Rep. Don Bacon plays the “moderate” card very well. Some of his positions seem reasonable at first, and then he goes and reveals his true nature — he is as MAGA as the rest of the GOP caucus. Nowhere was that clearer than when he capitulated and voted for Speaker Mike Johnson after blocking other far-right extremists like Rep. Jim “Gym” Jordan.
Unlike Bacon, our candidate for Nebraska’s 2nd district, State Sen. Tony Vargas is an actual moderate. If you haven’t heard about him before, check out his introductory ad to see his background and key issues.
Vargas has been in this position before. He boldly challenged Bacon back in 2022, hoping that his Omaha roots would be enough to propel him to victory. He fell short in the end, but it set him up for a rematch in 2024. Unlike last time, this race is generating some serious buzz, both in Omaha and across the nation.
This time, he gets the benefit of a Presidential electorate and more experience in running a Congressional campaign. There is a turnout differential between midterm and Presidential races in this district, and a Presidential electorate should be more favorable to the challenger, Tony Vargas. Question is, can the GOP save Rep. Don Bacon, or will Vargas prevail this time around?
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Rep. Don Bacon is part of what I am calling the #Beatable16. These Republicans reside in districts that Biden won in 2020. Tony Vargas is one of the 16 Democratic candidates in the Beatable16 fund that I am fundraising for.
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Tony Vargas for Nebraska-2
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What’s the Big Idea?
THIS RACE IS A TOSSUP, with an EVEN PVI.
The 2022 NE-2 map by county.
Nebraska’s 2nd district usually votes Republican, at least since the 1994 Republican Revolution.
Even though it covers a major city in Omaha, the city itself was conservative enough to prevent the Democratic Party from capturing the congressional seat or the sole Electoral College vote on offer. As a reminder, Nebraska and Maine split their Electoral College votes by district, meaning each district can give their electoral vote to a different candidate from the statewide winner.
In fact, for this district, it has happened twice in recent memory. Obama in 2008 carried this district when it was more compact and centered solely on Omaha and its suburbs. This shocked the GOP in the state to the point that they grossly gerrymandered the district so that redder suburbs and rural counties were in the district in exchange for bluer suburbs going into another district.
Even with that advantage, Joe Biden won the 2nd district by 52.2% to 45.8% in 2020, which secured the electoral vote once again. As evidenced in 2014, when former Rep. Brad Ashford won, the right kind of Democratic candidate can win here. Rep. Don Bacon only won by a 51.3% to 48.7% margin in 2022. Whether or not Vargas wins will be tied to whether or not Biden carries the 2nd district again. If he does, Vargas has a good chance of winning. If not, the odds go down significantly.
Here’s where this race will be won in the 2nd district.
- Omaha, Omaha, Omaha: This city is home to some very blue voters, but the problem is that turnout usually sucks in the city. Vargas will have to convince every single voter possible in the blue precincts of the city to turn out to have a chance at this contest. It will be a herculean undertaking, but it is his home base.
Here’s where we need to keep the margins down, or we lose.
- Omaha suburbs: These areas are still red and conservative, but less so than the rural beet red portions attached to the district. Vargas has to match the Biden margin in the rest of Douglas County outside of Omaha or he will lose to Bacon.
- Rural Saunders and Sarpy County: These counties are hopelessly red, and Vargas will have a tough time winning these counties over. Certainly, find what votes can be found out in the rural areas, but also focus more on turning out the base in Omaha.
Who is Tony Vargas?
State Sen. Tony Vargas at an education hearing in Nebraska.
State Sen. Tony Vargas is the son of Peruvian immigrants who settled in Queens, NY. He made it to the Omaha area by signing up with AmeriCorps through Teach for America. He was a middle school science teacher before being appointed to the Omaha School Board. He parlayed that position into winning a race for the unique unicameral Nebraska state legislature, and he has served since 2016. This link from NBC Latino has a profile both of Vargas and of the race itself.
- Education Advocate. Naturally, this issue is high on the priority list for Vargas. He wishes to secure higher wages for teachers and make it easier for highly qualified teachers to make it into the classroom faster. He is also big on promoting Pell Grants and other measures to help offset the costs of higher education.
- Health Care Helper. Vargas is in favor of a public option to try and reduce the costs of health insurance. He lauds that the Biden-Harris administration achieved the task of allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on prescription drug pricing. Finally, he worries about rural hospitals closing, and would work to combat that problem.
