Donald Trump squeezed out a win in Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District to claim all five of the state's presidential electoral votes.
Swimming against a Republican tide in red-state Nebraska, Hillary Clinton battled head-to-head with Trump for the 2nd District vote before falling behind shortly before midnight.
As the national contest between Trump and Clinton swung back and forth with a surprising upheaval of the electoral map, that single Nebraska vote had the potential of dancing close to destiny before Trump topped 270 electoral votes shortly after 1:30 a.m.
President Barack Obama won the electoral vote in 2008, marking the first time Nebraska had awarded a presidential electoral vote to a Democrat since 1964.
The 2nd District battle essentially evolved into a struggle between Douglas County Democrats and Republicans in Sarpy County, the dependable GOP firewall in that congressional district.
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Trump won eastern Nebraska's 1st District vote by a comfortable margin and swept western and central Nebraska's 3rd District.
Trump and Clinton both campaigned in Nebraska briefly, along with Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who had been Clinton's chief Democratic challenger.
Former President Bill Clinton and Sanders campaigned in Lincoln prior to Nebraska's Democratic presidential caucus in March.
Although Sanders won that caucus, Clinton won Nebraska's Democratic presidential primary election in May. Trump won the GOP primary election days after he knocked out challenger Ted Cruz in the Indiana primary.
The Clinton campaign targeted the 2nd District with voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, with considerable emphasis on African American wards in North Omaha and Latino wards in South Omaha.
Sanders showed up on the final weekend to appeal to the millennials who had supported him.
Those efforts represented a microcosm of the Clinton campaign's national get-out-the-vote focus.
Trump made an appearance in Omaha days before the May primary vote with Gov. Pete Ricketts greeting him with an endorsement. Clinton showed up days after she was nominated at the Democratic national convention with billionaire Omaha investor Warren Buffett at her side.
Despite Trump's sweep of the five electoral votes, the 2017 Legislature is likely to consider another effort to repeal the congressional district electoral vote provision and return Nebraska to a winner-take-all state in which the statewide winner garners all five electoral votes.






