Populist Independent’s Moving Life Story Stands To Upend Nebraska Congressional Race

Nebraska was always going to receive a lot of attention headed into this year’s midterm elections, with the Second Congressional District being a top target for Democrats and the state’s U.S. Senate race being tighter than one would expect. The First Congressional District may also soon be on people’s radar now that a populist investigative journalist has announced an independent bid. Austin Ahlman, the son of meatpackers from Norfolk, Nebraska, has worked as a reporter covering corporate power, congressional stock trading, and tech lobbying. He says he is launching his congressional campaign because people like his parents have been forgotten by both political parties. His entrance into the race was first reported by Semafor. “I saw my parents break their backs every day on the meatpacking line to provide for me and my siblings,” Mr. Ahlman says in his campaign launch video. “I learned young what big corporations do to towns like ours — they strip them bare and leave them for dead.”Recently, Mr. Ahlman’s family has been visited by tragedy. His father was diagnosed with cancer and his mother lost her job, leading their bank to try to repossess the family home. Mr. Ahlman says his mother took her own life with an eviction notice in her pocket. In his launch video, Mr. Ahlman tells the story of fighting to keep the family home, moving in with his father to help take care of him while his cancer is in remission, and helping his own grandmother who was being “cheated” by utilities and insurance companies. Those experiences translate directly into a populist policy platform. On his website, he lists some of the causes he plans to fight for, including breaking up food monopolies; banning Wall Street ownership of homes; eliminating income taxes on the first $38,000 earned each year; expanding Social Security; and protecting the Second Amendment. “Many of us feel politically homeless: But that’s an opportunity. If we focus on what unites us, and refuse to be divided, we can break the stranglehold that’s been squeezing us for decades,” Mr. Ahlman’s policy page states. For national Democrats, the main focus in Nebraska has been the Second Congressional District which covers Omaha. Vice President Kamala Harris won the district and its lone Electoral College vote in 2024, although a Republican, Congressman Don Bacon, won re-election in the district on the same day. Mr. Bacon is now retiring, giving Democrats hope that they can flip the seat this fall. Democrats also have their eyes on the state’s U.S. Senate race, but national politicians are staying away in the hope that another independent populist, Dan Osborn, can defeat Senator Pete Ricketts. Mr. Osborn came within seven points of winning a Senate race in the state in 2024, and carried the First District by one point on the same day Mr. Trump won it by 13 points. Polls have shown a tight, single-digit race between Messrs. Osborn and Ricketts headed into the fall. According to a new poll, Mr. Ahlman’s brand of populism could serve him just as well as Mr. Osborn’s has. Zenith Research found in a survey released Thursday that Mr. Ahlman would beat the sitting GOP representative, Congressman Mike Flood, by four points in a head-to-head race if voters were informed about Mr. Ahlman’s biography. In a head-to-head race between Mr. Flood and the Democratic nominee for the seat, Chris Backemeyer, Mr. Flood would win by 12 points once voters learned about both men’s biographies. In a three-way race, Mr. Flood leads decisively by 14 points, with Mr. Ahlman coming in second and Mr. Backemeyer coming in third. Mr. Flood, notably, would win with an exceptionally small plurality for a sitting representative. In the three-way race, Mr. Flood wins just 42 percent.

Populist Independent’s Moving Life Story Stands To Upend Nebraska Congressional Race

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