In one of the most carefully watched congressional contests of the year, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska hopes to overcome a fellow Republican in Tuesday’s primary election in his bid for reelection. He will have to do so without the support of the state Republican Party, which has backed his primary opponent.
Bacon, whose district includes Omaha, the state’s largest city, is not the only one facing neglect. Supporters of former President Donald Trump took over the Nebraska GOP during a stormy state convention in 2022, and they have declined to endorse any of the Republican incumbents who currently hold all five of the state’s congressional seats.
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The state party has endorsed primary challengers for U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and Rep. Adrian Smith, who represent the state’s huge rural 3rd Congressional District. It has also declined to endorse U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Mike Flood in their primary races for the 1st Congressional District, which encompasses Lincoln. Both Fischer and Flood face primary rivals who entered the campaigns after the Nebraska Republican Party revealed its endorsement decision in January.
It’s an oddity that reveals the bitter divide between Trump supporters who control the Nebraska GOP and several county Republican parties and the more establishment-type Republicans who were previously in charge, according to John Hibbing, a longtime University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor.
“It’s not a good look,” Hibbing explained. “You’d like the faces of your party, who would be your elected representatives, and the state party leaders to be on the same page.”
It’s even more odd given the incumbents’ voting records and campaign rhetoric, he added.
“I think they’re probably wondering, ‘What else can we do?'” Hibbing said. “These are solidly conservative individuals.”
Nowhere is the state party’s rejection more likely to have an impact than in Bacon’s contest. Dan Frei, who claims to be Bacon’s right-hand man, is challenging the incumbent. Frei previously ran for the seat in 2014, coming close to defeating then-Rep. Lee Terry in the GOP primary.
Bacon is one of 16 Republican members of Congress who represent districts that Democrat Joe Biden won in 2020.
More than 30 years ago, Nebraska rejected a winner-take-all system of awarding presidential electoral votes in favor of splitting electoral votes based on its three congressional districts. Bacon’s district’s electors voted for a Democratic presidential candidate twice: Barack Obama in 2008 and Joe Biden in 2020.
After the state GOP endorsed Frei, Bacon defended his record as “a common-sense conservative who is able to reach across the aisle and find areas of consensus.”
Bacon has stated that “it’s sad to see the division in the party,” said Danielle Jensen, the Bacon campaign’s communications director, on Monday. “I can tell you, he does not think this is going to negatively affect the campaign.”
The campaigns of Fischer, Flood, Ricketts, and Smith did not respond to questions from The Associated Press concerning the lack of state party endorsements.
The state party stated in an email on Monday that it would not endorse any Republican incumbents because they had not requested it. However, Bacon stated on Monday that in previous years, incumbents were not required to solicit party support.
“These folks were hostile to all of us, and they changed the rules,” stated Bacon.
The challengers who received the party’s endorsement did ask, and a vote of more than 160 elected governing body members granted them the endorsement, according to Todd Watson, political director of the state GOP.
While Watson denied that Trump was the only factor in the decision, he did note that most Nebraska Republicans are tired of what they see as attacks on Trump, the state party’s new direction, and “our way of life.”
“What we believe in is the Constitution, conservative principles, and God,” he stated.
Kerry Winterer, a former state Republican Party official, chastised the state party in an editorial piece published in the Nebraska Examiner last week, claiming that the organization’s primary goal is to elect Republicans but has instead become completely focused on Trump.
“A political party bound to one candidate cannot possibly fulfill its purpose of electing candidates that share a common political philosophy,” Winterer stated.
Watson responded that “the old leadership” of the state GOP has it wrong.
We achieve the party’s objectives when we elect constitutional and platform Republicans to office, he stated. “Electing Republicans who are not committed to the party’s objective… to defend the Constitution and advance our principles, as stated in our written platform and plans, has been a real problem for this party and country.”
