Don Bacon (politician)

Elections

Bacon ran for Congress in 2016 on four major issues: “addressing harmful regulations by federal agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Labor, reforming the tax code, addressing the national debt of nearly $20 trillion, and strengthening the military.”^[8]

Bacon won the Republican Party primary election for the U.S. House of Representatives in Nebraska's 2nd congressional district in the 2016 elections.^[9]

The general election race was characterized as a tossup, with Democratic incumbent Brad Ashford being seen as having the edge.^[10] Bacon faced and defeated Ashford in the general election on November 8, 2016.^[11][12] After the release in October 2016 of a 2005 videotape showing Donald Trump making lewd remarks to Billy Bush, Bacon said that Trump could not win the presidency and should withdraw from the race in favor of “a strong conservative candidate, like Mike Pence.” Bacon did not say, however, that he would not vote for Trump since he did not believe “Hillary is the right person. I'm in a quandary.”^[13]

Bacon received 49.4% of the vote to Ashford's 47.3%.^[14][15] He is the only Republican who defeated an incumbent Democrat in the 2016 House elections.

Tenure

Bacon was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee.^[16] He also sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security and House Armed Services Committee.^[17]

He is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership,^[18] the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus,^[19] the House Baltic Caucus^[20] and the Congressional Western Caucus.^[21]

As of January 2018, Bacon had voted with his party in 95.7% of votes so far in the current session of Congress and voted in line with President Trump's position in 96.6% of votes.^[22][23]

Vote Smart Political Courage Test

Vote Smart, a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States, "researched presidential and congressional candidates' public records to determine candidates' likely responses on certain key issues." According to Vote Smart's 2018 analysis, Bacon generally supports pro-life legislation, opposes an income tax increase, opposes decreasing defense spending, opposes federal spending and supports lowering taxes as means of promoting economic growth, opposes requiring states to adopt federal education standards, opposes the federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and government funding for renewable energy, opposes gun-control legislation, supports repealing the Affordable Care Act, opposes same-sex marriage, supports the construction of a wall along the Mexican border and requiring immigrants who are unlawfully present to return to their country of origin before they are eligible for citizenship, and says the following about using military force to prevent governments hostile to the U.S. from possessing a nuclear weapon and increasing American intervetion in Middle Eastern conflicts beyond air support: "As a retired brigadier general with almost 30 years of service, my views on these questions cannot be boiled down to a yes or no answer. Many things must be considered before using military force or sending Americans into combat. I don't know a single military leader who actually wants war, including myself. We must work to ensure our enemies do not have the ability to attack the United States with a nuclear weapon. We must promote peace through strength."^[24]

Environment

Regarding climate change, Bacon has said: "I don't think we know for certain how much of climate change is being caused by normal cyclical changes in weather vs. human causes. I support legislation that allows for continued incremental improvement in our environment, but oppose extreme measures that create significant economic and job disruption."^[25] Bacon is a member of the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus.^[19] In an American Family Association questionnaire from 2016, Bacon disagreed with the statement that "Governments should pay to develop wind and solar energy solutions until they are economically feasible." In the same survey, he supported "deregulating domestic oil exploration and drilling."^[26]

Immigration

In August 2017, Bacon and five of his House colleagues urged President Trump to allow DACA youths, also known as "Dreamers," to remain in the United States until some permanent solution could be arranged. "Children brought to the United States at a young age did not have a choice in the matter," the Congress members wrote the President. "They did not willingly seek to violate American statutes when they traveled with their families across our borders, as the alternative was often life without primary caregivers." He has said that he would "fight like heck so that people under DACA will never have to fear deportation again."^[27][28]

In April 2016, Bacon re-introduced the Kerrie Orozco Act, which would "allow the spouses of first responders, killed in the line of duty, access to a quicker process of becoming an American citizen." He explained that it would "honor one of the heroes of the Omaha Police Department and help the surviving spouse, child, or parent of our brave first responders by allowing them to still get citizenship even after the death of first responder loved ones." The act was named for a first responder who died while her husband, Hector, was waiting for his green card.^[29]

Military

At a Brookings Institution event in October 2017, Bacon discussed the importance of military readiness, noting that at the beginning of his career U.S. Air Force crews had flown two hours to every one flown by Russia or China, but were now flying about one-third as many hours as they had then. "When you fly one-third of the hours, people get out because it's not rewarding," said Bacon. He also said that the "gravest threat" to military preparedness was the "partisan divide" in government, which had prevented necessary increases in spending.^[30]

In addition, he pointed to the Russian threat, underscoring the need to respond to the challenge posed by both Russia and China in outer space as well as in cyberspace. Bacon considers a partnership with China possible despite its regional power ambitions, but says "Russia is an adversary" that is "working against our goals." He finds Russia's activity in Ukraine and the Balkans disturbing and believes in a stronger U.S. military presence in the latter region.^[28]

In November 2017, Bacon told an Electronic Warfare (EW) conference that the U.S. military needed "to elevate the electromagnetic spectrum to an official domain of warfare - alongside land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace - and appoint general officers as EW advocates in all four services and to the joint staff." He said that when he was "a young EWO (Electronic Warfare Officer), there was no doubt we had the best electronic warfare capabilities in the world," but that after the fall of the USSR "we let it atrophy for a decade-and-a-half." It was now time, he said, to push the effort on this front "into high gear." He has been described as "probably the most qualified congressman" on the subject of EW.^[31]

Terrorism

Bacon has said that Barack Obama's administration has “underestimated” ISIS. “I hope we can be able to work with more of our traditional allies to go after ISIS.”^[32]

Health care

Bacon opposes abortion after the twentieth week of pregnancy.^[33][34] He says that care currently being provided at Planned Parenthood could be better delivered through community health care centers that do not also provide abortion services.^[35]

Bacon favors repealing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.^[36] He was supportive of the March 2017 version of American Health Care Act, the GOP's replacement plan for Obamacare.^[37] On May 4, 2017, Bacon voted to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and pass the American Health Care Act, nicknamed "Trumpcare."^[38][39]

Foreign policy

He is a steadfast backer of Israel, and supports the United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital.^[40] In an American Family Association candidate questionnaire from 2016, Bacon opposed the question "The U.S. military should wait for militant Islamic groups to directly threaten our national security on our shores, rather than eradicate them now wherever they may be worldwide." He said the U.S. needs "to defeat ISIS with assertive leadership, our superior airpower, and special forces."^[41]

LGBT rights

He opposes same-sex marriage.^[42] Bacon supports defining marriage as being between "one man and one woman."^[43]

Drug policy

In the American Family Association candidate questionnaire from 2016, Bacon disagreed that "Marijuana should be legalized and regulated like tobacco and alcohol."^[44]

Internet

In March 2017, Bacon voted to return jurisdiction over the internet to the Federal Trade Commission^[45] by reversing an October 2016 rule that subjected online activity to control by the Federal Communications Commission. Bacon's vote was in line with the position of the business-oriented lobbying group the United States Chamber of Commerce on this rule.^[46] Bacon opposed the continuation of net neutrality in the United States in support of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's repeal of Title II classification of ISPs. Bacon received $7,000 in campaign contributions from the telecommunications industry during the 2016 election cycle.^[47]