Important Nebraska elections are coming up in 2025 | The Nebraska Independent
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Voting booths are set up at a polling place in Newtown, Pennsylvania, April 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

The 2024 presidential, congressional, and Nebrasaka legislative races will end with Election Day on Nov. 5. Other elections with major consequences for the future of the state are coming just a few months after.

On April 1, voters across Nebraska will vote in primaries for local elections. Those who advance will face off in the May 13 general election. 

Here are some of the key 2025 races.

Omaha Mayor

Republican Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert announced in March that she will seek a fourth four-year term. In November 2023, deputy city attorney Michelle Peters filed a federal suit alleging that Stothert had discriminated against her on the basis of sex and appointed “a less qualified male candidate” to be city attorney. The case is ongoing; Stothert has denied wrongdoing.

Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing, a Democrat, announced his candidacy in April. “For me, it really was the fact that I see how divided we are as a country, how we can be divided as a city, as a state sometimes,” Ewing told WOWT News. “I’m a guy who unifies people and brings people together so we can get great things done — and I believe I’m uniquely qualified for that.” 

Jasmine Harris, a Democrat who works for a program that helps people who have served prison terms reenter the community, announced on Oct. 1 that she will run; she ran unsuccessfully for mayor in 2021.

City Council President Pete Festersen, a Democrat, and Republican state Sen. Mike McDonnell are reportedly considering bids for mayor. McDonnell made headlines in April for switching from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, citing his anti-abortion views, and in September for refusing to go along with his new party’s efforts to change the state’s system of awarding Electoral College votes to help former President Donald Trump’s. 

The primary is nonpartisan, and all candidates run against one another. The candidates who place first and second in the primary will advance to the general election.

Omaha City Council

Omaha residents will choose council members on the same days. 

The city is divided into seven districts, each electing one council member.

Current council members are Festersen, Juanita Johnson (D), Danny Begley (D), Ron Hug (D), Ron Rowe (R), Brinker Harding (R), and Aimee Melton (R). Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority.

Other localities

Other communities across Nebraska will also vote in April and May for local government leaders and on any referendums that have been placed on the ballot.

Three seats on the seven-member Lincoln City Council will be up for election: Incumbents Tom Beckius, Bennie Shobe, and Sändra Washington have all said they will seek new terms. All three are Democrats.

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