(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
Chris Backemeyer grew up in Lincoln but spent roughly the last 20 years in Washington, D.C. In October 2025, he accepted a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) buyout and left his job at the U.S. State Department. Shortly afterward, he filed to run for Congress against two-term incumbent Mike Flood.
Backemeyer spoke at a town hall in Bellevue on Wednesday, Oct. 14, where he explained his return to Nebraska and his decision to run.
“This isn’t a vengeance tour for me,” Backemeyer said. “This isn’t about DOGE. It’s about what they did after. It’s about the fact that you see the big, beautiful bill that was passed and that Congressman Flood voted for.”
Since Backemeyer’s campaign began, Flood has highlighted that his opponent only recently returned to Nebraska after two decades of living and working in the nation’s capital.
“He moved back to Nebraska just to run for Congress,” Flood said in his opening remarks at a Sept. 23 debate. “He spent decades working for failed politicians on the very policies we’re trying to correct now.”
Backemeyer has made his State Department career a central part of his campaign, frequently citing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal as a highlight. At the Bellevue town hall, he said the agreement “prevented Iran from having any weapons-grade uranium or getting a nuclear weapon, and also would have prevented a war that we find ourselves in now.”
While Backemeyer frames his years in Washington as an asset, his image as a Washington insider prompted a short-lived third-party challenge from Austin Ahlman earlier this year.
“My Dem opponent, a former Biden-Harris DC State Department official, just described me as someone who’s ‘never had to solve real-world problems,’” Ahlman told The Plains Sentinel in July. “I’m focused on my GOP opponent, but boy, I think I’m more in touch with the problems Nebraskans face than you’ll ever be.”
Now the Flood campaign has zeroed in on what it portrays as Backemeyer’s temporary status in Nebraska, running a commercial noting that he has not bought a home in the state. Former Sen. Bob Kerrey faced similar criticism when he ran against Deb Fischer in 2012 after spending roughly a decade in New York.
The Plains Sentinel asked Backemeyer about the issue at his town hall.
“Mike [Flood] has decided to distort my record and make it seem as if I am doing something I’m not, and it’s completely false,” Backemeyer said. “I’m living in Lincoln, as are my kids and my family. They’re a proud product of public schools.”
When asked whether he had bought a house, Backemeyer replied, “I have a house, yes.”
He still owns a home in Washington, D.C., which he said is currently used as a rental property.
“But I’m not living there,” Backemeyer said. “My family is living here just like everybody else, and they have been. And we have nothing to hide on that. Mike wants to make it seem like there’s more to it than there is.”
Backemeyer did not explicitly state that he had purchased a home in Nebraska. The Plains Sentinel reviewed additional documentation that appears to clarify his living situation.
According to the Nebraska voter file, Backemeyer is registered to vote at the same residence as his parents, Kenneth and Patricia Backemeyer, in Lincoln. His wife, Courtney, is registered at a separate Lincoln address that Zillow listed as a rental until the listing was removed in June 2026.
A search of Lancaster County Assessor records shows no homes currently owned by Chris or Courtney Backemeyer. Public records also confirm that the couple still own their townhouse in Washington, D.C., where they have continued to pay property taxes.
When The Plains Sentinel asked whether Backemeyer’s current residence is on the same street as his parents’ home, his campaign manager interrupted, citing security concerns.
“I’m not gonna be providing my address to the press, because we’ve had some security threats already,” Backemeyer said. “And the last thing I need to do is advertise that. But no, the answer’s no.”
— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.