The city of Nebraska turned 43 points to choose John Ewing Jr. The Democrats should study the model he embraced.
During the last months, the reckless use of the Trump Administration Executive Branch, commercial policy, gutting federal agencies and the defation of judicial orders has been largely reduced. National Democrats have limited means of opposition, so the best hope of responsibility will be electoral responsibility.
This can help explain why last Tuesday’s electoral results in the 41st largest city in the United States generated such a huge emotion of the progressives. John Ewing Jr., a county treasurer for a long time, was chosen the first black mayor of Omaha, defeating the head Jean Stothert, who was looking for a fourth mandate after taking that position since 2013. More than that, Ewing won greatly, for almost 13 points, marking a great change after Stothert won the last race for 30.
Ewing conducted a substantive and highly located campaign that was based on decades of credibility that he won as a public servant supplemented by the long -standing work of the Democratic Party of Nebraska to build coalitions in a traditionally deep prisoner. By balancing this career for 43 points, both have inspired the hope that political winds may be changing, and provide a model for Democrats to success in 2026 and beyond.
The results in Omaha are significant for the scale of the city, but for how the country can reflect as a whole. The seat in the Omaha Congress, the second in Nebraska, is a true Swing district, one of the only three in the country that voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, while choosing a Republican to Congress. It is a diverse, medium -sized city, from the west medium, and if it is enough to transmit its heart state, it is almost in the United States geographical center.
For all these reasons, it is instructive that the Democrats understand the strategy of the Democratic Party of Nebraska, who now serves as president of the State Democratic Committees Association (ASDC) and a Vice President of DNC: Jane Kleb. At a time when so much attention has been focused on the media on the internal procedural drama that surrounds certain other vice presidents, Kleeb and the Democratic Party of Nebraska have continued their long -standing approach to everyday work.
In the waning days of the election of the mayor of Omaha, Stothers tried to negatively polarize the voters against Ewing when nationalizing the race, OM, in deprivation, hammering the objective of the favorite neoprene of the Republican Party of the trans people. As my colleague John Nichols wrote about last week to The nationThis did not work. Instead, Ewing refused to dwell and kept his focus on tangible municipal problems, such as housing, street paving and also a tram project. In a simple chart launched three days before the elections, the Nebraska Democratic Party proudly declared: “Jean focuses on the uriners. John focuses on fixing the potholes.”
Current problem
As thousands of Democrats throughout the country seek the choice of the electoral ballot in 2026, they could also refuse to decrease in republican terms and, instead, execute campaigns focused with relief on improving the lives of their constituents.
Because this campaign is, it is also based on the state efforts of the Nebraska Democratic Party to compete in unfavorable territory. Kleeb has advised for a long time for Democrats to make a direct scope to rural voters, and is not the same as parallel. Instead, it means recognizing real problems that, for example, farmers are experiencing and offering practical solutions.
In his words: “In rural and small villages we can not use the word ‘climate change’ in the first five prayers, but all we are doing is talking about protecting land and water.”
And the progressives in Nebraska know one or two things about the value of avoiding toxic political labels. When the veteran of the Navy, mechanical and union leader Dan Osborn directed a populist and independent campaign for the Senate last year, the Democratic Party of Nebraska took aside and decided not to direct a candidate. While Osborn and the State State had their differences, and the finally lost, this unorthodox strategy showed a serious rise. Osborn approached the titular Republican that any other challenger in the 2024 cycle; Now he is looking at a 2026 race in much more favorable circumstances.
With lessons to learn from success in Nebraska, he is an encouraging that Kleeb now occupies a prominent leadership position in the National Democratic Party, the same role that Ken Martin had before becoming president. As head of the ASDC, Kleeb is well positioned to work with the 50 state chairs to obtain the resources they need, and it will be 50, since she and the DNC recently announced that the national organization will contribute more to the state of 50 states.
But even if Kleeb’s rise only meant that the Democratic Party improved in competing in Nebraska, could be decisive. Since the Republicans currently have the camera for a handful of seats (more or less the dishonored resignations that occur between now and next November), the race in the second district of Nebraska could be the turning point for the control of the lower chamber. Representative Don Bacon, who clung to his seat for less than two points in the last cycle, can be withdrawn before he has the opportunity to lose.
Whether the race for Congress in 2026 is reduced to Omaha or somewhere like this, democratic victories will depend on a national effort so deeply in local Conerns such as Kleeb and Ewing. That strategy can be summarized with a mantra that Kleeb has repeated again and again: what can call Jane’s chorus: “When we organize everywhere, we can win anywhere!”
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