Early History – A Western Stopover
European exploration of Nebraska started as early as 1682, with French explorers mapping the region, followed by Spaniards in 1720. Claim disputes ended when the French ceded its land west of the Mississippi River to Spain after its loss to the British in the Seven Years’ War. Nebraska then came under United States control after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The state then became involved in the fur trade, prompting the Missouri Company to fund trade route expeditions in the state, as well as construction of Fort Atkinson to protect the industry. This led to the founding of Bellevue, the first town in Nebraska, now part of the Omaha-Council Bluffs Metro Area.
In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act established Nebraska as a territory, which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise, leading to violence in Kansas and greatly expediting the start of the Civil War. Nebraska became an agricultural state that was also largely defined by its stopover status for settlers heading west, namely during the California Gold Rush in 1848 and a subsequent Wyoming gold rush in 1859. The trails west allowed for permanent settlements and laid substantial groundwork for Nebraska’s greatest industrial boon: the railroads.
Civil War & Industrialization – A Brief Period of Democratic Dominance
Like Kansas, Nebraska had many settlers from the North, creating an early abolitionist view in the state. Although no Civil War battles were fought in Nebraska, the state did lend 3,000 troops to the Union effort.
Nebraska’s constitution originally only extended suffrage to whites, but the U.S. Congress voted to admit Nebraska as a state on the condition that suffrage be extended to non-white voters. The bill to admit Nebraska was vetoed by President Andrew Johnson (D-TN), which was overridden by Congress, making Nebraska the thirty-seventh state on March 1, 1867. Nebraska is the only state to have been admitted by congressional override of a presidential veto.
The state’s population would balloon as the federal government signed the Homestead Act and the Union Pacific Railway – one of the three lines of the Transcontinental Railroad, the terminus of which was located in Omaha – issued land grants for rail workers. Agriculture and railroads became the state’s top industries. The state attracted many Europeans, who could sell their farms and buy bigger ones in Nebraska, as well as single women, who were eligible to own land.
During this period, Nebraska’s population would increase by one million people from 1860 to 1890, a higher population growth than the state would experience over the next 130 years. However, the economic fortunes would be temporarily suspended by the 1890s, which brought deflation, drought, and depression, giving way to the Populist movement in the United States.
One act of national influence during this era was that of Julius Sterling Morton’s proposed holiday to promote the planting of trees in Nebraska. The first “Arbor Day” saw the planting of one million trees in the state, and by 1920, forty-five states had adopted the holiday.
Nebraska then became an unexpected center of the moment: the home state of silverite William Jennings Bryan (D). Bryan served as a Nebraska congressman for four years and became one of the most vocal advocates for the coinage of silver to combat falling crop prices and heavily indebted farmers. He ran for president in 1896, 1900, and 1908. In the 1896 election, Bryan was just thirty-six years old, making him the youngest person in history to have ever received an electoral vote in a presidential contest. Additionally, he currently holds the record for the most electoral votes received without having been elected president. Between his three elections, he amassed 493 electoral votes, but never enough in one election to become president.
Nebraska’s overall electoral history is fairly straightforward: Since its first election in 1868, the state has only backed a Democratic candidate seven times out of its thirty-nine elections. In 1892, James Weaver (I-IA) came two points away from carrying the state on the Populist ticket. Bryan won his home station in 1896, the first Democrat to do so. William McKinley (R-OH) narrowly flipped the state against Bryan, namely due to the dying energy of the already fractious Populist era. Bryan would carry his home state in 1908 against William Howard Taft (R-OH).
From 1920 until now, Nebraska has only voted for three Democratic presidential candidates, all in national landslide elections: 1932 and 1936 for FDR (D-NY) and 1964 for Lyndon Johnson (D-TX).
Twentieth Century Politics – A Republican Stronghold
The Great Depression and New Deal politics allowed FDR to deliver the best performance for a Democrat in Nebraska’s history in 1932. Owing to its ancestral Republicanism, Nebraska has not voted to the left of the nation since. The Democrats’ hold on farmers would erode as FDR would lose the state and other Great Plains states decisively in 1940 and 1944, but Omaha and its suburbs would narrowly back him.
Nebraska’s economy changed during World War II, as the Army constructed an aircraft plant near Omaha, which introduced new manufacturing and defense sectors to the state. One plant became Offutt Air Force Base, which not only stimulated population growth in Omaha, but is now the headquarters of the U.S. Strategic Command.
As agriculture continued to become less lucrative, factory farms expanded while family farms moved to the suburbs and cities. As the economy shifted, and the government kicked in tax incentives, Nebraska gained an oil profile as well, allowing Omaha to become a hub for business. One business, Berkshire Hathaway, chaired by Nebraskan Warren Buffett since 1965, is headquartered in Omaha, and is currently the seventh-largest component of the S&P 500.
Railroads have continued to be one of the state’s largest economies, as Bailey Yard in North Platte is the world’s largest train yard, managing as many as 10,000 rail cars each day.
Republicans would continue to dominate the state on the presidential level. The last Republican to win Nebraska by a single-digit margin was Thomas Dewey (R-NY) in 1948; victories since then have been blowouts.
Current Political Leanings – Red Nebraska, Purple Omaha
In 1992, Nebraska adopted the Congressional district method of allocating electoral votes. The only other state that operates under this method is Maine. The popular-vote winner in Nebraska receives two electoral votes, with the state’s three congressional districts each providing one electoral vote. Republicans easily win four of the state’s five votes, but the fifth and final vote is determined by the popular vote winner in the Second Congressional District, centered on Omaha.
While Omaha does have ancestral Republican DNA, the city did back Democrats – albeit narrowly – many times during the 20th Century. Barack Obama (D-IL) was the first presidential candidate to split Nebraska’s vote by winning Omaha in 2008; this was repeated by Joe Biden (D-DE) in 2020.
This is why Nebraska receives some lopsided election coverage compared to its Great Plains neighbors. Additionally, it’s the only serious geographic caveat to Nebraska’s political landscape, as the rest of the state – save for Lincoln’s Lancaster County – is firm Republican territory. Omaha’s Douglas County is responsible for the competitiveness of Omaha. Democrats were recently able to win Thurston County, with predominantly Native American communities, by regularly decent margins, but Donald Trump (R-FL) was able to win it both 2016 and 2020.
In the U.S. Senate, Democrats last held a seat in 2007, and last held both simultaneously in 1997. Once again owing to the intrinsic Republican lean of the state, only one Democrat has ever held the Class Two Senate seat from Nebraska, and Democrats were not elected to the Senate until 1911.
The last Democratic governor of Nebraska was Ben Nelson, who served from 1991-1999. No gubernatorial contest has been competitive here since 1998.
On the Congressional level, Democrats last held the Omaha-based Second District from 2015-2017, with Rep. Brad Ashford (D) losing to Don Bacon (R) in 2016. Bacon has set himself apart as an iconoclastic member of the House, allowing him to retain this seat even in good Democratic years. Until Ashford, Democrats had not held this seat since 1995.
Looking forward, it does not seem Democrats will be able to regularly contest Nebraska at-large in the near future. Even if Omaha does become a more reliable blue vote for them – which is possible considering the increased influence Democrats have had on suburbs nationally – the rest of the state itself is unflinchingly Republican and the population of Omaha cannot offset the rest of the state’s conservative population in statewide elections.
