Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) Is A MAGA Republican
Representative Don Bacon (R-NE) likes to falsely market himself as some kind of bi-partisan moderate. He bases this phony claim upon a report from the Common Ground Committee, a nonprofit group that scores members of Congress on bipartisan behavior, but not on their voting records. Instead, the criteria is entirely based upon co-sponsoring trivial bills with members of the other party and talking to the opposition.
Bacon pretends to be a moderate because he is one of eighteen Republican House members who represents a Congressional district that was carried by Joe Biden. In 2020, Biden carried Omaha based Nebraska Congressional District 2 by a 52% to 45% margin.
The “liberal” mainstream media has fallen for Bacon’s disingenuous claims of being bi-partisan. He is routinely interviewed by mainstream press outlets who describe him as “moderate.” The press is easily fooled by the Republicans. We have the dumbest press in the free world.
The Common Ground Committee report is meaningless since it ignores the most important thing of all- Bacon’s partisan, hardcore right wing voting record. He voted with with Trump 98% of the time in 2017–18 when the Republicans held the trifecta. Overall, Bacon voted with Trump 90% of the time. What’s more, Bacon has voted with the radical Marjorie Taylor Greene a whopping 90% of the time!
Bacon’s fealty to Trump dates back to his endorsement of Trump in 2016. Even though Ben Sasse abandoned Trump after he bragged about sexually assaulting women, Bacon remained loyal. He subsequently said it was an “easy choice” to endorse Trump in 2019.
Despite all of the indictments, Bacon has largely remained loyal to Trump during the Biden presidency. He condemned the FBI when they retrieved stolen classified documents from Trump’s home in 2022. In addition, Bacon has left the door open to endorsing Trump in 2024 in the general election.
As a member of Congress, Bacon remained loyal to Trump to the bitter end. He voted against both impeachments. If sending an armed mob to the Capitol to kill your vice president and steal the election isn’t an impeachable offense, what is?
“Nothing says bipartisanship like supporting the man who tried to end American democracy and promises next time to jail the other party.” @DonBaconNE02 (Bacon parody account on Twitter).
Two of the most important issues in the 2024 election cycle are abortion and rampant gun violence. In what could come as no surprise to people who are paying attention, Bacon has the most extreme positions on both issues.
In 2017, Don Bacon voted with Trump to allow the mentally disabled to obtain assault weapons. The bill was so extreme that Trump signed it into law in a secret ceremony. Bacon followed up that vote with one that allowed teenagers to obtain military weapons, even after the infamous Uvalde massacre.
Bacon’s rationale for these radical votes was vapid and frivolous — he supports AR-15s because his buddy owns one. “He loves his AR-15. He target practices with it. It’s his favorite gun,” Bacon said.
Bacon has appeared with right wing extremist Charlie Kirk. One can fairly assume that Bacon agrees with the following statement from Kirk: “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
Bacon’s position on abortion is every bit as extreme as his position on gun safety. He supports a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest. In 2021, Bacon co-sponsored H.R. 1011, a proposed constitutional amendment that would have considered a fetus a person under the law, outlawing abortion in all 50 states, with no specific exceptions.
Bacon has made it clear this his position on abortion is based upon his religious beliefs. “There is a second heartbeat. If you’re a believer in an almighty God that created us and says human life is special and created in his image, if you believe in that, you want to respect it and take action on that,” Bacon said. “I do.”
The second district member of Congress shouldn’t impose his religious beliefs on people who don’t share them. Many Protestants, Jews and Muslims align with the the pro-choice position. Perhaps they should file a lawsuit seeing a religious exemption from Bacon’s abortion ban. The Republicans on the Supreme Court routinely grant religious exemptions to right wing Christians.
In addition to pretending to be a moderate, Bacon likes to imagine that he is a fiscal conservative. He never mentions that he voted with Trump to add $4.7 trillion to the national debt BEFORE the pandemic. Why didn’t he vote to reduce the deficit in 2017–18?
By the end of Trump’s failed presidency, Bacon voted to add $7.8 trillion to the national debt. He even voted for a covid relief package that included stimulus checks for prisoners and criminals!
