ELECTION RESULTS- GOP Incumbents Retain Their Seats

Nebraska 2nd House District contest proved again to be the state's most competitive, pitting Republican incumbent Don Bacon against Democratic state Sen. Tony Vargas in a rematch from 2022. The race remained tight hours after polls closed. Two years ago, Bacon won with 51% of the vote. This time, Vargas had hoped to ride a wave of support for the Democratic presidential ticket that siphoned off a lone electoral vote tied to the district. The Republican incumbents retained their seats Tuesday in the state's two other House districts. Rep. Adrian Smith handily won Nebraska's vast rural 3rd Congressional District, while Rep. Mike Flood defeated Democratic challenger and sitting state Sen. Carol Blood.
Meanwhile, Republican Deb Fischer has won a third term representing Nebraska in the U.S. Senate. Fischer won her previous two elections by wide margins in the deeply conservative state. But she faced her toughest challenge yet in Dan Osborn, a working-class industrial mechanic and military veteran who appealed to voters by eschewing the major parties and running as an independent. Fischer successfully countered by leaning into her support for former President Donald Trump. Despite their at-times rocky relationship, Trump endorsed Fischer for reelection, which Fischer touted in her campaign ads. In her victory speech, Fischer took issue with money that she said “out-of-state Democrats spent trying to buy a Nebraska Senate seat.”