Blue dot signs and red state signs are popping up in the 2nd Congressional District, sometimes with both signs dueling in neighboring yards. (Cate Folsom/Nebraska Examiner)
OMAHA — Nebraska isn’t used to all this national attention in presidential politics. The Cornhusker State spent decades as Iowa’s red-led stepbrother, with mixed-party voters in the Omaha area watching the first-in-the-nation caucuses next door with envy.
But this year, as in 2020, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico, the Times of London, the AP, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and the major networks have sent reporters to the Omaha area to cover the chance of a presidential campaign earning a stray Electoral College vote.
Nebraska and Maine are the only states that award an electoral vote to the presidential winner in each congressional district, along with two votes for the statewide winner. Other states award all their electoral votes to the statewide winner, an approach called “winner-take-all.”
Because of this unusual process, the Omaha area has emerged as a presidential focal point for campaigns on both the left and right. Republicans won the district in 2012 and 2016. Democrats won it in 2008 and 2020. Both parties pay attention to the swing district.