OMAHA- For several years now, the populist wing of the Nebraska GOP ran into a wall of resistance in the Omaha area, where the local GOP fought to preserve a place for the more moderate Republicans who have historically won races in the politically mixed city and its suburbs. This month, however, this populist wing has seemingly broken through, winning a majority of seats on the party's governing board.

This change came during an April 6th party convention, during which the populist wing was able to recruit hundreds of party members to vote their way in elections for the Douglas County GOP central committee. The Douglas County GOP is the only county party in the 2nd District that endorsed the top GOP federal incumbents, including U.S. Rep. Don Bacon and Sen. Pete Ricketts, who are being targeted by some of the Nebraska GOP's most vocal supporters.

Now that the party has switched hands, there have been calls to rescind those endorsements and instead back other opponents. The elections this month for the central committee also swept away a handful of high-profile local Republicans, including Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine, Omaha City Council members Don Rowe and Aimee Melton, and Omaha Police Union president Anthony Conner. Former Mayor and U.S. Rep. Ha Daub, a longtime member of the local GOP, said he found it unusual to see Republicans reject longtime volunteers and donors.

On Tuesday, the newly-elected leaders of the Douglas County Republican Party voted to withdraw their endorsements of Bacon and Ricketts and place them instead on their opponents in the 2024 primary, Dan Frei and John Glen Weaver. U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, however, kept her endorsement. The group also voted to censure Bacon in a rare move last utilized to rebuke then-U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse in 2021.

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