Jean Stothert was Omaha’s mayor for the last twelve years, and of Republican mayors, she oversaw their 6th largest city–emphasis on the past tense. Stothert was defeated by Democrat John Ewing, as Omaha elected its first Black mayor last night. Despite a lot of economic progress on her watch, Nebraska’s largest city felt it was time for a change. Assuming why anyone lost in a local race is always dangerous if you are not aware of the local dynamics, and University of Nebraska at Omaha political scientist Randall Adkins told the Omaha World-Herald that “I don’t think it was any one thing.”
Democrats just flipped the Omaha mayor’s office with ads like this. The right-wing obsession with genitals is starting to backfire.
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— Ari Drennen (@aridrennen.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 10:24 PM
This was not a race rooted in national dynamics, but local news outlets’ descriptions are that it devolved into one over time, culminating in the anti-trans ad by a mayor who has been loath to even say Trump’s name, despite admitting she did vote for him. Stothert is not part of the weird right-wing YouTuber coalition in the GOP, she is much more a part of the stodgy old pro-business caucus, but as soon as you embrace this stink, you wear it forever, and the whole GOP stinks. It says a lot about the party that she felt the need to appeal to anti-trans attacks when her campaign reportedly was worried about Republican turnout relative to Democratic turnout.
Which is the other big part of this story. Not only did Omaha have a Democrat shrugging off a baseless anti-trans attack ad in the final weeks and winning, but Democratic turnout continued to be strong in 2025. Historically Republican districts have already swung to the Democratic Party in places like Iowa and Pennsylvania this year, and after taking a suite of conservative Texas school boards last week, local Democrats have claimed another victory in red country on the back of an electorate pissed off at Donald Trump and willing to crawl over broken glass to vote against him any day of the week.
Which might be the chief lesson to take from the Omaha mayor’s race. All politics is local, yes, but in this environment dictated by the national media, local politics is infected with Beltway politics too. Finding ways to campaign against the uniformity of the Republican Party could be effective like it was here, as elevating their most decrepit features could prove politically beneficial as Trump’s approval ratings continue to slip. What we do know from the Omaha mayor’s race is that going on the offensive against unhinged anti-trans ads didn’t cost John Ewing the race, and there is far more evidence to suggest that it helped him win it.
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