In the recent GOP presidential debate, Nikki Haley was talking about Don Bacon and most of the D.C. Republicans. “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this,” she said. Don’t let Bacon pretend to be a fiscal conservative — remember his record.
Don Bacon claims that he is some kind of great tax cutter. What he doesn’t mention is that he voted with Donald Trump in 2017 to raise taxes on Gold Star families. Somebody had to pay for the $2 trillion in deficit funded tax cuts for the top 1% and the corporations.
Bacon’s record on health care is every bit as bad as his record on spending and taxes. In 2017, Don Bacon said “Hell yes!” to taking away insurance from 20 million people and gutting pre-existing condition protections. The Trump Care bill he supported was so bad that he voted to exempt himself from it.
Subsequently, Don Bacon voted for the Trump lawsuit aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act without a replacement plan. As it turned out, the Bacon/Trump lawsuit was too radical for this Supreme Court. (That’s like Charlie Sheen saying this party is too wild for me.) If Bacon had “won,” pre-existing condition protections would have been eliminated and over 20 million Americans would’ve been kicked off insurance.
Don Bacon supports cuts to both Social Security and Medicare. In addition, he supports privatizing Medicare and turning it into a voucher program. When you’re looking for someone to save Social Security and Medicare, don’t vote for the party who never wanted it in the first place and who has been trying to privatize it ever since.
Don Bacon voted against hiring more police officers in 2021 and even boycotted a ceremony honoring the D.C. police officers who saved his life on January 6. He followed that up with an attack on the FBI after they executed a legal search search warrant at Trump’s home to retrieve classified documents about nuclear weapons.
Don Bacon is no friend of labor. Bacon voted against raising the minimum wage even though it hasn’t been raised since 2007. He also voted for continued union busting.
Due to his admirable military service, Bacon claims to be some kind of an “expert” on military and national security issues. Unfortunately, Bacon has been a miserable failure on the issue that he believes to be is in his wheelhouse.
In 2021, Don Bacon called the withdrawal from Afghanistan a “colossal disaster” and compared the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to President Obama’s withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. (Does Bacon want to re-invade Iraq? Do tell.)
Bacon didn’t mention that he supported Trump’s plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. On February 29, 2020, the Trump Administration signed an agreement with the Taliban, under which the U.S. agreed to withdraw all of its force within 14 months.
The Politico website reported on March 3, 2020, that Bacon supported Trump’s plan. Bacon said: “I’m going to support it but mainly because it has a window of time that we can put the breaks on it, but I’m not ringing the bells or blowing the trumpets on this thing because I do not trust these guys.”
The Hill website on the same date also indicated that Bacon supported the Trump deal. In this piece, Bacon was quoted as saying that he “applauds the effort” and that the “deal’s timeline provides room to see if it’s effective.”
Bacon was for withdrawing from Afghanistan before he was against it. He should be embarrassed. This is yet another example of his fealty to Trump.
Don Bacon voted for MAGA Mike Johnson for speaker. Johnson comes from the right wing fringe of the GOP. He supports a national abortion ban, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, promoted teaching the Bible in the public schools, is virulently anti-LGBTQ and schemed with Trump to steal the 2020 election.
“I think the shine on Don Bacon is definitely coming off. He pretends that he’s Mr. Moderate, and he goes around with his little pet pig at parades, when in reality he votes the same as Marjorie Taylor Greene and the other radical MAGA’s on his side of the aisle and we’re not going to let him get away with that this time around.” Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb.
Bacon is one of the most vulnerable GOP House incumbents in the 2022 cycle because Joe Biden carried the Omaha based Nebraska CD-02 in 2020. State Senator Tony Vargas is taking on Bacon again in this election cycle. In the 2020 cycle, Bacon barely beat Vargas by a 51% to 49% margin.
Tony Vargas will work for Nebraska CD02 and not Donald Trump. Tony voted for seven balanced budgets and the largest middle class tax cuts in Nebraska history. Vargas will fight to protect women’s freedom to make their own health care decisions.
Let’s repeal Don Bacon and replace him with a new member of the U.S. House who will represent the people — not the MAGA Republicans and the GOP billionaire donor class. Let’s get it done!