The Associated Press on Wednesday night declared Denise Powell the winner of the Democratic primary in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District.
Final Democratic primary results in the highly contested race to represent Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District will not be fully tallied until Friday, but Powell’s nearly 1,100-vote lead over John Cavanaugh appears to be insurmountable.
That’s despite the fact that Douglas County still has nearly 10,000 votes to count, the results of which won’t be released until Friday.
Cavanaugh led for much of the night Tuesday, but tides shifted in Powell’s favor as the night went on.
As of Wednesday morning, she led with 20,033 votes to Cavanaugh’s 18,953, amounting to 39% and 37% of the total votes cast in the race, respectively.
Election officials said provisional ballot results would be released Wednesday, but early ballots that were turned in on Election Day wouldn’t be released until Friday.
“We’re letting all the votes be counted and letting the process play out,” Cavanaugh campaign manager Katie Bartizal said Tuesday morning.
Neither candidate had made a public statement Wednesday night after the AP announcement.
The race between the two turned contentious in recent weeks as Powell and Cavanaugh launched dueling negative ads.
A deluge of mailers, digital ads and TV spots from a Powell-aligned SuperPAC spread the message that a Cavanaugh win would put the future of the district’s “Blue Dot” at risk — an assertion Cavanaugh and his campaign vehemently denied.
An ad launched by Cavanaugh’s campaign shortly before election day referred to Powell as “dark money Denise” and accused her of having “orchestrated secret donations for billionaires.”
Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional district is seen as a key pickup for Democrats as they look to take control of Congress in November. Powell and Cavanaugh were among several Democrats running to face off against Omaha City Councilman Harding, who is the sole Republican in the race after incumbent Rep. Don Bacon announced his retirement.
Other Democratic candidates in the race were Crystal Rhoades, Kishla Askins, Melanie Williams and Van Argyrakis.