GOP Rep. Bacon Wins Reelection in Tight Nebraska Race

House Republican Israel Caucus member Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) joins a news conference about the military conflict between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on May 19, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Incumbent Republican Rep. Don Bacon has secured reelection, beating Democratic challenger Tony Vargas in a tight race for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race for Bacon, who won 51.9 percent of the vote to Vargas’s 48.1 percent with 97 percent of the votes reported as of 2:42 a.m. ET on Nov. 9.

It shaped up as a close race. Of the two most recent polls listed on the politics website FiveThirtyEight, one favored Vargas, and one favored Bacon, each by a single point and within the margin of error.

Politico analyst Steve Shepard classified the race as “leans Republican” in April but changed it to “Toss-up” this month because “GOP Rep. Don Bacon is facing a stronger opponent in Tony Vargas than Democrats have fielded in recent elections.”

Shepard said that Bacon was reelected in 2020 despite Joe Biden taking the area by 7 points, and redistricting didn’t change it that much.

It may have made it more challenging for a Democrat, removing some parts of metro Omaha and replacing them with rural areas.

Tony Vargas, a Nebraska state legislator, is the Democratic nominee challenging Republican incumbent Don Bacon in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District. (Courtesy of Tony Vargas for Congress.)

Several forecasters rated the race a toss-up.

FiveThirtyEight, though, by Nov. 7 was giving Bacon, a former Air Force general first elected in 2016, a 92 percent chance of winning.

What politicos call Nebraska’s “blue dot”—the area around Omaha—is the only place in the Republican state where a Democrat might get elected to Congress.

At an October debate, each sought to portray himself as more moderate—and his opponent as more extreme. Each could point to a record of bipartisanship.

The Lugar Center’s Bipartisan Index rated Bacon as the 12th most bipartisan member of Congress for 2021. It noted he was one of 13 Republicans who crossed party lines to vote to pass the Democrats’ infrastructure bill, which passed in November 2021.

Vargas, in the debate, said among his bipartisan accomplishments was working with Republicans “to make sure we can actually provide historic property tax relief, tax relief for seniors and for working families.”

Each has roots elsewhere: Bacon in Illinois, and Vargas, a teacher who became a state legislator, in New York City.