(Picture credit Lancaster County)
Lancaster County remained one of Nebraska’s blue havens on Election Day 2026, with Democrats sweeping high-profile races for treasurer, county attorney, and sheriff, as well as holding three of six Unicameral districts across the county.
Lancaster skewed heavily Democratic in statewide races, though incumbent Republicans won the day. Lancaster did retain Democratic treasurer Rachel Garver despite widespread criticism against her after State Auditor Mike Foley found over $1 billion in accounting errors within her office.
Likewise, Democrats took the County Attorney’s office from Republican Pat Condon, as Randall Ritnour’s election-day deficit failed to offset his significant lead in early voting. Just a week before the election, The Plains Sentinel found Ritnour was registered to vote at the address of a registered sex offender.
After 32 years as Lancaster County sheriff, Terry Wagner’s retirement made way for Democrat Jay Pitts to soundly defeat the Republican candidate, Chief Deputy Ben Houchin, who was publicly accused of abuse by his ex-wife.
Elsewhere, Lincoln Democrats turned out in opposition to Good Government Lincoln’s proposed charter amendments which would have aligned city and statewide elections and granting voting rights to residents of Lincoln’s extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction.
They did approve Good Government’s two-term city council limit. Additionally, voters agreed to move city elections to align with state elections beginning in 2030, another alternate amendment proposed by Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and City Council Chairman Brodey Weber.
The GOP did claim a few minor victories, as County Commissioner Matt Schulte successfully defended his seat in District 3, remaining the only Republican on the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners. Republican Angela Eberspacher outperformed in the blue county, winning her bid to succeed Kirk Penner for the State Board of Education. Eberspacher finished only 122 votes shy of Michaela Conway in the district’s bluest county.
While the Nebraska Democratic Party failed to replicate statewide blue successes that they had in Iowa, Kansas, and Texas, they did create a blue wave in Lancaster County.
— Lewis Thune is a College Fix writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.