Spotlight on the NE 2nd Congressional District

Republican Winner, Lee Terry
The Nebraska 2nd Congressional District is situated on the banks of the Missouri River. The district includes Omaha, the largest city in the state and is also home to Bellevue, Bennington, Elkhorn, La Vista, Papillion, Ralston, Valley and Waterloo, all in the counties of Douglas and Sarpy. Omaha and its suburbs are the 60th largest metropolitan area in the United States. While the rest of the state's electorate leans heavily Republican, the Second District—centered as it is on the city of Omaha—is more closely divided between the two major political parties. Barack Obama targeted this district as a strategy of breaking a potential electoral vote tie and he won the district by a mere 3,325 votes over John McCain, who captured the state’s popular vote. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states in the U.S. which distribute their electoral votes for president based on presidential candidates' performance in their respective congressional districts in addition to their statewide performance. Obama's victory in the 2nd District resulted in the first ever split in Nebraska’s electoral delegation and the first Nebraskan electoral vote for a Democrat since 1964. Republican Lee Terry has been U.S. Representative since 1998 and has won elections comfortably with the exception of 2008, when he prevailed by only 4 percentage points over Democrat Jim Esch. Democratic State Senator Tom White challenged Terry this November. Because of the relatively close margin in 2008, Democrat strategists eyed this seat as a potential Democrat pick up, but they miscalculated badly. Terry walzed to victory over White, 61% to 39%.
Lee Terry
  • Native Omahan
  • Undergraduate degree, Univ. of Nebraska, 1984
  • Juris Doctorate, Creighton Univ., 1987
  • Omaha City Council, 1991-1999, two years as President, two years as Vice President
  • Managing Partner, Omaha law firm
  • U.S. Congress, 1998-
  • Republican Deputy Whip
  • Dean of the Nebraska House delegation, serves on House Committee on Energy and Commerce
  • Member of Steering and Policy Committees, Republican Conference

ISSUES

  • Protect the lives of the unborn; transparency in earmarks; fiscal discipline; reform No Child Left Behind; comprehensive national plan to become independent of foreign oil; modernize and make social security and medicare secure; clean up ethics mess in Washington (Public Trust and Accountability Act); secure the borders; continue a military presence in the Middle East; support anti-terror laws that close loopholes in our intelligence laws and protect Americans‘ rights

"I voted against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 because there was too much spending in this “so-called” stimulus bill. The cost of the bill was $787 billion, with interest that means $1.3 trillion. There was too much spending on existing and the expansion of government programs that will do nothing to stimulate our economy. I voted against this bill because it increased discretionary spending by almost 10%, created dozens of new government programs and significantly raised the baseline on which future spending cannot be sustained without large tax increases."
Balancing the Budget
The Spotlight On reports are overviews of actual Republican primary winners or top Republican primary contenders. Spotlights should not be interpreted as recommendations to support specific candidates. Before supporting any candidate, do thorough research to confirm that the candidate shares your views on issues you deem most important.