‘Blue Dot’ House race heats up with Electoral College vote on the line

Spending by political parties and their affiliates in the U.S. House race for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District between Democratic state Sen. Tony Vargas and Republican Rep. Don Bacon is approaching $9 million as both sides vie for the district’s lone electoral vote in the race for the White House.

According to the Downballot, which collects data on races across the country, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the House Majority PAC have spent nearly $3.3 million on the race, while the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Congressional Leadership Fund PAC have spent $5.5 million.

The most ever spent by outside sources in the 2nd District race came in 2020, when $13.5 million was spent, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that tracks and publishes data on campaign finance. That was in the race between Bacon and Democrat Kara Eastman. Outside groups spent $10.9 million in 2022, when Bacon beat Vargas by fewer than 6,000 votes.

Paul Landow, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said outside spending is out of control since the 2020 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The ruling gutted campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited money on elections.

“There is entirely too much money sloshing around politics, and we must find a way to cut it back,” Landow said in an email to the Nebraska Independent. “Unlimited spending builds a system that allows only wealthy candidates in, and keeps all others out.”

Nebraska and Maine are the only states that split their electoral votes. In Nebraska, two of the five electoral votes for president are awarded based on the statewide vote; the other three are assigned based on the winner of the election in each of the state’s congressional districts. That has drawn intense interest to Nebraska in the race for the White House between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump.

Democrats have called the 2nd District the “Blue Dot” since Vice President Joe Biden won it in 2020 to block Trump’s reelection bid.

An effort by Trump and Nebraska Republican Gov. Jim Pillen to hold a special legislative session to change the state’s method of awarding Electoral College votes was recently scuttled when Pillen could not muster enough support from Republican state lawmakers for the idea.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball, published by the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, recently rated the Vargas-Bacon race “leans Democratic.” A poll in late August by Split Ticket and SurveyUSA showed Vargas leading Bacon 46% to 40%.