Nebraska people voted in a primary election on Tuesday, with incumbents mostly faring well.
In the governor race, incumbent Jim Pillen outpaced his five fellow Republican opponents in his party, getting 137,120 votes out of the more than 181,000 ballots cast.
Pillen in the November election will now face Democrat Lynne Walz and Rick Beard from the Legal Marijuana NOW party. Each of those two defeated one other person from their party, with Walz getting nearly 107,000 votes to defeat Larry Marvin.
Additionally, for the state’s 1st Congressional District, incumbent Republican Mike Flood will face Democrat Chris Backemeyer, who had more votes than fellow Democrat Eric Moyer.
Furthermore, for the 3rd Congressional District, Democratic candidate Becky Stille, of South Sioux City, won her primary with nearly 18,000 votes. Stille moves on to oppose longtime Republican Congressman Adrian Smith.
Both the 1st and 3rd congressional districts have territory in Northeast Nebraska.
In the 2nd Congressional District covering Omaha, Democrat Denise Powell led her party with 20,033 votes to take the nomination. Powell will face Republican Brinker Harding and Libertarian Michael Foreman.
As for the state’s U.S. Senate seat, incumbent Republican Pete Ricketts will face Democrat Cindy Burbank and Legal Marijuana NOW nominee Mike Marvin. Ricketts got more than 155,000 votes, while Burbank had just over 100,000 votes.
For the Secretary of State seat, Republican Scott Petersen beat Incumbent Bob Evnen in the Republican primary, so Evnen will leave office at the end of the year.
There were 1.2 million registered voters in Nebraska, but only about 339,000 ballots were cast, for 26 percent turnout.
Pillen outpolled fellow Republicans Sal Holguin, Sheila Korth-Focken, Gary Rogge, Jacy Todd, and John Walz..
