Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District election, 2026

	← 2024
Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District
	General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: Pending
	Primary: May 12, 2026; General: November 3, 2026
How to vote
	Poll times: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Central time zone); 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Mountain time zone); Voting in Nebraska
Race ratings
	Cook Political Report: Lean Democratic; DDHQ and The Hill: Pending; Inside Elections: Toss-up; Sabato's Crystal Ball: Lean Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
	U.S. Senate battlegrounds; U.S. House battlegrounds; Federal and state primary competitiveness; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
	Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District; U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd; Nebraska elections, 2026; U.S. Congress elections, 2026; U.S. Senate elections, 2026; U.S. House elections, 2026; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House raceArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House raceFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House raceOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House raceTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House raceVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House raceSubmit

All U.S. House districts, including the 2nd Congressional District of Nebraska, are holding elections in 2026. The general election is November 3, 2026. To learn more about other elections on the ballot, click here.

Candidates and election results

Note: The following list includes official candidates only. Ballotpedia defines official candidates as people who:

Register with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline
Appear on candidate lists released by government election agencies

Note: At this time, Ballotpedia is combining all declared candidates for this election into one list under a general election heading. As primary election dates are published, this information will be updated to separate general election candidates from primary candidates as appropriate.

General election

The general election will occur on November 3, 2026.

General election for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

The following candidates are running in the general election for U.S. House Nebraska District 2 on November 3, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Evangelos Argyrakis (D)
		Kishla Askins (D)
		John Cavanaugh (D)
		Mark Johnston (D)
		Denise Powell (D)
		Brinker Harding (R)
		Brett Lindstrom (R)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Don Bacon (R)

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Evangelos Argyrakis

Do you have a photo that could go here? Click here to submit it for this profile!

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography: "I am a former Immigration Attorney, who is focused on immigration reform. I strongly believe that it is time for comprehensive immigration reform legislation. The issue has been put into the forefront by president Donald Trump and something has to be done to address the situation, including a pathway to US Citizenship."

Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

Fighting for our immigrant population in America…

Fiscal conservatism

Champion for women’s rights, women are the key to our future, and I believe that we must protect women’s rights, including reproductive rights.

Mark Johnston

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Submitted Biography: "Retired Eye Surgeon"

Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

Justice For All

Represent all the voters in CD2

Working together for a better future.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Nebraska

Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Survey responses from candidates in this race

Click on a candidate's name to visit their Ballotpedia page.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Expand all | Collapse all

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Evangelos Argyrakis	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Kishla Askins	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
John Cavanaugh	Democratic Party	$130,341	$3,218	$127,123	As of June 30, 2025
Mark Johnston	Democratic Party	$7,357	$5,373	$1,983	As of June 30, 2025
Denise Powell	Democratic Party	$429,740	$89,618	$340,122	As of June 30, 2025
Brinker Harding	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Brett Lindstrom	Republican Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. * Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Race ratings: Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District election, 2026
Race tracker	Race ratings
	9/9/2025	9/2/2025	8/26/2025	8/19/2025
The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic
Decision Desk HQ and The Hill	Pending	Pending	Pending	Pending
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up	Toss-up
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic	Lean Democratic
Note: Ballotpedia reviews external race ratings every week throughout the election season and posts weekly updates even if the media outlets have not revised their ratings during that week.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Don Bacon (R)	50.9	160,198
	Tony Vargas (D)	49.1	154,369

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 314,567
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 39,038
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 57,694
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 219,470
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Tony Vargas	68.6	31,930
	Alisha Shelton	31.4	14,585

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 46,515
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Don Bacon	77.1	53,824
	Steve Kuehl	22.9	15,945

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Don Bacon	62.0	35,748
	Dan Frei	38.0	21,946

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Don Bacon (R)	50.8	171,071
		Kara Eastman (D)	46.2	155,706
	Submit photo	Tyler Schaeffer (L)	3.0	10,185

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Kara Eastman	62.2	45,953
		Ann Ashford	31.2	23,059
	Submit photo	Gladys Harrison	6.7	4,920

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 69,769
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 336,962
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 73,932
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 75,637
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 964
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nebraska	2026 primaries	2026 U.S. Congress elections

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Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District election, 2026

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Candidate profiles

Voting information

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Campaign finance

General election race ratings

Ballot access

District history

2024

General election

General election for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

2022

General election

General election for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

2020

General election

General election for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

Libertarian primary election

Libertarian primary for U.S. House Nebraska District 2

District analysis

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

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