Nebraska US House 2nd District: Race between Don Bacon and Tony Vargas is another cliffhanger

The congressional race between U.S. Rep. Don Bacon and Democratic challenger Tony Vargas again turned cliffhanger, with Vargas clinging to a narrow edge in a race that was too close to call late Tuesday night.

In incomplete returns in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, Tony Vargas was holding a lead of less than 3,000 votes, with still thousands of votes left to be counted. In 2022, Bacon held a narrow lead into the night in a race that was later called for him at 1 a.m.

Vargas, a state lawmaker representing South Omaha, was racking up a meaningful vote advantage in Douglas County, the populous heart of the district. But Bacon, a Republican seeking a fifth two-year term, was picking up more than 60% of the vote in more conservative western Sarpy County and Saunders County. As this edition of The World-Herald went to press, there was a significant number of votes left to count in those counties.

Bacon has grown used to nail biting races representing one of few true swing districts in Congress, where neither party enjoys a substantial advantage. That tossup history included 2022, when Bacon beat Vargas by less than 6,000 votes out of more than 200,000 cast.

But Bacon faced a particular challenge this time, with Democrats energized by their effort to make Omaha once again a "Blue Dot" on the presidential electoral map. The presidential election year enthusiasm particularly ramped up when Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket. The vice president appeared set to win the Omaha-area electoral vote Tuesday night in her battle with former President Donald Trump.

Randall Adkins, a University of Nebraska at Omaha political scientist, said it wasn't surprising that Vargas was faring better this time given it's a presidential election year.

"The 'Blue Dot' movement benefits Vargas just like it does Harris," Adkins said.

With that Democratic enthusiasm for the top of the ticket, Adkins said, Bacon would need the support of lots of "Harris-Bacon" supporters to keep his seat.

Vargas, seeking to become the first Latino to be elected to Congress in Nebraska and the first Democrat to win in the 2nd District in a decade, sought to capitalize on the energy the presidential race produced down the ballot. He said increased volunteer support had helped his campaign knock on 20 times more doors in the district than last time around.

Outside money absolutely flooded the race, one of a couple dozen races nationally that will determine whether Republicans would retain their narrow majority in the House.

In all, outside groups as of Monday had spent more than $21 million to influence voters in the district. That included $13 million backing Bacon and more than $8 million for Vargas — most of the money spent on 30-second ads thrashing the opposition. The outside spending advantage Bacon enjoyed in the district was among the largest for any House candidate in the country.

The enthusiasm of Democratic voters was reflected in the vote count from the start.

The first results of the night — largely reflecting ballots cast by voters before Election Day — showed Democratic strength. Vargas ran up a 18,000-vote advantage over Bacon in those ballots.

Still, no one was expecting the race to be decided until much later into the night.

"It will be a long night," said Meg Mandy, a senior adviser to the Vargas campaign.

As expected, as the Election Day results came in, the Vargas edge narrowed significantly. But he continued to hold that edge.

By late Tuesday, neither candidate had addressed their supporters at election night parties.

During the campaign, the 40-year-old Vargas said he was running to make the American Dream more accessible, the New York City native citing how his immigrant parents worked factory lines to provide him opportunity for a better life.

Vargas also sought to harness the energy of opponents of Nebraska's passage of a 12-week ban on abortion, which he had voted against in Lincoln. Vargas repeatedly highlighted Bacon's sponsorship of a bill in Congress that would have given personhood status to an embryo from the moment of conception, a measure that would have legally thrown any abortion in Nebraska into question.

Vargas worked to tie Bacon to Trump, calling Bacon "a MAGA enabler" who would be a vote for an extreme GOP agenda opposed to "common sense" gun safety legislation and for handing out tax cuts to the wealthy.

Bacon's at times uneasy relationship with Trump posed a challenge to his campaign.

Bacon had been one of a minority of House Republicans to vote to certify the 2020 election results in the face of Trump's false claims of election stealing, and also broke with his party to support creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol. When Bacon provided a key vote that helped pass President Joe Biden's 2021 infrastructure bill, Trump called for a "Republican patriot" to challenge him.

Bacon indeed faced a challenge from a Trump-aligned candidate in the May Nebraska primary, with 38% of Republicans voting against the incumbent.

For his own part, Bacon backed Trump's reelection bid, but said he did so only after his preferred candidate, Nikki Haley, dropped out.

Needing to attract the votes of independents in the district, Bacon was careful not to fully embrace Trump. While he approved the former president's policies on taxes and the border, he said he would not defend Trump on his character or the incendiary things he says.

Right around the time Trump was working to get the Nebraska Legislature to overturn its system of divvying up some of its electoral votes by congressional district and returning to a winner-take-all system, Trump finally endorsed Bacon for reelection.

During the campaign, Bacon, a 61-year-old retired Air Force brigadier general, emphasized his national security experience at a time of world conflict. He noted that independent organizations have rated him one of the most effective and bipartisan members in all of Congress, saying that refuted Democratic claims that he was an extremist. Bacon also changed the way he talked about abortion. He said he backed Nebraska's 12-week ban, with exceptions.

Bacon never appealed directly to Harris voters, a move that likely risked alienating Trump voters whose support he needed. But in commercials Bacon touted his endorsement from Ann Ashford — the wife of Brad Ashford, the Democrat Bacon had defeated to first win the House seat in 2016.

Shortly after casting her ballot at Bethany Lutheran Church in Elkhorn, Barbara Onken, 57, said she voted for Harris and Bacon.

Her husband served in the Air Force with Bacon, and they know the incumbent personally.

"He does help the veterans," she said.

World Herald staff writing Betsie Freeman and Steve Liewer contributed to this report.

, ​402-444-1130, twitter.com/henrycordes

Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

Reporter - Metro News