Population (2015) 652,870 Cook PVI R+4 | Median income 45,235 | |
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Current Representative Don Bacon (R–Papillion) Distribution 97.86% urban
2.14% rural Ethnicity 81.6% White
9.8% Black
3.1% Asian
10.9% Hispanic
0.6% Native American
2% other | ||
All eyes on nebraska s 2nd congressional district
Nebraska's 2nd congressional district encompasses the core of the Omaha metropolitan area. It includes all of Douglas County, which includes Omaha, and the suburban areas of western Sarpy County. In the United States House of Representatives, it is currently represented by Don Bacon, a Republican.
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Electoral vote; 2008 presidential race
Nebraska and Maine are the only two states in the United States which distribute their electoral votes for president based on presidential candidates' performance in their respective congressional districts in addition to their statewide performance. The statewide popular vote winner for president receives two electoral votes, and the winner of each of Nebraska's congressional districts—there are currently three such districts—receives an electoral vote from the respective district.
While the rest of the state's electorate is heavily aligned towards the Republican Party, the 2nd district—centered as it is on the city of Omaha—is more closely divided between the two main parties—Republican and Democratic.
In the 2008 United States presidential election, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama targeted the district as a strategy of breaking a potential electoral-vote tie. He won the district's electoral vote by a margin of 3,325 votes over his chief general election opponent, Republican John McCain. However, McCain won Nebraska's statewide popular vote, as well as the district-wide popular vote for the other two Nebraska congressional districts, thus receiving four electoral votes from Nebraska.
Obama's victory in the 2nd district meant that Nebraska's electoral delegation was split for the first time ever. It also marked the first Nebraskan electoral vote for a Democrat since 1964. By contrast, in 2012 Gov. Mitt Romney won the 2nd district, as well as the overall statewide vote and the electoral votes of the first and third districts.
Recent elections
This district is one of six districts with a margin of less than 5% in all three elections after the 2010 Census.
Redistricting
In 2011, Nebraska lawmakers moved Offutt Air Force Base and the town of Bellevue — an area with a large minority population — out of the Omaha-based 2nd District and shifted in the Republican-heavy Omaha suburbs in Sarpy County. The move was expected to dilute the city's urban Democratic vote, which Democrats criticized as gerrymandering.