With more than 98% of estimated votes counted, Don Bacon was elected in Nebraska District 2. He won with 51% of the votes, compared to Kara Eastman’s 46.1%. There are many reasons why Bacon won in this race. First, Bacon was the incumbent of District 2, so he would appeal to retrospective voters who believe he did a good job in his previous term. This is a key component of his victory as Nebraskans would understand that he has expertise in office. Also, Nebraska was found to be a Republican state as Trump won by a large margin against Biden. This could make voters vote for the candidate who identifies with the same party as them. 

 

Especially in the current climate of the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare was an important issue to Nebraskans. They agreed with Bacon when he said that Eastman’s plan was too radical and that his plan would help Nebraskans with lower drug prices. Bacon was also a promising candidate as his main message he always said to the people was that he would help all sides of the ideological scale, and that he would work with the other side to come up with solutions to problems. This could bring voters who are in the middle to vote for Bacon as they know their beliefs will be understood as well. 

 

Our prediction that Bacon would win was accurate. This is because we took into the factors that were said above and understood that Bacon had the highest chance of winning. Polling was also accurate as it showed Bacon was leading by a margin that was large, but not one that would say Eastman had no chance in winning. Popular opinion had a 1% margin with Bacon on top, but 538 predicted that Bacon would win 58 to 42, again a large margin but not so large that Eastman had no chance.