Don Bacon

Donald John Bacon (born August 16, 1963) is an American politician and retired military officer serving as the U.S. representative for Nebraska's 2nd congressional district since 2017.

He grew up on a family farm in Momence and graduated from Grace Baptist Academy in Kankakee in 1980.

Bacon attended Northern Illinois University and gained a commission through the Air Force ROTC program, interning in Representative Edward Rell Madigan's Washington D.C. office during his senior year.

In his military career he specialized in electronic warfare, intelligence, reconnaissance and public affairs, and also qualified as a Master Navigator.

He served as a Wing Commander at Ramstein Air Base in Germany and at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, as a Group commander and Squadron commander at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and an Expeditionary Squadron commander in Iraq.

Bacon has earned master's degrees from the National War College of the National Defense University and the University of Phoenix.

The Lugar Center ranked Bacon 89th out of 435 House members in bipartisanship.

After a 2005 videotape showing Donald Trump making lewd remarks to Billy Bush surfaced in October 2016, Bacon said that Trump could not win the presidency and should withdraw from the race in favor of "a strong conservative candidate, like Mike Pence."

But Bacon did not say that he would not vote for Donald Trump, since he did not "believe Hillary is the right person. I'm in a quandary."

During his 29 years in the Air Force, he was awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, two Legion of Merits and two Bronze Star Medals; he was selected as Europe's top Air Force Wing Commander in 2009.

He served as an aide to U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry and assistant professor at Bellevue University before running for office.

His final assignment was as Director of ISR Strategy, Plans, Doctrine and Force Development, AF/A2, Headquarters U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon from July 2012.

Before holding public office, he was a United States Air Force officer, retiring as brigadier general with stints as wing commander at Ramstein Air Base, Germany and Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, prior to his retirement from the military in 2014.

His political constituency now includes all of Omaha and the areas surrounding Offutt.

Bacon is frequently described as a moderate centrist within the Republican Party.

As of 2021, he ranks 12th in bipartisanship among members of Congress according to Georgetown University's Lugar Center.

A member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, which represents the most moderate of the five GOP factions in the House, Bacon was an original sponsor of the Naming Commission, which stripped the Department of Defense of names valorizing the Confederacy, and of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which established lynching as a unique hate crime, and voted to enact the Respect for Marriage Act, which codified the right to same-sex marriage.

In 2014, Bacon retired from the U.S. Air Force.

His bipartisanship ranking rose to 15th out of 435.

In 2021, Bacon was seated for his third term.

In the 2016 elections, Bacon won the Republican primary for the U.S. House of Representatives in NE's 2nd congressional district, a primarily urban and suburban district in metro Omaha, covering parts of Douglas and Sarpy counties.

The general election race was considered a tossup, with Democratic incumbent Brad Ashford seen as having a slight edge.

Bacon narrowly defeated Ashford in the general election on November 8, 2016, with 48.9% of the vote to Ashford's 47.7%.

He was the only Republican to defeat an incumbent Democrat in the 2016 House elections.

He was endorsed by his predecessor, Democrat Brad Ashford, whom he defeated in 2016.

Bacon narrowly won re-election in 2022 against Nebraska state senator Tony Vargas.

Bacon is running for re-election in 2024.

Tony Vargas is expected to run again as the Democratic Party candidate in a rematch of the 2022 election.

Former President Donald Trump has tried to recruit a populist Republican to primary Bacon, though none has emerged.

After his election, Bacon was sworn in to the 115th Congress in January 2017.

During his first term he served on the House Agriculture Committee, Homeland Security Committee and the Armed Services Committee.

During Donald Trump's presidency, Bacon voted in line with Trump's position 89.4% of the time.

Bacon was reelected in 2018, narrowly defeating progressive Democrat Kara Eastman with 51.0% of the vote to her 49.0%.

Bacon was reelected by a larger margin than in 2018, winning 51.0% of the vote to Eastman's 46.2%, even as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden won the district by 6.5 points.

Bacon was reelected in 2018 and served in the 116th Congress, continuing to serve on the Agriculture and Armed Services committees.

He was one of 37 Republicans who rejected attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and one of 35 who supported the committee to investigate the January 6th attack.

He has repeatedly sparred with members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.

An active voice on foreign policy in the House, Bacon is among a slate of U.S. representatives sanctioned by the Russian government, and was the first member of Congress to be hacked by the Chinese government.

Bacon is originally from Momence, Illinois, the son of Donald and Joan Bacon of Bourbonnais.

Bacon and Eastman faced off again in the 2020 general election.