Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of the most politically vulnerable Republicans in the country, has defeated his Democratic challenger and won a fifth term, according to The Associated Press. His victory denies Democrats one of their best opportunities this year to pick up a seat and bolsters his party’s drive to hold its majority.
The race was the second matchup between Mr. Bacon and Tony Vargas, who came within 6,000 votes of unseating the congressman in 2022. Mr. Vargas came up short again on Friday evening, even after top Democrats including Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader, and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, then the vice-presidential nominee, traveled to the Omaha district to support his campaign.
The contest between Mr. Bacon, 61, a former brigadier general in the Air Force, and Mr. Vargas, 40, a former public-school teacher who is the son of Peruvian immigrants, featured debates over national issues including abortion rights, taxes and public safety.
But it was also a test of whether there was still a place in the G.O.P. for a mainstream lawmaker like Mr. Bacon, who has staked out a reputation on Capitol Hill as an independent voice in a party increasingly dominated by the hard right — and whether he could survive in a liberal-leaning district won by President Biden.
Nebraska’s Second Congressional District centers on Omaha, often referred to as the “blue dot,” in reference to its uniquely liberal leanings in an otherwise red state. But Republicans have represented it in the House since the mid-1990s, with the exception of one two-year term from 2015 to 2017.
Mr. Bacon was first elected in 2016, in a year when Donald J. Trump also carried the district. But he was able to appeal to voters across the aisle; in 2020, when Mr. Biden won the district, Mr. Bacon was re-elected by the widest margin he has ever enjoyed.
This year, he faced stronger headwinds, in part because of his recent endorsement of eliminating a provision of state law that awards an electoral vote to the party that wins his district. The result was an influx of cash into the district on behalf of Democrats.
In Congress, Mr. Bacon has staked out a reputation as one of a dwindling number of conservative lawmakers willing to work with Democrats and challenge his party.
He has broken with a majority of Republicans in the House by arguing forcefully for continued military assistance to Ukraine.
He has also voted in favor of a pathway to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors, and voted to uphold the 2020 election results — though he sided with the bulk of the G.O.P. against impeaching Mr. Trump in 2021.
Mr. Vargas, like other Democrats in competitive races across the country, leaned heavily into abortion in seeking to defeat Mr. Bacon. He repeatedly accused the Republican of trying to undermine access to the procedure and highlighted Mr. Bacon’s past support for a bill that would have recognized fetal personhood at the federal level, criminalizing abortions.
Mr. Bacon said he supported Nebraska’s law banning abortions after 12 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother. Nebraska faced two ballot questions about abortion this year: one that proposed a state constitutional amendment to guarantee abortion rights until fetal viability, and another that proposed banning abortion after the first trimester.
The post Bacon Defeats Vargas in Nebraska, Holding a Key House Seat for Republicans appeared first on New York Times.
