Nebraska held its general election on November 6, 2018, deciding 24 legislative seats and 8 statewide offices led by the governorship. Nebraska's unicameral Legislature is officially nonpartisan; the composition shown reflects the party affiliation of its members.
Highlights
- Republicans kept every statewide office and their hold on the officially nonpartisan Legislature, but voters went around both on health care, approving Medicaid expansion by initiative over the governor's vocal opposition.
- Initiative 427 made Nebraska one of three conservative states to expand Medicaid at the ballot box in 2018, passing by a narrower margin than Idaho's measure. It required the state to seek federal approval by April 1, 2019, to cover about 90,000 additional Nebraskans. Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) said his administration would implement it. But the measure left the Legislature to pay the state's share, and both sides braced for a budget fight in a chamber where a bloc of 17 senators can block a bill by filibuster.
- Democratic-aligned candidates unseated two Republican incumbents and narrowly won an open seat, while the chamber's lone Libertarian lost to a Republican:
- In District 12, former Sen. Steve Lathrop (D), who held the seat until 2015, unseated Merv Riepe (R) by about 12 points.
- In District 6, Machaela Cavanaugh (D) unseated Sen. Theresa Thibodeau (R), whom Ricketts had appointed to the seat in 2017, by fewer than 300 votes.
- In District 10, Wendy DeBoer (D) beat Matt Deaver (R) by about 100 votes for the seat left open by term-limited Sen. Bob Krist (D), who was running for governor.
- In District 32, Laura Ebke (L), the Legislature's lone Libertarian, lost her re-election bid to farmer Tom Brandt (R), who had never held office, by about 13 points.
- In District 8, Megan Hunt (D) became the first openly LGBTQ legislator elected in Nebraska.
- Ricketts won a second term by about 18 points over Omaha state Sen. Bob Krist (D), a former Republican who quit the party to challenge him. Republicans swept the rest of the statewide ballot. Attorney General Doug Peterson (R) and Treasurer candidate John Murante (R) ran unopposed, and the closest partisan race was for the Public Service Commission's District 1 seat, which Dan Watermeier (R) won by about 2 points. In the Legislature, 5 incumbents ran without an opponent.
Legislature
- Legislature (49 seats): 15 D, 32 R, 2 other or vacant before the election, 17 D, 29 R, 3 other or vacant after; control stayed with Republicans.
Statewide races
Legislative races
Ballot measures
| Measure | Description | Result |
|---|
| Initiative 427 | Expands Medicaid under the ACA | Passed (53.55% yes) |