Not enough Harris voters in Nebraska’s ‘Blue Dot’ congressional district backed Vargas
Incumbent GOP Rep. Don Bacon ‘was a well-liked local candidate who was able to withstand the Harris onslaught,’ said political science professor Paul Landow.
Democrat Kamala Harris won Omaha’s 2nd Congressional District “Blue Dot” electoral vote in Tuesday’s presidential election, but a small sliver of her voters — just a few thousand — did not support Democrat Tony Vargas in his downballot bid to unseat Republican Rep. Don Bacon.
It appears that what Harris hoped to do — peel off support from independents and some Republican voters — worked for her in the 2nd District but not nationally, as Donald Trump cruised to take the White House.
Harris topped Trump by roughly 4 percentage points in the 2nd District, 51% to 47%, or about 11,000 votes. But Vargas lost by about 8,000 votes, 51% to 49%, indicating he lost about 3,000 Harris voters.
Because Nebraska is one of just two states to award some of its electoral votes based on who wins the presidential vote in each congressional district, Omaha’s 2nd District got national attention this year.
“The Harris campaign took Omaha by storm, spending millions to establish what turned out to be a not very important outpost,” said Paul Landow, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, in an email to the Nebraska Independent. “The time, effort, and money she spent pulled her over the top. Bacon was a well-liked local candidate who was able to withstand the Harris onslaught, leaving Vargas behind. The Harris coattails were not strong enough to get a win for Vargas.”
Nationally, Trump won roughly 51% to 48%. In Nebraska, Trump won 60% to 39%.
The 2nd District, in an overwhelmingly Republican state, has been called the Blue Dot since 2020, when Joe Biden won it.The final vote total has not yet been calculated, but Bacon beat Vargas by roughly 3% to win a fifth term. That was about the same margin by which he beat Vargas in 2022.
