The Strange Bedfellows of the Omaha Mayor’s Race

There is a political realignment going on in the Republican Party, one that has two very different Republicans running against each other in Omaha’s mayor’s race.

The three-term incumbent, Jean Stothert, is a traditional, pro-business Republican, and she’s faced primary challenges before — from candidates like Taylor Royal and Dave Nabity. This time, however, she faces former fire chief Mike McDonnell, who has his own contentious history with the mayor. Predictable campaign issues — affordable housing, unsheltered homelessness, and the streetcar project — are front and center, but the sides lining up between the two frontrunners are also disrupting the predictable political binary.

Political attacks left and right

As a pro-life Democrat, McDonnell is a political anomaly and has gotten attacks from both parties even before entering the mayoral race.

Democrats, especially the far-left, have vehemently opposed McDonnell for his stance on abortion, going as far as censuring him after his vote for the Let Them Grow Act in 2023, driving him out of the party. Now in the mayor’s race, Planned Parenthood has upped the game, targeting McDonnell with campaign mailers attacking his stance on abortion.

At the same time, a political action committee called the Omaha Leadership Fund has targeted McDonnell with its own mailers, accusing him of “releasing dangerous criminals and sexual predators.” The PAC is linked to Axiom Strategies, a political consulting group that has worked for campaigns of prominent Republicans, such as U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts and Congressman Mike Flood.

The Blue Dot and Winner-Take-All

McDonnell also became a target for Republicans last year after he opposed a switch to “winner-take-all” in Nebraska’s allocation of electoral votes. The move also garnered praise from Democrats like former mayor Mike Fahey, but McDonnell had decidedly nonpartisan reasons for his stance.

“I believe that it gives us an economic boost. You can look at the numbers on that,” McDonnell stated in June of 2024. “It [also] makes us relevant as a second congressional district … we’re three congressional districts, and I believe you should have to work as hard as in one and three as you should in two.”

Stothert was pressed on her own stance toward the issue at an event with the Free Speech Society a few weeks ago. She tried to stay out of the debate, but she seemed to acknowledge reluctant support for a switch to winner-take-all.

“Whatever system that we use, I think it should all be the same. That was my statement,” Stothert said. “I don’t understand at this point in time why there’s 48 states that do one way and two that do another. What is the advantage of that? But I stayed out of it.”

Turnabout on Gun Control

Another issue that has Republican voters split between Stothert and McDonnell is gun control. In 2023, the legislature passed a Constitutional Carry law (LB77), which allowed legal gun owners to carry concealed handguns without needing a permit.

In response, Stothert signed an executive order prohibiting firearms on city-owned property, such as libraries, parks, and even bike trails. The move prompted a lawsuit from the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association (NFOA), which resulted in a judge putting a temporary hold on the order last year.

McDonnell. who supported LB77, spoke to the Omaha City Council at the time and warned them about litigation that would result from such restrictions. “If you would take a step back for two weeks and ask a legal opinion from the attorney general, I think you wouldn’t be putting taxpayers at risk of lengthy, costly litigation.” he said.

At the Pachyderm luncheon on Monday, I asked Stothert whether she would consider rescinding the executive order. She told me that it had already been rescinded.

“After giving quite a bit of thought to it, I did not think that that was a good idea to do that,” Stothert said. “I am a second amendment proponent. I got my concealed carry before most people did. Everybody knows that. And I felt like that by executive order, maybe it wasn’t the best move to make. And so they [NFOA] took us to court. … The judge said it should have been done by an ordinance by the city council. But after I gave it a lot of thought, I thought, you know, let’s just repeal it. And so it’s been repealed. The executive order is rescinded.”

The NFOA responded to this news online in a post. from its official Facebook page.

“Rescinded? If so, why is it still posted? We don’t have any idea why an elected official would not take the necessary steps to inform the public their rights are recognized under the law… publicly and directly. Especially when tax payers footed the bill for the signs and the lawsuit, which is still in effect.”

Endorsements Crossing Party Lines

Tom Brewer, who sponsored the Constitutional Carry bill in the state legislature, has now endorsed Mike McDonnell, in part over Stothert’s stance on gun control.

Other endorsements in the race line up predictably. Former mayors, Democrat Jim Suttle and Republican Hal Daub, have endorsed John Ewing and Jean Stothert, respectively. Others are less predictable. Former mayors PJ Morgan, a Republican, and Mike Fahey, a Democrat, both support McDonnell.

All three Republican city council members have endorsed Stothert. McDonnell, however, has support from two of the Democrats on the City Council: Ron Hug and Danny Begley. Signs for them can be seen paired with McDonnell’s both from I-80 near the 72nd Street exit and along Grover Street.

This week, McDonnell secured the endorsement of the Douglas County Republican Party (DCRP), which followed an endorsement from the Libertarian Party of Douglas County. And while surrogates for the Stothert campaign attended the DCRP meeting, Stothert herself neither attended nor sought the party’s endorsement.

Jean Stothert has the endorsement of the Omaha police and fire chiefs, but McDonnell has the support of the police and fire unions. Stothert also has endorsements from former Gov. Dave Heineman, Gov. Jim Pillen, Sen. Pete Ricketts, Sen. Deb Fischer, and a number of state senators from Omaha. But a lineup of partisan endorsements carries less weight nowadays.

“We have a situation now where voters, they see a Republican, and they see a list,” said Kyle Clark of Chase Marketing, speaking at a post-election luncheon in November. “Oh, look, there’s 40 Republicans that endorsed him. Well, of course they did. It’s a Republican — they don’t care. The endorsements that matter now — labor, police, fire. … Individual endorsements mean less now than they ever have.”

Friends in high places?

Clark also added that an endorsement from Trump would mean something. Last month, Stothert wrapped an event with the River City Republicans by announcing that she has the support of the President of the United States, and “he would be more than happy to help me if I need help.”

I followed up on this statement a few weeks later at the Free Speech Society event, pressing for details and asking if we could expect an endorsement soon.

“Could be,” Stothert said. “The President of the United States has made comments to me, about me. I think you’ve seen him in the news. And you know, I will use my endorsements carefully and when I’m ready.”

This would be a change from her stance in 2016, when she wrote in the name of John McCain for President rather than checking the box for Donald Trump.

Late-Breaking Momentum

Stothert has outraised and outspent her opponents by a wide margin in the race so far, but McDonnell has gained momentum during the closing weeks leading up to the primary. Yesterday, his campaign reported raising over $160,000 between late February and mid-March compared to Stothert’s $97,000 during the same period.

If McDonnell makes it through the primary on Tuesday next week, voters will have to choose between two decidedly different Republican candidates in the general election. It will be up to Democrats then to decide whether to put their support behind Stothert and give her a fourth term or to turn to McDonnell and join his strange bedfellows.