Omaha, Neb., is home to a toss-up Congressional race this year. Voters have shown a willingness to vote for moderate candidates from both parties, but has the definition of a moderate now changed?
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A few hundred miles south, there’s a place in Nebraska that’s known for not being predictable when it comes to how voters cast their ballots. We’re talking about Nebraska’s second congressional district. It’s not a lock for Republicans, despite the state being red. In the run-up to the midterm elections, we asked Minnesota Public Radio’s Clay Masters to help us learn more about the political leanings of voters across the Midwest. And our first stop is the city of Omaha.
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CLAY MASTERS, BYLINE: High school students gather at Central High in downtown Omaha on a recent Saturday morning. They’re eating doughnuts and drinking orange juice before heading out to pick up trash in the city. Omaha Mayor John Ewing Jr. is here to thank them for their volunteer work.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: She was too embarrassed to say anything to you, so (laughter)…
JOHN EWING JR: Thank you. Well, thank you for being here through the day. And thank you for doing that. I truly appreciate it.
MASTERS: Ewing is not on the ballot this go round but whose defeat of a three-term incumbent Republican by nearly 14 points last year does say something about voters in this congressional district. Jimmie Foster is a teacher at this school and is supervising the student cleanup. Foster says he wasn’t necessarily surprised that Ewing defeated incumbent Republican Jean Stothert in the officially nonpartisan race.
JIMMIE FOSTER: It was more of just an oh, and that was kind of like, oh, all right. Usually, unless there’s something major, controversial happen (ph), I just assume the incumbent’s going to win again. So that was it. So (laughter)…
MASTERS: Ewing has been a name in Omaha for years. He was a deputy chief with the city police department and served as county treasurer. Ewing says he sees himself as a public servant, not as a politician, and that voters here are not so polarized.
EWING: I believe that the vast majority of voters are somewhere in the middle.
MASTERS: The city is known for not leaning as far right when compared to Nebraska as a whole. While Republicans in this congressional district have the most registered voters, Democrats and independents combined outnumber them. Ewing has advice for those running for Congress this year.
EWING: If you appeal to them and you give them that message, and you show them that you can do it based on what you’ve done in the past and your willingness to partner across party lines and all of the other artificial things that divide us, you can win.
MASTERS: Voting across party lines is something the incumbent Republican representing this district says he’s done. In an interview last year announcing his retirement, Representative Don Bacon told Omaha ABC affiliate KETV he’s not afraid to go against his party.
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DON BACON: I think I’ve been able to show that I’m not a Republican first. I’m a Christian, conservative – or a Christian American. Somewhere over here, I’m Republican. But I’ve been willing to take tough votes, whether it’s certifying the election, which I believe was constitutional.
MASTERS: Taking those tough votes that buck President Trump is increasingly rare. Bacon supported bipartisan bills like the 2021 Infrastructure Act. He thinks that’s helped him in a district that has a strong number of Democratic and nonpartisan voters. There’s a competitive primary on the Democratic side to replace Bacon in Congress. While a more moderate candidate has won here, politics is increasingly polarized. At a busy Omaha intersection, voter Daniel Vecellio is walking out of a new public library here. He considers himself far on the left but questions whether the term moderate really means anything anymore.
DANIEL VECELLIO: It’s really hard to define what moderate is between, like, what the outward appearance of moderate is versus what I think, moderate positions or overall popular positions actually are.
MASTERS: Another big race voters across Nebraska will weigh in on this November? – a U.S. Senate race where incumbent Republican Pete Ricketts is running for reelection. There’s an independent candidate who thinks he can win by taking the center lane.
DAN OSBORN: I don’t put a whole lot of stock into colors and letters next to names.
MASTERS: This is Dan Osborn. He gave Nebraska’s other Republican senator a run for her money in the 2024 election when there were no Democrats running. Despite Osborn’s loss, he says he connected with voters from both major political parties.
OSBORN: We agree mostly on 90% of the issues. It’s – you know, it’s the wedge issues that they want to keep us divided on where the struggle comes in.
MASTERS: In this state that’s reliably Republican, Nebraska’s second congressional district remains one of the few places in the country where persuading voters across party lines could still make the difference. For NPR News, I’m Clay Masters in Omaha.
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