OMAHA- U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, with the help of House Republican leadership and national GOP donors, set a financial record this spring that signals to opponents that the cost of running against the four-term incumbent is going up. In the first quarter of 2023, Bacon's campaign raised $483,000, receiving an additional $140,000 from his federal political committee, raising the total to $623,000.

Despite this new record, Democrats say Bacon's stepped-up fundraising illustrates his fear that voters in his purple district, who picked Joe Biden as president in 2020, might not be as open to Bacon in 2024. The old fundraising record for first-quarter funding during a non-election year by any House candidate in Nebraska was in 2019, when Bacon raised $370,693 for a run during the last presidential election year.

Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb said Bacon knows "he's going to be in trouble" for portraying himself as a moderate. Kleeb went on to say that she believes Bacon's previous support for a proposed federal abortion ban won't sit well with women upset by the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade. "We are going to make the contrast very clear," she said." Thus far, no major Democratic candidate has announced a bid, and the office of Sen. Tony Vargas, who ran against Bacon last year, declined to confirm if the senator intended to run again.

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