John Cavanaugh has officially conceded to Denise Powell in the contentious race for the Democratic nomination in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District.
Though the Associated Press called the race for Powell on Wednesday evening, Cavanaugh waited to concede until the Douglas County Election Commission released vote totals from thousands of mail-in ballots that were turned in on election day. Those results were released at 12:15 p.m. on Friday.
“Now that all of the votes have been counted, I’ve called Denise Powell and congratulated her,” Cavanaugh said in a statement shortly after the release. “Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this campaign.”
According to unofficial results, Powell received 22,270 votes to Cavanaugh’s 20,923 votes.
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.