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Nebraska election preview, 2024
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Last updated: Oct. 2, 2024
Thousands of general elections are taking place across the United States on Nov. 5, 2024. Those elections include offices at the federal, state, and local levels. This is one of 50 pages in which Ballotpedia previews the elections happening in each state as part of the Daily Brew’s 50 states in 25 days series.
This page provides an overview of all elections happening in Nebraska within our coverage scope on Nov. 5, 2024. Those elections include offices for three U.S. Representatives, two U.S. Senators, four members of the Board of Regents, four members of the State Board of Education, and two Public Service Commissioners, 25 state Senators, and one State Supreme Court Justice. Additionally there are six statewide ballot measures on the ballot in Nebraska. On this page, you will also find information regarding:
- How to vote in Nebraska
- The elected offices that Nebraska voters can expect to see on their ballots
- The races in Nebraska that Ballotpedia is covering as battlegrounds
- The ballot measures that voters in Nebraska will decide on
- Ballotpedia's Sample Ballot Lookup Tool
- The partisan balance of Nebraska's congressional delegation and state government
- Past presidential election results in Nebraska
- The competitiveness of legislative elections in Nebraska
- The candidates who are on the ballot in Nebraska
Voting information
- See also: Voting in Nebraska
What's on the ballot?
2024 elections
- See also: Nebraska elections, 2024
Nebraska voters will elect one U.S. Senator and three U.S. Representatives. Additionally there will be a special election to fill the last two years of the six-year term that Ben Sasse (R) was elected to in 2020. Pete Ricketts (R), who Gov. Jim Pillen (R) appointed to fill the vacant left by Sasse's resignation, is running for election. All five incumbents are running for re-election.
There are four seats on the Board of Regents, four seats on the State Board of Education, and two seats on the Public Service Commission up for election. Incumbents are running for re-election for all seats on the Board of Regents and the Public Service Commission. All seats on the State Board of Education are open.
Twenty-five seats in the state Senate are up for election. Fifteen seats are open because an incumbent is not running for re-election.
One seat on the state supreme court is up for election. Nebraska is one of 20 states that use retention elections. In Nebraska, justices must run in a yes-no retention election during the first general election occurring after they have been on the court for three years. Subsequent terms last six years.
There are 22 seats across seven school boards up for election in Nebraska. The districts these boards represent are part of the 475 school districts included in Ballotpedia's coverage of school board elections. This includes all school districts in the 100 largest cities by population and the 200 largest school districts by student enrollment.
Municipal elections will be held in three counties across Nebraska. Those counties are part of the 80 counties included in Ballotpedia's coverage of municipal elections.
Below is a list of Nebraska elections covered by Ballotpedia in 2024. Click the links to learn more about each type:
Nebraska elections, 2024 | ||
---|---|---|
Office | Elections? | More information |
U.S. Senate | ✓ | Click here |
U.S. House | ✓ | Click here |
Congress special election | ✓ | Click here |
Governor | — | — |
Other state executive | ✓ | Click here |
State Senate | ✓ | Click here |
State House | — | — |
Special state legislative | — | — |
State Supreme Court | ✓ | Click here |
Intermediate appellate courts | — | — |
School boards | ✓ | Click here |
Municipal government | ✓ | Click here |
Recalls | ✓ | Click here |
Ballot measures | ✓ | Click here |
Local ballot measures | ✓ | Click here |
Legend: ✓ election(s) / — no elections
Subject to Ballotpedia's scope
Your ballot
- See also: Sample Ballot Lookup
Noteworthy elections
As of Oct. 2, 2024, Ballotpedia has identified two elections as battleground races. Those are the races that we expect to have a meaningful effect on the balance of power in governments or to be particularly competitive or compelling.
- Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District election, 2024: Incumbent Don Bacon (R) and Tony Vargas (D) are running. In 2022, Bacon's margin of victory was 2.6 percentage points. As of Oct. 2, 2024, four major election forecasters differed in their ratings for the general election, with one rating it Lean Democratic and three rating it Toss-up.
- United States Senate election in Nebraska, 2024: Incumbent Deb Fischer (R) and Dan Osborn (Independent) are running. In 2018, Fischer's margin of victory was 19.1 percentage points. As of Oct. 2, 2024, four major election forecasters differed in their ratings for the general election, with one rating it Safe Republican and three rating it Likely Republican.
Ballot measures
- See also: Nebraska 2024 ballot measures
There are six statewide ballot measures on the ballot in Nebraska.
Type | Title | Subject | Description | Result | Yes Votes | No Votes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Initiative 434 | Abortion | Prohibit abortion after the first trimester, except in cases of medical emergencies or if the pregnancy is the result of sexual assault or incest |
|
509,288 (55%) |
417,624 (45%) |
|
Initiative 436 | Sick leave | Require employers to provide earned paid sick leave for employees |
|
662,348 (75%) |
225,974 (25%) |
|
Initiative 437 | Marijuana | Legalize the medical use of marijuana in the state |
|
637,126 (71%) |
259,643 (29%) |
|
Initiative 438 | Marijuana | Establish the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission to regulate the state's medical marijuana program |
|
600,481 (67%) |
291,867 (33%) |
|
Initiative 439 | Constitutional rights; Abortion | Provide for a state constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability |
|
455,184 (49%) |
473,652 (51%) |
|
Referendum 435 | School choice | Uphold the law providing for an education scholarship program for students to attend accredited private schools |
|
382,921 (43%) |
508,140 (57%) |
There were 106 ballot measures on the ballot in Nebraska from 1985 to 2022. Voters approved 65 measures and defeated 41.
