LINCOLN — A new nonpartisan is running in eastern Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, and his entry could complicate the path for Democratic nominee Chris Backemeyer to test Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Flood in a year when Democrats nationally expect to outperform the norm.
Austin Ahlman, a progressive journalist, announced his candidacy Thursday with a story in the Lincoln Journal Star and a campaign video on social media that garnered significant attention, particularly among the online left.
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Ahlman covered part of Nebraska’s 2024 U.S. Senate race and an early part of the 2026 U.S. House race in the Omaha-based 2nd District for The American Prospect. State Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha, a nonpartisan progressive who typically sides with Democrats but left the party in 2023, tweeted about his bid.
“This is a campaign in Nebraska that I’m really excited about,” Hunt wrote on X.
In an interview with the Examiner, Ahlman described his bid as “personal” because he grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska, like Flood. He said he is running because “somebody has to stand up and do something about what’s going on in this country.” He said he moved back to Nebraska last fall from D.C. to help with his father’s cancer and to help his family’s finances.
He said his campaign is focused on affordability.
Ahlman would need to gather and submit 2,000 signatures from registered voters in the 1st District by Aug. 3 to reach the November ballot with three-term GOP incumbent Flood and Democratic former diplomat Backemeyer.
Backemeyer just defeated renewable energy advocate Eric Moyer in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Backemeyer served as a senior State Department negotiator for then-President Barack Obama’s Iran nuclear deal in 2015. He was replaced during President Donald Trump’s first term and moved to a new role. Trump withdrew from the nuclear agreement in 2018. Backemeyer also was a national security adviser to former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ahlman said he started thinking about mounting a nonpartisan bid near the end of February, after his dad suggested he run, following a conversation about seeing an opening in Nebraska’s 1st District race. He stewed over it while watching the district’s Democratic primary develop. He said he didn’t like how Backemeyer accepted a “bunch of defense and D.C. lobbyist money.”
Some of Ahlman’s online supporters on Thursday criticized Backemeyer for what they said was his role working with Israel during his time at the State Department.
The Examiner asked Ahlman on Thursday whether Backemeyer having worked on issues including Israel while at the department was a motivating factor in Ahlman running.
He said, “Yes, it is absolutely a factor.”
Ahlman continued: “But so is what he’s done in Yemen. So is the fact that he says … he negotiated the [Iran deal], but then, you know, turned around and was putting out the talking points and publishing the stuff to undermine it just years later.
“I just think that in general … he is a creature of the establishment in D.C., and I do have serious issues with that. I don’t think that’s what people around here want. And I think that it is very dangerous to run a candidate like that in a year when you can actually make a difference.”
Ahlman said, “Mike Flood has done much of the same thing, and that is why I think that they’re basically the same … and when you have two candidates that both represent the status quo, people … default to the devil they know.”
Backemeyer worked for the State Department for 20 years, with a focus on counterterrorism, economic policy and the Middle East. He emphasized to the Examiner that major decisions about Israel and Gaza were made by political appointees of presidents and not department staff after the attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.
Asked to respond to Ahlman’s comments late Thursday, the Backemeyer campaign said, “This is a complete fabrication of Chris’ public service career from someone who has never had to solve real-world problems.”
Backemeyer said Ahlman’s allegations of him changing his stance on the Iran Deal come from a “talking points” rollout by the first Trump administration of “sanctions related to Iran’s missile program.”
“Sanctions on Iran’s nuclear missile program were never part of the nuclear deal … It was intentional, and it’s because Iran didn’t make any changes to its missile program,” Backemeyer said.
Backemeyer also pointed out that Ahlman’s mention of Yemen comes from “a document with no context.”
“It was a risk analysis of a foreign aid program … a UNICEF program, that we were supporting for starving Yemenis,” Backemeyer said. “We do a risk analysis … of how likely is that money going to be diverted to terrorist actors … standard procedure to create safeguards so that we don’t inadvertently fund terrorism.”
Ahlman said he had favored Moyer in Tuesday’s Democratic primary because he thought he could compete better in the fall. The key for Ahlman, he said, was “making sure that there’s somebody who can beat Mike Flood.”
Flood has won his past two U.S. House elections by 20 and 16 percentage points. Pundits consider the 1st District seat safely Republican, including the nonpartisan Center for Politics, The Cook Political Report and Inside Elections.
The 1st District comprises 12 counties, including Lancaster County, which is home to heavily Democratic Lincoln, a city whose blue voters are often drowned out by the region’s more conservative smaller cities and rural areas.
Ahlman said he has internal polling showing a nonpartisan candidate could win the district in a head-to-head contest with Flood alone, but after educating voters about the candidates using biographical information. Some questioned the quality of the poll and what info was shared before the head-to-head question was polled.
The language, shared by Ahlman’s pollster on Thursday, mentioned Backemeyer’s work for four presidents in the State Department. It did not mention Israel.
Ahlman said, “It is just not a great time to try to run in a change election as somebody who’s spent 20 years overseeing Middle East policy.”
Ahlman told the Journal Star he wants to “take on the big corporations that are squeezing people and making it impossible to afford to live here … The costs are out of control on every metric, healthcare, groceries, electricity, everything is spiraling, and we are allowing it to happen because big corporations control everything.”
He also said he would seek to cut federal taxes to zero on the first $38,000 of income, cap drug prices, and push for Medicare for all. He criticized Flood as a “rubber stamp on everything” sought by corporate interests and the White House.
Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said in a statement Thursday that Backemeyer, who won Tuesday’s primary, is the “clear choice for Nebraska’s First District” because he brings real federal experience from the State Department and focuses on “lowering costs and expanding access to affordable healthcare.”
“Mike Flood has failed this district, and splitting the vote with a fringe third candidate won’t fix that,” Kleeb said. “Nebraska doesn’t need noise from either extreme. We need a steady, experienced leader who will fight for fairness and protect our democracy. That’s Chris Backemeyer.”
Ahlman said he did not mean to be “disrespectful” of the Democratic field but asked, “Have either of the other opponents to Flood gotten this sort of response?”
“It’s hardly fringe,” Ahlman said.
Backemeyer’s campaign said earlier Thursday, “After winning almost every county by a large margin in the primary, Chris is focused on defeating congressman Flood in order to stop Trump’s tariffs, devastating healthcare cuts and illegal war that are hurting Nebraskans.”
Flood spokesperson Daniel Bass said Ahlman is “trying to sabotage the campaign of a Kamala Harris adviser because the Democratic Party is in shambles.”
“While Backemeyer and Ahlman fight over which D.C. transplant finishes second, Congressman Flood will keep getting things done for Nebraskans,” Bass said.
Ahlman’s potential 1st District bid could add a fourth nonpartisan candidate Nebraskans might see in high-profile midterm races this year, with U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn aiming to unseat Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts. Mark Cohen and Macey Budke are pursuing bids against U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith in Nebraska’s 3rd District, where Democrat Becky Kelly Stille is also running.
Ahlman said he is running to give people “fresh options.”
“Both I and Backemeyer are going to have to do a lot of work to introduce ourselves to the people of this district … we both need to focus right now on proving that we are viable … and then later [have] discussions about whether people should drop out,” Ahlman said. “But now is not the time for that.”
The general election is Nov 3.
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
