Denise Powell wins Nebraska Democratic primary in race to fill Bacon’s House seat
Political organizer Denise Powell defeated state Sen. John Cavanaugh on Tuesday night in Nebraska‘s high-profile Democratic primary in the race to replace retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE).
With roughly 90% of votes counted, Powell narrowly bested Cavanaugh with about 40% of the vote to Cavanaugh’s roughly 38%, according to the Associated Press.
Powell is now set to take on candidate Brinker Harding, an Omaha City Council member who ran unopposed for the GOP nomination. Libertarian nominee Eric Michael Foreman will also appear on the general election ballot. In the wake of President Donald Trump’s 2016 election win, Powell founded Nebraska’s Women Who Run, an Omaha-based PAC that helps promote women running for office in the Cornhusker State. She is running her campaign based on priorities like safeguarding the Democratic process, lowering costs for Nebraskans, and defending abortion.
The Democratic primary drew national attention not only because of Democrats’ desire to flip Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District blue but because of the heated primary between the six candidates that ran for the seat. Powell and Cavanaugh appeared as front-runners in the primary, as their candidacies drew big-name endorsements and over $5 million in outside spending.
Powell, endorsed by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s campaign arm, slammed Cavanaugh’s campaign as a risk to Nebraska’s so-called “blue dot,” which allowed the Omaha area to cast Nebraska’s only vote for former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.
Powell argued that if Cavanaugh, a state senator backed by the Congressional Progressive Caucus PAC, was elected to the seat, his state senate seat could be at risk of being filled by a Republican state senator by Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE). If Pillen made this move, Powell argued that state Senate Democrats would further weaken their bargaining ability with the Republican supermajority and expose Nebraska Democrats to things like an overhaul of their electoral college system and a possible GOP redistricting campaign.
With Powell now the Democratic nominee, Cavanaugh will retain his seat in the state Senate, with his term not set to expire until January 2029.
The Cook Political Report rates Nebraska’s 2nd District as a lean-Democratic seat, with its race summary noting that “Democrats have a prime opportunity to flip this seat,” which Bacon has held for the GOP since 2017. The district went for Harris in 2024 and former President Joe Biden in 2020 but voted for Trump in 2016.
In his last general election in 2024, Bacon narrowly defeated his Democratic opponent, Tony Vargas, by a 1.8 percentage point margin.
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