Aaron Sanderford
OMAHA — Nebraska’s most competitive congressional race may have to wait a little longer to declare a winner, as votes for U.S. Rep. Don Bacon and State Sen. Tony Vargas remained too close to call early Wednesday.
Bacon led Vargas, 51%-49%, by 6 a.m. Wednesday in the 2nd District race. The Republican incumbent’s lead grew overnight to 8,300 votes. Election officials still need to count at least 9,000 ballots, including last-day early votes in Douglas County and provisional ballots that need to be verified.
Bacon told the Examiner that he was encouraged by the results but that there were more votes to count. His campaign manager, Matthew Zacher, told a gathering of Republicans that Bacon hoped to be able to speak about the race Wednesday.
Zacher said he was “cautiously optimistic” that Bacon would beat Vargas, a Democrat.
Vargas, in a statement, asked his supporters to be patient. He said the past few years have taught Americans that counting votes takes time — and that accurate results are worth it.
“Our democracy is worth waiting for and we’re going to have to be patient until all the work of tallying the votes is finished,” Vargas said. “We feel really good about where we are, and after every vote is counted, we are confident that we’ll win this race.”
Early votes returned Tuesday are unlikely to depart significantly from the trends of early voting overall, which favored Vargas. A similar trend could narrow the gap. Others said those early votes could skew toward west Omaha, helping Bacon.
All three county election commissioners in the 2nd Congressional District have at least some votes yet to count, but none has more than Douglas County, home to Omaha and the largest share of the district’s Democrats.
Bacon has complained of swimming against the tide of Vice President Kamala Harris and her backers, who were outspending Trump in the 2nd District roughly 20 to 1.
The 2nd District race is costlier, in part, because of the potential for the stray electoral vote, or “blue dot.” It’s one of a dozen or so swing districts nationally that either party can win, though Republicans hold a slight advantage in voter registrations and redistricting added rural Saunders County and swapped out some purpling suburbs in Sarpy County.
The 2nd District includes all of Douglas and Saunders Counties and a slice of western Sarpy County.
As of mid-October, the two candidates had already raised a total of nearly $13 million and spent more than $11 million, with Vargas having a slight edge, according to federal campaign finance filings.