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Final Democratic primary results in the highly contested race to represent Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District will not be fully tallied until Friday.
John Cavanaugh and Denise Powell were neck and neck much of Tuesday night when polls started reporting.
Cavanaugh got off to a narrow lead when early ballot results were released at 8 p.m., 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.
That amounts to 9,700 remaining early ballots, which have favored Cavanaugh to this point. While it seems unlikely he would garner enough of those votes to vault into the lead, he could get enough to trigger an automatic recount, which occurs if the margin of victory is less than 1%.
“We’re letting all the votes be counted and letting the process play out,” said Cavanaugh campaign manager Katie Bartizal.
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.