Biden flips key Nebraska district

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won a key Nebraska House district to earn a single Electoral College vote, a victory that could make a difference in a race that’s shaping up to be a nail-biter.

Fox News, CNN and NBC News all called Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District for Biden, with tallies showing him with a roughly 11-point lead with nearly 86 percent of votes counted.

Nebraska grants two Electoral College votes to its statewide winner and one vote to the winner of each of its three House districts. President Trump won the statewide vote and the state’s other two congressional districts.

The 2nd Congressional District last voted for a Democrat in 2008, when then-Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) carried it by a single point before losing it by 7 points in 2012 to Mitt Romney. Trump won the district by 2 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The district’s solitary Electoral College vote has the potential to play a pivotal role in a race that will likely come down to the wire. Biden and Trump are running neck and neck Tuesday, and it is possible the Nebraska district will help the former vice president hit the 270 Electoral College votes needed to clinch a victory.

The district includes the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area and Omaha’s suburbs, representing the kind of urban-suburban areas that have drifted away from the president since his 2016 victory and that the Biden campaign was targeting. 

“Biden just fits the district,” Jane Kleeb, chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, told The Hill last month. “There’s obviously definitely progressive voters in the 2nd Congressional, but there’s a lot of moderate voters. I think when people think of Nebraska, they think of mostly [agriculture], and obviously our state is mostly [agriculture] but the second congressional district is Fortune 500 companies and tech start-ups. It’s the hipster tattoo shops, and then the historic cultural Black stores as well.”

Biden earlier in the night expressed optimism about his chances for victory, noting that millions of votes in key Midwestern swing states have yet to be tallied. 

“As I’ve said all along, it’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who won this election. It’s put to the American people. But I’m optimistic about the outcome,” he said in Wilmington, Del.

The Nebraska district is also hosting a competitive House race between Rep. Don Bacon (R) and progressive Kara Eastman that has yet to be called.