State analysis
Partisan balance
Republicans represent all three districts in Nebraska's U.S. House delegation. In the U.S. House, Republicans have a 220-212 majority with three vacancies.
Both of Nebraska's U.S. Senators are Republicans. Democrats have a majority in the U.S. Senate. There are 47 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and four independents. Three independents caucus with the Democratic Party, and one other counts towards the Democratic majority for committee purposes.
There are no formal party alignments or groups within the Nebraska State Senate. Coalitions tend to form issue-by-issue based on a member's philosophy of government, geographic background, and constituency. To learn more about how Ballotpedia determined the partisan affiliation for state senators, click here. Republicans have a 33-15 majority with one nonpartisan member in the state Senate. Republicans won a majority in the state Senate in 1999.
Because the governor is a Republican, Nebraska is one of 23 Republican trifectas. Nebraska's legislature does not have a lower chamber. It has held this status since 1999, when the state's Democratic trifecta was replaced by a Republican trifecta.
Nebraska's attorney general and secretary of state are also Republicans. This makes Nebraska one of 25 states with a Republican triplex. It has held this status since 2018, when a Democratic triplex replaced the state's Republican triplex. It has held this status since 1999, when Gov. Mike Johnson (R) assumed office.
Past presidential election results in Nebraska
- See also: Presidential election in Nebraska, 2024
How a state's counties vote in a presidential election and the size of those counties can provide additional insights into election outcomes at other levels of government including statewide and congressional races. Below, four categories are used to describe each county's voting pattern over the 2012, 2016, and 2020 presidential elections: Solid, Trending, Battleground, and New. Click [show] on the table below for examples:
County-level voting pattern categories | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | |||||||
Status | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | ||||
Solid Democratic | D | D | D | ||||
Trending Democratic | R | D | D | ||||
Battleground Democratic | D | R | D | ||||
New Democratic | R | R | D | ||||
Republican | |||||||
Status | 2012 | 2016 | 2020 | ||||
Solid Republican | R | R | R | ||||
Trending Republican | D | R | R | ||||
Battleground Republican | R | D | R | ||||
New Republican | D | D | R |
Following the 2020 presidential election, 53.4% of Nebraskans lived in one of the state's 90 Solid Republican counties, which voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election from 2012 to 2020, and 46.2% lived in one of two Trending Democratic counties: Douglas and Lancaster. Overall, Nebraska was Solid Republican, having voted for Mitt Romney (R) in 2012, Donald Trump (R) in 2016, and Donald Trump (R) in 2020. Use the table below to view the total number of each type of county in Nebraska following the 2020 election as well as the overall percentage of the state population located in each county type.
Nebraska county-level statistics, 2020 | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Solid Republican | 90 | 53.4% | |||||
Trending Democratic | 2 | 46.2% | |||||
Trending Republican | 1 | 0.3% | |||||
Total voted Democratic | 2 | 46.2% | |||||
Total voted Republican | 91 | 53.8% |
State legislative competitiveness
According to Ballotpedia's annual state legislative competitiveness report, Nebraska had a Competitiveness Index of 62.0, ranking it first of the 44 states that held elections.
- 15 of the 25 seats up for election were open (60%)
- Five of the 10 incumbents who ran for re-election faced contested primaries (50%)
- 19 of the 25 seats up for election were contested by both major parties (76%)
2010-2024
Hover over column headings to learn more about their contents.
State Legislative Competitiveness Index in Nebraska, 2010-2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Year | Open seats | Incs. in contested primaries | Major party competition | Competitiveness Index | Rank | |||||||||||||||||||
2010 | 12.5% | 28.6% | 37.5% | 26.2 | 35 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
2012 | 36.0% | 25.0% | 52.0% | 37.7 | 18 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
2014 | 70.8% | 14.3% | 33.3% | 39.5 | 8 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
2016 | 44.0% | 28.6% | 44.0% | 38.9 | 12 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
2018 | 33.3% | 31.3% | 54.2% | 39.6 | 17 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
2020 | 24.0% | 10.5% | 56.0% | 30.2 | 30 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
2022 | 54.2% | 54.5% | 45.8% | 51.5 | 4 / 44 | |||||||||||||||||||
2024 | 60.0% | 50.0% | 76.0% | 62.0 | 1 / 44 |
In 2024
Hover over column headings to learn more about their contents. Click on headings for more state-specific information.
State Legislative Competitiveness Index in Nebraska, 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chamber | Open seats | Incs. in contested primaries | Major party competition | Competitiveness Index | ||||||||||||||||||||
House | N/A | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Senate | 60.0% | 50.0% | 76.0% | 62.0 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Total | 60.0% | 50.0% | 76.0% | 62.0 |
List of candidates
See also
Footnotes