Nebraska GOP's Future Following Last Week's Primary

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Great pleasure to welcome our old friendJoe Jordan back to the program news Channel
Nebraska, one of the fine politicalsurveyors of the scene ever in Nebraska.
Joseph, good morning, Good morning, Gary. Aw you doing well,
Thank you. I wanted to getyour take on basically the landscape coming out
of the primary head of the generalelection, with particular note on the State

(00:20):
Republican Party, the state GOP,which was I think zero for five in
terms of endorsements of our congressional delegation, and it remains to be seen what
they do going into the general.What do you think of all of this?
I mean what they do regarding endorsements. What do you think of all
of this? I think it's rapidlybecoming a case of be careful what you

(00:40):
wish for. Right now, you'vegot a clear division in the Republican Party.
You've got elected officials. You've gotPete Ricketts, Debb Fisher, Don
Bacon, Mike Flood, Adrian Smithelected by the people. Then you've got
the party leadership elected by party insidersbasically, and there's a division between the
two. Party insiders are sort ofthe ultimate pro trumpers, and the elected

(01:03):
officials are more moderate pro Trumpers,and that's where the division lies. The
problem is as we go forward here, coming out of the primary, I'm
hearing an undercurrent that says there areRepublicans in the second Congressional District who are
willing to in effect, let DonBacon lose in November. Yes, so
far, Dan Fry has not endorsedBacon. He's conceded the race, but

(01:27):
hasn't endorsed. It's not clear ifand when he will. So there's this
belief that we let Bacon lose inNovember, and oh, don't worry about
it, Tony Vargus will have fortwo years and we'll get the seat back.
Well, that's not a guarantee.It worked, you know ten years
ago Lee Terry lost to Brad Ashford. Ashford then lost to Bacon. But

(01:47):
the dynamics of the world have changedin ten years, and a Vargas win
isn't going to be as easy toreplace, I think as some Republicans think
it might be. That's the oneelement going on. The other is a
bigger long shot. I think SenatorFisher could feel some of the results of
some of this as well. She'sapparently going to be running against an independent

(02:09):
Dan Osborne. He's got a pollsthat say he's in good shape. I'm
not sure I totally trust the polls, but we do know that he's raised
about a million dollars, which ispretty good for an independent candidate Nebraska.
So if Democrats side with himote withhim because they don't like Fisher, and
some independence go with Osborne, whoknows how that race could come out if

(02:30):
Republicans don't fully get behind Debt Fisher. So I think there's a lot of
things that play here. None ofthem are set in stone, but certainly
in a state as red as Nebraska, you would even expect us to be
a discussion point. I know,although it wouldn't be. I mean that,
I think your point there relative tothat Fisher Osbourne race is that it
may be closer than you would otherwisethink. But I got a hard time

(02:52):
imagining Dan Osburn beating deb Fisher.I mean, he had a dust up
with the state Democratic Party because theywere kind of playing you know, Kissey
face, and then that blew up. I mean, the whole thing is
just a mess. So the otherthing, though, Joe, and you've
observed this now for most of thirtyyears, and that is forty years,
and that is the changing demographic inNebraska. This is not your father's Republican

(03:14):
party and it's not your father's Democratparty. The Democrats in this state are
very different now than they were ageneration ago. They are far more to
the left, far more into socialissues. They used to be just small
business people that wanted a little help. And the Nebraska Republican Party is far
more to the right than it usedto be. This is a Republican party
that was made up of country clubRepublicans for years, and they're not there

(03:37):
anymore. There's no doubt that bothparties have quote unquote gone to the extremes
among their most fervent followers. Andwhat that's done is, and this is
sort of always the case, itputs these races that are close left up
to the moderate Republican, the moderateDemocrat, and that independent in the middle

(04:01):
to decide who's going to win thesethings. Now, I don't I you
know, when I talked about theFisher Osborne thing, I totally agree with
you Gary that I think it's anclearly an outside shot. But I don't.
But it's something that he probably shouldn'tneed to be discussed in a state
like Nebraska, but Bacon and andthe Bacon Vargas race totally different. It's
always a fifty to fifty race here. It has been for you know,

(04:24):
X number of years. It's goingto be that again, and Bacon is
going to need every one of thoseRepublicans UH to put him across the finish
line, while Vargas tries to makesure he doesn't, he doesn't come across
as too far to the left toincense moderate Democrats. This is this has
been the fight going on for yearsnow, but clearly the extremes of the

(04:44):
party are making it difficult for peoplein the middle to figure out which why
they want to be on Well,Tony's pretty good at that. Kara Eastman
was not. She was she wasbasically Bernie Sanders and Paul Wellston. You
know that she was very upfront aboutabout Tony's not to be perfectly honest.
You know, he's going to beas left as you can get, but

(05:05):
he's not going to act like itin the campaign. The advantage he has
had is eight years in the legislaturegave him some gravitas to Kara Eastman didn't
have, and the ability to atleast work with Republicans so that it didn't
always look like he was just oneside of the fence. I think that's
an advantage that he acquired over thoseeight years in the legislature. What is

(05:25):
your view of the Trump factor inthe Bacon race. Uh, he will
be the guy from a national perspective, and yet Bacon has out has outvoted
him in the second district in thelast two presidential elections. What do you
think that will mean for this racein district too, Well, there's no

(05:46):
doubt that the Trump factor will beprominent, and the Democrats will try to
make the case that Bacon's votes andthat Bacon's discussions about Trump are you don't
reveal the real Don Bacon. Uh, because he's always been a bit slow
to either either he's criticized the formerpresident or just you know kind of and

(06:08):
it's only kind of walked away fromDemocrats are going to try and make the
case that that that's a show andit's not real. Now. In terms
of your specific question, Yeah,Bacon has outpulled Trump in the district and
he's done that because he's aware youcan't win this district if you don't give
a little bit uh on things likethe infrastructure vote. Uh that that brought

(06:30):
him some friends on the on theDemocratic side and in the modern world,
and brought him some enemies on theRepublican side. I don't think in the
end, I don't think in theend it's going to be a Trump Biden
decision in the by the voters here. I think they'll ultimately decided between Bacon
and Vargas Uh on their own merits. Okay, interesting a jel, let's

(06:51):
stay in touch. It's going tobe a fun ride November. You go
to you on Joe Jordan News ChannelNebraska this morning. I don't know how
Trump comes to Nebraska and is lookingmore and more like the blue dot that
I enjoyed could get to two seventyfor one of these candidates. How does
Donald Trump come to Nebraska and notbring Don Bacon up on stage with him?

(07:13):
And if Don Bacon doesn't go upon stage with Donald Trump, how
can he win this election? Youknow, I don't know, man,
I think this is it for Doneither way. I do. I mean,
I think if he gets a fifthterm, I think he'll say,
Okay, that's been a pretty goodrun.