omaha who has touted his experience as a former teacher and member of the Omaha Public Schools Board.

Bacon won the seat by defeating an incumbent Democrat in 2016, and he had to work hard to be reelected twice, both times besting Democrat Kara Eastman. Bacon is a retired Air Force brigadier general who has a conservative voting record but has been criticized by former President Donald Trump because he backed an infrastructure bill supported by Democrats.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named the district as one of its top competitive House districts that are either open or held by Republicans. In an indication of how close the race is, Bacon has largely dropped the folksy campaign ads he previously favored that tended to play on his name — with quips about “bringing home the Bacon,” and “who doesn’t love Bacon?” — and instead turned to ads that called Vargas “Taxing Tony.”

Republicans have twice redrawn district boundaries in an attempt to help their party’s candidates, in part because of embarrassment that under Nebraska’s unusual Electoral College rules, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won a 2nd District vote in 2008 and Democrat Joe Biden did the same in 2020.

Maine is the only other state that allows its electoral votes to be split between candidates.

In 2011, Republicans successfully redrew the district’s lines to cleave off suburban Bellevue and include more of the conservative suburbs in Sarpy County. GOP lawmakers tried a similar move in 2021, but facing Democratic opposition, they managed to make the district only slightly more conservative, as Biden still would have won with the redrawn boundaries.

Republicans were expected to have less trouble keeping control of Nebraska’s two other congressional districts.

In the 1st District, which includes Lincoln and all or part of a dozen counties in eastern Nebraska, Republican Rep. Mike Flood was favored against Democratic challenger Patty Pansing Brooks. The race was a rematch of the special election earlier this year between the two, in which Flood was elected to replace former Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, who resigned after being convicted of campaign finance violations.

In the largely rural 3rd District, which comprises about three-fourths of the state, eight-term Republican Rep. Adrian Smith was expected to handily overcome a challenge from Democrat David Else.

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