Denise Powell Wins Democratic Nomination in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District

Denise Powell won the Democratic nomination in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District U.S. House race, with Douglas County election officials confirming that the partisan makeup of early voting ballots still to be counted Friday limited State Sen. John Cavanaugh’s ability to come back.

“Of the 9,712 early ballots to count yet this week, 2,682 were returned by Republicans”

Nebraska Examiner

The Nebraska Examiner reported that of the 9,712 early ballots to count yet this week, 2,682 were returned by Republicans, 184 from Libertarians, 21 from members of the Legal Marijuana NOW Party and 1,745 nonpartisans, leaving 5,032 Democrats.

AP News

Powell led Cavanaugh at the end of counting on Tuesday night by 1,080 votes, and AP said the race was focused on the district’s “blue dot” status in presidential elections.

AP called the race after Douglas County election officials said there were only 5,125 outstanding mail-in ballots in the Democratic primary and a total of 830 provisional ballots from all political parties, and it said even if all those ballots are counted Cavanaugh would have to win them by about 18 percentage points over Powell to close the gap.

In her statement after the call, Powell said, “Today marks the end of one chapter and the start of the next,” and she added, “It’s time to be brave.”

Powell will face Brinker Harding, an Omaha City Council member endorsed by President Donald Trump, after Harding ran unopposed in Tuesday’s GOP primary to replace retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon.

CBS News projected Powell’s win and said the general election matchup would be against Brinker Harding, while noting the Omaha-area district has voted Democrat in three of the last five presidential elections.

CBS News

The Hill reported that Powell defeated Cavanaugh in a closely watched Democratic primary that grew increasingly bitter as the primary date approached, with Powell outraising Cavanaugh and running a campaign fueled by an early cash advantage and a flood of outside money.

CBS News framed the stakes around Nebraska’s electoral system, saying Nebraska allocates Electoral College votes by congressional district instead of winner-take-all, and it said the 2024 effort to change that system fell short after a single Republican state senator his opposition.

Powell warned that if Cavanaugh had won and flipped the House seat, Republicans could be emboldened to try again to change the electoral system, and she said, “We cannot afford a candidate whose campaign hands Republicans the votes to gerrymander us into oblivion.”

The primary’s fight over the “blue dot” status centered on whether Cavanaugh’s departure would jeopardize Nebraska’s special position in presidential elections, with Powell arguing that sending him to Congress would “jeopardize the ‘blue dot’ for his own political ambitions.”

“The Democratic primary attracted more than $5.6 million in outside ad spending”

NPR

NPR reported that the Democratic primary attracted more than $5.6 million in outside ad spending, and it said the district is known as the “blue dot” because it was the lone Nebraska district to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024 and Joe Biden in 2020.

Nebraska Public Media said the Democratic primary attracted more than $5.6 million in outside ad spending and described the influx as “dark money,” while quoting Randy Adkins saying, “It hasn’t really been competitive like this in more than a generation.”

The Hill also tied the stakes to control of the U.S. House, saying the race could play an important role in determining control of the House and citing Decision Desk HQ chief elections analyst Geoffrey Skelley saying it was “probably the Democrats’ best pickup shot in a seat that is not redistricted.”

NPR added that Democrats see the seat as a prime pickup opportunity and said Republicans already hold a supermajority in the Nebraska legislature, while noting that Nebraska is one of two states, the other being Maine, that does not use a winner-take-all approach when awarding electoral votes.