How many Republican incumbents fended off far-right challengers in Nebraska primary?
In the aftermath of Nebraska's primary on May 14, all five Republican incumbents running for U.S. House and Senate came out ahead of their far-right challengers, pushing back against the Populist swell in the state's Republican party.
Along with three House seats up for election, Nebraska is the only state to have two Senate races this year, including for a six-year term and a two-year term. Despite state and county Republican party backing going to further-right candidates, all incumbents beat their opponents by significant margins.
In the 2nd District, which includes Omaha, Rep. Don Bacon successfully defended his seat against challenger Dan Frei, a businessman and state party-backed candidate. Frei had stated that he would join the House Freedom Caucus if elected. Although Bacon was projected to win, it was the closest race among the five incumbents, with Bacon leading Frei by 25 points.
"I am honored to win the Republican Primary for Congress in Nebraska’s 2nd District," Bacon said in a social media post last week. "I thank Republican voters for delivering a decisive Bacon victory. I will work to earn the trust of every voter in our district this November."
Rep. Adrian Smith of the 1st District and Rep. Mike Flood of the 3rd District, as well as U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, lead their challengers by over 50 points. While Fischer is running for her third 6-year term, Ricketts is vying to complete the remaining two years of a term started by former Sen. Ben Sasse, who resigned in 2023 to serve as the president of the University of Florida. Ricketts was appointed by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen in early 2023 to fill the seat for a year before running for election this year.
Fischer will now face independent candidate and former union leader, Dan Osborn, in the general election in November.
Osborn recently announced that he will not be accepting endorsements from parties or politicians. This spurred the Nebraska Democratic party to put forward a write-in candidate after they originally planned to endorse Osborn. Ricketts will face Democrat and civil rights activist Preston Love Jr.
Though all incumbents have extensive political careers in the state, local political observers weren't surprised when the state Nebraska Republican Party backed other candidates after a 2022 leadership change, which shifted the group further right. Kevin Smith, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said Nebraska's endorsement divide reflects the split in the Republican party nationwide.
"What we're seeing going on is kind of like a reflection of what's going on at the national level with the Republican Party," Smith said. "In Nebraska, the Republican Party has an internal conflict between what you might term more mainstream Republicans, although, I think a reasonable person would call every one of them a bona fide conservative. And then you've got much more populist leanings, sort of like Trump, aligned wing of the Republican Party, and clearly they don't always see eye to eye."
Flood beat his party-endorsed opponent, Michael Connely, by over 80 points and said his win solidified a strong state backing for him, even without the party's support.
“The best endorsement you can have as a member of the Republican Party is a convincing primary win," Flood told USA Today. "That is reassuring to me that I'm in the mainstream of Nebraska Republicans. Eighty percent approval among Republicans is a good sign.”
One of the biggest questions left hanging post-primary is how party endorsements will come into play ahead of the general election. It's not rare for a state political party not to endorse incumbents in a primary or if they become entangled in a scandal, but it would be more unique if the Republican party doesn't back the candidates in the general election, according to Smith.
"They've [the incumbents] all basically been told by the party, 'we would prefer somebody else other than you,' and I'm not sure what that bodes for the future of unity within the Republican Party in the in the state of Nebraska," Smith said. "Ronald Reagan used to say that the 11th Commandment is speak no ill of thy fellow Republican. It seems to be increasingly clear people are more willing to break that commandment than they were in the past."
The state Republican party has yet to release a new slate of endorsements but will discuss the next steps at its convention this month.
"We look forward to gathering as a governance body this weekend at the State Republican convention to celebrate, share, discuss, and to further advance our principles," the Nebraska Republican Party said in a statement.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Nebraska primary results show incumbents fend off far-right challenges