- Abortion Rights Ally. Vargas would be another vote to codify Roe v. Wade into law. He would also be a vote against a national abortion ban and a contraception ban. Hopefully, the referendum on abortion rights will be a HUGE help to the Vargas campaign.
- Protecting Our Democracy. Vargas would be a likely vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, even though he doesn’t explicitly say so. He thinks that election security (actual security, not the fevered dreams of the MAGA crowd) and enhanced voting rights are both possible. Voter Protection Project has endorsed his campaign for this seat.
- Climate Crisis. Vargas is a proponent of expanding clean energy in Nebraska — including wind and solar power. This will provide good-paying jobs and help solve the climate crisis. He would also take action against corporate polluters who have poisoned many in his district. 314 Action Fund and League of Conservation Voters have both endorsed his campaign.
- Fairer Tax Code. Vargas supported the largest tax cut in Nebraska history. He would be open to cutting taxes for the middle class to help them make ends meet. He also says that the tax code needs to be changed so that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share and to help small businesses be successful in the market.
- Supporting Veterans. Vargas believes that America made a promise to veterans and many times we don’t live up to that promise. He would work to fully fund the VA Health system and provide job retraining and GI benefits to those who have served our country. He helped pass many bills through the state legislature to help veterans and their families.
- Labor Leader. During the COVID pandemic, Vargas was appalled at the way meatpackers treated their (immigrant) workers. He attempted to pass protections for those vulnerable workers, only to have his efforts shot down. This effort came after Vargas lost his father to the pandemic. He would support the PRO Act if elected to Congress.
- Gun Safety Champion. Vargas would support an assault weapons ban and enhanced background checks on individuals seeking to buy a weapon. He lauded the bipartisan gun safety law passed after Uvalde, while acknowledging that more needs to be done on this issue.
- Immigration Supporter. Immigration is a personal issue for him because his parents are immigrants. He supports the DACA program and a streamlined process for legal immigrants to come to this nation. He agrees with Bacon that the borders need to be more secure, but disagrees with the heavy-handed tactics that the Trump administration took.
Who is Rep. Don Bacon?
Rep. Don Bacon plays the “moderate” very well, in spite of being just as radical as his peers.
Rep. Don Bacon grew up on a farm in rural Illinois. He joined the Air Force ROTC program while at Northern Illinois University. His introduction to politics was through an internship in Rep. Ed Madigan’s office his senior year of college.
After being commissioned, he specialized in many different styles of warfare, including electronic, reconnaissance, and public affairs. He retired as a brigadier general in the US Air Force at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha. He entered politics shortly thereafter.
Bacon is one of the more “moderate” members of the GOP caucus. Certainly, there are a few positive votes in his Congressional record that make it much more difficult to defeat him. For instance, he is NOT an election denier and he supported the Respect for Marriage Act. But looking deeper, Bacon has a problematic record.
- Forced Birth Maniac. Bacon definitely can be attacked on this issue! He supports a national abortion ban, without an exception for the life of the mother. He has also attacked women’s health facilities through a bill that seeks to defund Planned Parenthood. He even seeks to protect fetuses by invoking the 14th Amendment to “protect the rights of the unborn”.
- Repealing the ACA. Bacon supports efforts to repeal Obamacare, or the ACA. In his voting record, he has a vote in favor of the American Health Care Act of 2017, which would have repealed most of the ACA. He staunchly opposes any efforts to pass single-payer or Medicare for All, including a public option.
- Tax Cut Terror. Bacon is concerned about the debt and is a deficit peacock, but his record shows he truly doesn’t care a whit about that. He voted for the budget-busting Trump tax cuts, also known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. He also voted against the Inflation Reduction Act which actually did reduce the deficit!
- Social Security Slasher. While Bacon does not wish to change Social Security benefits for those who are over the age of 40, he is willing and ready to slash future benefits for those under that age. Instead of raising the cap, which would make the program more solvent, Bacon chooses to take away benefits that people have paid into most of their lives.
- Wall Builder. While he has some positive views and votes on immigration, Bacon also has some nasty stances on it. His primary concern is to secure the border, even before supporting DACA and streamlining legal immigration like he claims to support. He is also a proponent of building Trump’s border wall.
