The third and final debate Sunday between Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon and Democratic State Sen. Tony Vargas was also the most heated, with both candidates repeatedly accusing the other of lying about their records.
The tone of the televised 2nd Congressional District debate was so contentious that even when the candidates were asked a question intended to elicit a compliment for the other, they continued their war of words.
“I counted four different lies in that statement,” Bacon said at one point. He used a sharper word in an interview with reporters afterward, calling many Vargas statements “bulls---.”
Vargas likewise accused Bacon of dishonesty, as well as of backpedaling from past extreme positions on issues like abortion.
“It seems like he regrets his positions, and we get to hold him responsible this November,” Vargas said.
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The sharpest disagreements of the night came over the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Omaha that followed the Minneapolis murder of George Floyd.
Bacon, seeking his fifth term representing the 2nd District, said he has the support of police officers because Vargas “led the protest” against them in 2020.
“Hundreds of police were injured during those bad several weeks, and Tony was on the other side protesting,” Bacon said.
While Vargas has said in the past that he joined peaceful protests, he called Bacon’s statement that he led protests "a flat-out lie.”
“This community deserves truth, not hyperbole and disinformation,” Vargas said. He said the statement showed Bacon is more concerned about staying in power than “integrity and being honest.”
Vargas said he has supported law enforcement, frequently citing $37 million in law enforcement funding he backed as a member of the Legislature.
Bacon did not back off the statement about the protests when he met with reporters afterward.
“He was leading the chants,” Bacon said. “It was a choice he made.”
Said Vargas afterward: “I wasn’t leading. ... I was being a member of our community.”
There were also sharp disagreements over taxes, with Vargas repeatedly accusing Bacon of voting against middle-class tax cuts. He said that was the effect of votes Bacon took, such as one against extending a child care tax credit.
Bacon said it was a lie he opposes middle-class tax cuts. He voted for President Donald Trump’s 2017 income tax measure, which cut taxes for the middle class, and supports extending it, he said.
“I never voted to raise taxes on the middle class, and folks know that,” he said.
Bacon said Vargas supported many of the Democratic spending bills that he and Republicans blame for helping spark higher prices, including the Inflation Reduction Act.
“It was actually the inflation multiplication act,” Bacon said.
Vargas criticized the Trump income tax bill as a giveaway for the wealthy, saying he would support a bill focused on reducing taxes for the middle class.
The two continued to battle over abortion, Vargas citing Bacon’s sponsorship of the Life at Conception Act, which by law would declare that the Constitution’s guaranteed right to life would begin at the moment of conception. Vargas said the effect would have been to ban abortion in all cases, including when a woman’s health was at risk.
Bacon said, in completing past surveys on the issue, he has consistently supported an exception for the life of the mother. He said he now also supports the same exceptions in Nebraska’s current 12-month abortion plan, which include the life of the mother, rape and incest.
Bacon said he thinks the law represents “a consensus of where most Nebraskans are at” on the issue.
“He is very much hiding and changing his position on this,” Vargas responded.
For his own part, Vargas said he supports restoring Roe v. Wade's protections, the now-overturned 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case granting abortion rights.
When pressed near the end of the debate by the moderator, KETV anchor Rob McCartney, the two did offer compliments for each other.
Vargas said he appreciated Bacon’s nearly 30 years of service in the military. Bacon said he appreciated the care Vargas shows for his two children.
The bickering then resumed.
Here is the Lincoln Journal Star's comprehensive guide to the 2024 Nebraska general election.