A ‘blue wall’ victory is not complete without Omaha’s blue dot

The battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania may be pivotal in the race for the White House, but winning those blue wall states alone do not guarantee a campaign victory without something else: Omaha’s blue dot.

The battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania may be pivotal in the race for the White House, but winning those blue wall states alone do not guarantee a campaign victory without something else: Omaha’s blue dot. Yard signs with blue circles have begun appearing on lawns across town here, a hopeful symbol for Democrats in a sea of Nebraska red, with one of the state’s lone electoral votes likely critical for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in the closing two months of the campaign. “It’s plausible that we could have a tie,” said Jason Brown, who started making the signs last week in a show of his support for Harris. “The whole notion of ‘my vote doesn’t matter’ really gets tossed out the window. This could be it. This could be a deciding factor.” Nebraska and Maine are the only two states that award electoral votes by congressional district, rather than by statewide winner. Republicans have long sought to change the law here – so far, without success – but for Democrats, it’s a point of pride. Barack Obama in 2008 and Joe Biden in 2020 are the party’s only two candidates to reap a single electoral vote reward. The Harris campaign and its Democratic allies are investing millions here to follow suit. “It’s starting conversations. People are like, what’s the blue dot?” said Ruth Huebner-Brown, who joined her husband in making and distributing the blue dot signs around Omaha. “That’s the important part, because as soon as you start the conversation, you have a full conversation.”