- 2nd Amendment Zealot. Bacon does claim to have some positive stances on gun safety, such as claiming to being open to banning bump stocks and cracking down on illegal straw purchases. However, when it comes to actually voting for gun safety legislation, his record is resoundingly against gun safety measures. He voted against the gun safety bill passed after Uvalde. He touts earning an “A” record from the NRA.
- Trump Impeachment Opponent. Both times that Trump was up for impeachment, Bacon voted against impeaching the former President. That includes after the heinous insurrection on 1/6. Bacon may not be an election denier, and he may have supported the 1/6 Commission — but when it came time to put up or shut up he decided to protect Trump.
- Climate Crisis. Bacon does support tepid measures to fix the climate crisis, but he also supports the fossil fuel industry in order to gain energy independence. Instead of quickly moving away from Big Oil to solve the climate crisis, he slows down progress with an incremental approach that is too little, too late. Best thing I can say is that he isn’t a climate denier.
- Speaker Debacle. Bacon almost proved his “moderate” credentials by being a holdout against the Speakership of Gym Jordan and voting against it each time it came up. However, he decided to vote for Mike Johnson to become Speaker, a man who would undo even the tepid amount of “moderate” votes and stances Bacon has accumulated in his record.
- Biden Impeachment. Bacon at first expressed skepticism on the merits of impeaching Biden. He changed course when former Speaker McCarthy opened up an impeachment inquiry, standing by the decision to go on that fishing expedition.
How Can You Help?
If you don’t live near Omaha, Nebraska, the best way to help the Tony Vargas campaign is through a donation. This is a rather cheap media market, so your dollar stretches further than say a district near Los Angeles. Biden will likely be advertising here at the same time to contest the NE-2 electoral vote, so it may be pricier this time around. The DCCC has named Vargas to Red to Blue, which should help him raise even more funds.
This race is already gearing up to be an expensive one, with both candidates turning in good fundraising quarters. Tony Vargas raised $781k during the period covered by Q1, while Rep. Don Bacon raised $708k during the same period. Their cash-on-hand totals are similar, though Bacon has the higher amount right now. Vargas has $1.61M to spend, while Bacon is hoarding $1.88M for the general election. Vargas needs to catch up, so give him a donation today!
If you live in the Omaha area, please consider volunteering with the Vargas campaign. This is a district with anemic turnout amongst the most Democratic voters in the district. Vargas needs to connect to minority communities early and constantly to persuade them to pull the lever for him. Add in the need to text bank for funds and the need to build campaign infrastructure and there is never an end to the amount of work volunteers can help with!
A third option for those who cannot or will not do the items above is to promote Tony Vargas on social media. He has been alternating between showing canvassing efforts and directing pointed attacks on his opponent, Rep. Don Bacon. He isn’t as big on promoting his own policies on social media, leaving that to his campaign website.
He currently has 13.8k followers on the shell of what was Twitter, which is a nice robust base to fundraise or amplify messaging. The campaign has been really attacking Bacon on his abortion policies, as this ad shows.
He also has 4.5k followers on Facebook, which is more than I expected him to have. The content on both of his social media sites seems to be the same, so it is only a matter of preference. I’ll let you see some of his canvassing efforts.
Help spread the word today by following Tony Vargas and boosting his campaign in the critical realm of social media!
State Sen. Tony Vargas is a candidate that should fit Nebraska’s 2nd district well. His base of support is exactly the area we need to make sure turns out in droves to secure the one electoral vote and flip this district into Democratic hands. He has served diligently in the Nebraska Senate, especially on the Appropriations Committee. His moderate stances on the issues should go over well with the voters he needs to court to win, even in a district Biden could carry yet again.
Rep. Don Bacon will continue to pretend to be a “moderate” while still supporting Trump and the vast majority of his policies and positions. Bacon is tied for the 10th most vulnerable Republican according to Daily Kos. As a member of the #Beatable16, he will be vulnerable to a robust challenge from Vargas unless Trump improves his performance in this district. Bacon will likely run ahead of Trump in this district. The question is, will that be enough for him to secure re-election?
Tony Vargas for Nebraska-2
Campaign Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | DONATE | Volunteer
Let's take back the House by targeting the 16 districts that Biden won in 2020 that have R reps! That brings us to the Beatable16 Fund! Please donate and then share a link to this site on your social media! #Beatable16