Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert will face off against John Ewing in the city’s general election on May 13.
As of 10:25 p.m. Tuesday, all early ballots cast before election day and election day votes were counted. Stothert, a Republican running for her fourth term, recorded 25,056 votes. Ewing, a Democrat, had 21,623.
In her victory speech Tuesday night, Stothert congratulated Ewing and said she looks forward to running a “positive campaign” focused on the issues that matter to residents: Public safety, lower taxes and safe roads.
Mike McDonnell, a Republican and critic of Stothert, came in a distant third with 13,859. He conceded shortly before 10 p.m., according to KETV.
There are still about 5,000 to 6,000 votes to be counted, which will be released on Friday. Those are from early ballots returned to drop boxes on election day.
Brian Kruse, the Douglas County Election Commissioner, said Tuesday that he expected turnout to be between 25% to 30% of the county’s registered voters. Turnout in city primaries has trended up in recent years, Kruse said.
Stothert was first elected as mayor in 2013 and won re-election three times since. Her closest challenge was in 2017 from Heath Mello, a Democrat, in which Stothert won with about 53% of the vote to Mello’s 47%. In the 2021 race, she received 64% of the vote.
Ewing is a former Omaha Police officer who has served as the Douglas County Treasurer for 17 years. In 2012, he came within two points of beating former U.S. Rep. Lee Terry in the race for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District.
City Council shakeup
Only two of Omaha’s seven city council districts had competitive races with more than two candidates: District 4 in South Omaha and District 2 in North Omaha.
In District 4, incumbent Ron Hug had a commanding lead with 2,538 votes by 10:25 p.m. The race for second place was closer, with Andrew Adams recording 1,126 votes and Gilbert Ayala recording 1,098 – a difference of just 28 votes. Hug was appointed to the seat in 2023 after former city councilman Vinny Palermo was federally indicted on fraud charges and later sent to prison.
District 2 representative Juanita Johnson, who is seeking re-election for the first time after her 2021 win over Ben Gray, faced eight challengers – including Gray – in the primary. As of 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, Johnson was in third place behind Gray and LaVonya Goodwin.
Gray ended Tuesday night in the lead with 1,578 votes. Goodwin recorded 919 votes to Johnson’s 872 votes. Maurice Jones was in fourth place with just 22 votes separating him from Johnson.
The volume of candidates was overwhelming to some voters in the district.
“I just decided to stay with the person who’s the incumbent this time, because I really didn’t know the other eight or nine,” Tina, a District 2 voter, said after she voted for Johnson at Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church on Tuesday afternoon. “I feel like she’s done a pretty good job.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.