GOP Rep. Bacon squeaks out narrow win in Nebraska as Republicans inch closer to House majority

Nebraska Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican, has once again defeated Democrat state Sen. Tony Vargas, bringing Republicans closer to winning the House.

The two last went head to head in 2022 when Bacon just barely eked out a victory against Vargas with a three percentage point lead. The Republican congressman won again this time despite the impressive obstacles he faced.

“Bacon’s victory comes after several polls showed him narrowly trailing Vargas,” Politico notes. “The district was also swamped with national outside spending from Democrats, who wanted to capture its one electoral vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.”

“Democrats were hoping that spending would help fuel Vargas to a victory — capturing a seat the party has long coveted — but Bacon was able to hold on by swaying enough Harris voters to his side,” according to Politico.

The bad news is that Bacon is more of a so-called “moderate” Republican who has a tendency to align with Democrat Party interests.

Last year, for example, he voted with Democrats to block an amendment that would have defunded diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the Department of Defense.

“[The] amendment would have totally cut all diversity training for the military, which is unreasonable,” he said at the time. “All service members should know that racism and sexual harassment are not tolerated in our military.”

Rep. Matt Gaetz, the amendment’s author, later addressed this complaint during a Fox News appearance.

“As I explained to Congressman Bacon in the committee, we always have standards in the military that don’t allow people to be racist or harmful to their fellow service members, and none of those standards would have changed,” he said. “The question is whether or not we ought to have these chief diversity officers, [who] are making as much as $183,000 per year. Compare that to a private in the army or an airman or a sergeant working for our military.”

“I tell you what, if the chief diversity officer is what we need to win wars, maybe we should send them all to the frontlines in Ukraine like now. Get them to Taiwan. But of course that’s not the case. This dilutes our readiness. I’m glad that the structural office has been eliminated, but you always have to follow the money, and that’s why I will continue to pursue efforts to get all of the funding removed,”  he added.

There’s more.

After Republicans won back the House in 2022, he backed then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy for speaker and went out of his way to slam holdouts like Gaetz who were fighting for someone better.

“Eighty-five percent of the Republicans voted for Kevin McCarthy to be the next speaker,” he told Fox News at the time. “Fifteen percent voted for Andy Biggs.”

“By doing what they are doing with five or six people holding out — it just takes five to derail this, because we just need 218 votes roughly to get Kevin McCarthy the speakership — but they don’t even have a viable alternative that they are putting on the floor,” he added.

He went on to accuse Gaetz and others of helping Democrats.

“Teams win, and when a small number of people go against the team, and it breaks down the team, that’s how you get beat,” he said. “And by doing what they are doing, they’re helping out [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer, they’re helping out Joe Biden, and they’re helping out [Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries with these actions.”

“And Kevin McCarthy has worked his butt off for four years to get us back in the majority. He’s been in everybody’s district. He has done more for each of us than anybody else has,” he added.

Vivek Saxena

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