While the outcome of the presidential election was still undetermined Wednesday morning, Washington County voters widely supported President Donald Trump for a second term.
Trump received 8,533 votes, while former Vice President Joe Biden had 3,547 votes. Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen received 272 votes.
In Nebraska, Trump and his running mate Mike Pence were declared the winners with 58.59% of votes. However, Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, won the Second Congressional District, which includes Omaha, splitting the electoral votes.
Trump or Biden needed 270 of the 538 electoral votes to clinch the presidency. But, as of Wednesday morning, nine states were still counting votes and a winner had not yet been declared.
In the District 1 congressional race, incumbent Republican Jeff Fortenberry won over Democratic challenger Kate Bolz with 59.04% of votes. Fortenberry won over Washington County voters 8,822 to 3,021 votes.
Sen. Ben Sasse retained his seat as he set the record for the largest federal vote-getter in the history of Nebraska. Sasse garnered 567,170 votes (67.69%).
“Melissa and I are humbled by the overwhelming support of our great state,” Sasse said in a statement. “We ran this race the Nebraska way: simply telling the truth and working hard. Turns out that's what Nebraskans want — and that’s why we won all 93 counties, again. I am grateful and pledge to keep being the kind of conservative, independent straight-shooter our citizens deserve.”
The previous largest U.S. Senate vote-getter in Nebraska was Mike Johanns with 455,854 votes in 2008. The largest federal vote-getter in Nebraska for any office was President George W. Bush with 512,814 in 2004.
Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved a trio of ballot initiatives to allow casino gambling a six licensed horse tracks across the state.
An initiative to cap payday loan rates also passed.
Two amendments — one to remove language from the Nebraska Constitution that allows the use of slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments and one to increase the repayment period for tax increment financing from 15 to 20 years for areas where more than one-half of properties are designated as extremely blighted — were also approved.
