The 2018 midterm election in the Nebraska Second Congressional District is expected to be one of the few competitive races in the country. So, who is running for Congress? Polling and fundraising data has shown three strong candidates, one Republican and two Democrats.

The first major candidate is Brad Ashford, who has decided to run for a second term competing against the man who narrowly beat him in 2016. Ashford previously served as Congressman between 2015 and 2017; in addition, he served as a longtime state Senator and government official, most notably as Chief Executive of the Omaha Housing Authority. His campaign has already received major endorsements, most significantly the centrist New Democrats and the Blue Dog Democrats. In what is already expected to be a tough year for Republicans, a recent poll has shown Ashford leading Bacon at 49 percent while Bacon is at 40 percent, however, according to Ashford Campaign Manager Jim Rogers, “Elections are never easy and we will be running as if we are 10 points down.” He also stated that, “Congressman Bacon has repeatedly shown that he is out of touch with the Second Congressional District and his voting patterns on issues around healthcare and taxes are proving to be wildly unpopular with voters here,” in reference to his votes in favor of both the repeal of Obamacare and the recent Republican tax reform bill.  Ashford will also be running against nonprofit executive Kara Eastman in the primary, his first ever major primary opponent. Rogers said that the reason Democrats should support Ashford over Eastman is that, “Representative Ashford has a history of working with people across the spectrum of our community to solve issues. Ashford will continue to be a proven leader within our community who will work tirelessly to ensure that we are moving forward in a collaborative, accepting, and effective manner,” echoing the message Ashford had in his 2016 campaign. In respect to how he views the difficulty of the upcoming campaign against Eastman, and potentially Bacon, Rogers said, “Campaigns are always competitive and we will be running a campaign that is aggressive in reaching our goals of financing, media, and voter contact no matter who our opponents are in this election.” The Ashford campaign has raised roughly $125,000 and spent roughly $23,000 of that.

Another major candidate is Don Bacon. Bacon defeated Ashford in 2016 by roughly one percentage point and is currently the incumbent. Prior to his political run, Don Bacon served on the staff of Congressman Jeff Fortenberry, as a professor at Bellevue University and in the Air Force as a Brigadier General. The Bacon campaign is confident, despite polls indicating a bad year for Republican incumbents, that 2018 will be a relatively easy race to win. According to the Bacon Campaign’s Director of Communication Kyle Clark, “Don Bacon has earned very strong support in this district” and that in 2016 “The voters made their opinions clear, and Don is committed to staying true to the principles and ideals that earned their votes.” The Campaign, represented by Clark, also showed a lack of concern in the previously mentioned poll showing Bacon trailing Ashford by 9 percentage points saying that, “This poll was conducted by a Democrat-aligned pollster,” and that, “we are not concerned about the biased and unrealistic results of this poll.” The poll was indeed conducted by the Democratic-owned Public Policy Polling. The Bacon campaign has a large lead in fundraising over both Democratic candidates, having raised roughly $750,000 over Ashford’s $125,000 and Eastman’s $105,000 as of the third quarter of 2017, according to opensecrets.org.

The third and final major candidate is Kara Eastman. Eastman is a nonprofit executive of Omaha Healthy Kids Alliance and is Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Community College Board of Governors. Currently, the Eastman campaign is focusing on increasing name recognition. The campaign has spent $52,000 of the $105,000 raised. They have also had a major focus on canvassing. According to Development Associate and Central senior Nick Koehler, they have found 65% of Democrats in support of Eastman and 33% undecided, though he himself admitted this is likely due in part to confirmation bias. “Ashford doesn’t believe in canvassing, he has his staff do that and having Eastman, the candidate, actually visit houses while campaigning, people remember that,” Koehler said. One of the major things Koehler emphasized was his distrust in Ashford’s record saying, “He voted against DACA. He voted against Obamacare three times before voting yes. He, while in the state senate, voted for parental notification. He was in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline, now he’s against it, he flip-flopped on that too.” The primary focus of the Eastman campaign is on the flip flopping of Brad Ashford on the positions and on the goal of nominating, in Koehler’s words, “a true progressive.” Koehler admitted that, right now, the campaign is an uphill battle to get Eastman’s name out.

To summarize, the Nebraska second Congressional District, as one of the few competitive in the nation, will see quite a bit of fierce political battles in next year’s Democratic primary and general election. Regardless of who’s on the ballot in November, it will most assuredly be a challenge.