Dem
51
Ties
1
GOP
48
Nebraska awards its electoral votes by congressional district. NE-02, which is essentially the greater Omaha area, has gone for the Democratic presidential nominee three of the past five elections. Locally, it is known as the "blue dot." Yet a Republican, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), has won it in the past five elections. Before Bacon, a Democrat won it in 2014, but the eight times before that, a Republican won. Bacon is retiring, and Nebraskans are wondering who will win the D+3 district this year.
The candidates are activist Denise Powell (D), who co-founded a group that encourages women to run for public office, and Donald Trump-endorsed Omaha city councilman Brinker Harding (R). Each one is accusing the other one of being an extremist. Democrats are hopeful, but worried. DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene (D-WA) came to the district last week. Republicans are worried about the blue dot, too. Evidence for that includes the recent trip House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) made there to campaign for Harding. So both sides are worried.
A complication is that two new parties are trying to get on the ballot. They are the Nebraska Working People Party and the America First Party. The former could take votes away from Powell and the latter could take votes away from Harding. Nebraska does not have runoffs or ranked-choice voting. It's first past the cornstalk. The Libertarian Party is also on the ballot and has a candidate, Eric Foreman.
One issue that has come up is Bacon's tendency to oppose Trump upon occasion. The head of the Nebraska Republican Party, the appropriately named True Trumper Mary Jane Truemper, is going around assuring people that Harding is not like that and will stick with Trump on everything. Given how swingy the district is, that might not be a wise thing to advertise. Bacon tried to work with the Democrats on some issues. Anyhow, both parties are very invested in the race. (V)