NE GOP Rejecting All Repub. Incumbents 05/14 06:10

   

   OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- In one of the most closely watched congressional races 
this year, U.S. Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska is looking to defeat a fellow 
Republican in Tuesday's primary election in his quest for reelection. He'll 
have to do it without the support of the state Republican Party, which has 
endorsed his primary challenger.

   Bacon, whose district includes the state's largest city of Omaha, isn't the 
only one being snubbed. The Nebraska GOP, which was taken over by those loyal 
to former President Donald Trump during a contentious state convention in 2022, 
has refused to endorse any of the Republican incumbents who hold all five of 
the state's congressional seats.

   The state party has endorsed primary challengers to U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts 
and Rep. Adrian Smith, who represents the state's vast rural 3rd Congressional 
District. And it has declined to issue endorsements in the primary races of 
U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Mike Flood, who represents the 1st Congressional 
District that includes the state capital of Lincoln. Both Fischer and Flood 
face primary challengers who entered those races after the Nebraska GOP 
announced its endorsement decision in January.

   It's an oddity that lays bare the bitter divide between Trump loyalists who 
control the Nebraska GOP, as well as several county Republican parties, and the 
more establishment-type Republicans who were previously at the helm, said John 
Hibbing, a longtime University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor.

   "It's not a good look," Hibbing said. "You'd like the faces of your party, 
who would be your elected representatives, and the state party leaders to be on 
the same page."

   It's even more perplexing when considering the voting records and campaign 
rhetoric of the incumbents, he said.

   "I think they're probably wondering: 'What else can we do?'" Hibbing said. 
"These are solidly conservative individuals."

   Nowhere is the state party's rejection more likely to leave a mark than in 
Bacon's race. The incumbent faces a challenge from Dan Frei, who bills himself 
as to the right of Bacon. Frei previously ran for the seat in 2014 and came 
close to besting then-Rep. Lee Terry in the Republican primary.

   Bacon is one of 16 Republican members of Congress representing districts 
that Democrat Joe Biden carried in 2020.

   Nebraska eschewed a winner-take-all system of awarding presidential 
electoral votes more than 30 years ago and instead allows its electoral votes 
tied to its three congressional districts to be split. Bacon's district has 
seen its elector vote go to a Democratic presidential candidate twice -- to 
Barack Obama in 2008 and to Biden in 2020.

   After the state GOP endorsed Frei, Bacon defended his record as "a 
common-sense conservative who is able to reach across the aisle and find areas 
of consensus."

   Bacon has said that "it's sad to see the division in the party," Danielle 
Jensen, communications director of the Bacon campaign, said Monday. "I can tell 
you, he does not think this is going to negatively affect the campaign."

   The campaigns of Fischer, Flood, Ricketts and Smith did not answer questions 
by The Associated Press about the lack of state party endorsement.

   The state party said in an email Monday it didn't endorse any of the 
Republican incumbents because they didn't ask. But Bacon said Monday that 
incumbents didn't have to request the party for endorsements in years past.

   "These folks were hostile to all of us, and they changed the rules," Bacon 
said.

   The challengers who got the party's endorsement did ask, and a vote of the 
more than 160 elected governing body members of the party gave them that 
endorsement, said Todd Watson, political director of the state GOP.

   Watson denied that the move was solely about Trump, but said most Nebraska 
Republicans are fed up with what they see as attacks on Trump, the state 
party's new direction and "our way of life."

   "What we believe in is the Constitution, conservative principles, and God," 
he said.

   A former state Republican Party official, Kerry Winterer, excoriated the 
state party in an opinion piece published in the Nebraska Examiner last week, 
saying the party's primary purpose is to elect Republicans but that it has 
instead become bound solely to Trump.

   "A political party bound to one candidate cannot possibly fulfill its 
purpose of electing candidates that share a common political philosophy," 
Winterer wrote.

   Watson countered that "the old leadership" of the state GOP has it wrong.

   "Objectives of the party are achieved in our mind when we elect 
constitutional and platform Republicans to office," he said. "Electing 
Republicans that are not committed to the objective of the party ... to defend 
the Constitution and advance our principles as stated in our written platform 
and plans have been a real problem for this party and country."