Sarpy County sees large Democratic turnout in Special Election

OMAHA, Neb. (KPTM) - If you take a close look at the Special Election results from Tuesday, you'll find Sen. Patty Pansing-Brooks only won a single county against Sen. Mike Flood- that was Lancaster County.

But, she did get close to one other, Sarpy County; she lost that one by about eight hundred, according to the Secretary of State's Office.

Sarpy County has more or less consistently voted for Republican candidates in the past.

But Sarpy County Democrats Chair Holder, Charlene Ligon, says the closeness of the race shows change is coming.

“We’ve been seeing the trend in Sarpy County for a while now," Ligon said. "They’re moving further blue, if you say, or more democratic.”

Ligon says one of the reasons is that the western half of the county has begun voting for Democratic candidates.

“We’ve seen a steady growth in democratic lean,” said Ligon.

For example, Sen. Jen Day, also a Democrat, won a lot of her votes in that same area when she campaigned for legislative seat.

But she also says that the influx of younger people is playing a role too.

University of Nebraska at Omaha political science professor, Dr. Petrow agrees.

“We live in a time where there’s a kind of shifting of allegiances, or a realignment going on,” Dr. Petrow said.

In the Special Election race though, more people in Sarpy County chose Mike Flood to hold the district one congressional seat for next six months.

Flood told us there's a reason thousands remain leery about voting Democrat.

“They’re running out of money, they can’t believe how much it’s hurting their pocketbooks,” said Representative-elect Mike Flood.

And inflation, according to Flood, is a large reason for it.

“Using gas prices to socially engineer an environmental change is not working,” Flood added.

Though Sarpy Democrats are optimistic, Dr. Petrow says some trends do come to a stop.

“At some point this pattern will kind of play itself out and the changing will stop. And my guess is that we’re actually pretty close to that point,” Dr. Petrow added.