District 1 candidates Flood and Backemeyer debate agriculture, Iran, AI and more

Incumbent Republican Mike Flood and Democrat challenger Chris Backemeyer participated in a debate Wednesday night ahead of the November election for the 1st District Congressional seat.

Nebraska Public Media televised, over-the-air radio broadcasted and streamed the event, with questions asked by Nebraska Public Media News and the Omaha World-Herald.

Flood has represented the district since 2022. It covers the cities of Lincoln, Fremont, Norfolk and Columbus, along with suburban Sarpy county and much of rural east-central Nebraska. Backemeyer won his party’s nomination following a 21-year stint working in the State Department.

Throughout the debate, the two covered a variety of topics, including agriculture, Iran and artificial intelligence. The two weren’t afraid to criticize the other.

Backemeyer opened his comments by saying he negotiated an Iranian nuclear deal, which “would have also prevented the war that we're in today, had it not been torn up for partisan political purposes.” He also said the Trump Administration and Flood have supported policies that have caused “economic chaos.”

Flood didn’t hold back in his opening comments to "welcome" Backemeyer back to Nebraska, alluding to his time working in Washington, D.C.

“You see, the last time Chris Backemeyer lived in Nebraska, it was the golden age of Husker football. We had just come off our national championship, and we welcome him back tonight,” Flood said.

Backemeyer responded during post-debate questions with reporters by saying his family has been in Nebraska for 150 years.

Ag, foreign and economic policy

Flood acknowledged that prices are high for fuel but noted rising commodity prices like soybeans.

“Prices are too high. Diesel is too high, just as our harvest is about to start,” Flood said. He added that the United States can’t pull out of Iran like it did under Afghanistan during the Biden Administration. He later pointed to money the Obama Administration sent to Iran in 2016, which he claimed Backemeyer was complicit in, during his time in the State Department.

The Biden Administration didn’t help sell Nebraska corn, Flood said, arguing the Trump White House helped create better trade deals with the European Union.

Backemeyer responded to the Iran topic.

“Iran still is controlled by an evil dictator,” Backemeyer said. “Iran still has enough uranium for 10 nuclear warheads. The Iranian people are no better off than they were before President Trump promised to help them.”

Backemeyer argued the Iranian nuclear deal he helped broker was far less generous toward the Persian nation, compared to Trump’s latest offers.

“Let me be really clear. I've worked for four administrations, four presidents, two Democrat and two Republican,” Backemeyer said, “because I believed in public service, and because I believed in solving problems no matter who's in charge.”

During questions with reporters following the debate, Backemeyer said he has a clear plan to bring costs down.

“Congressman Flood kind of twisted himself in knots and all the things that he's trying to do to bring down costs,” Backemeyer said. “But we know what they are: bring an end to this trade war, which is driving up inflation and has been since the beginning of the administration, and bring an end to the Iran War, which is driving up prices of everything else.”

Flood was asked after the debate about competing needs to keep prices low at the grocery store with the need of farmers to have higher prices for their commodities in the wholesale market.

“The reality is they've (farmers) been losing money for a couple of years, and that's not good for the balance sheet,” Flood said. “They should be paid fairly for what they produce, and we should keep prices as low as possible at the grocery store. It's a delicate balance, and it involves countries like China not ripping us off.”

AI and data centers

Backemeyer said there are benefits to AI but that Congress hasn’t been showing up to work often enough to write legislation to regulate it.

“Well, the advent of artificial intelligence clearly has enormous potential, but it also has extreme dangers to our culture, our economy, and the safety of our children,” Backemeyer said.

Flood later responded by touting a recent bill passed and discussed his work on the AI Task Force.

“Two weeks ago, we passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, which basically says that any new power generation required to get one of these AI infrastructure facilities going cannot be placed on the ratepayers,” Flood said.

As for the topic of potentially building more data centers in Nebraska, Backemeyer said technology companies need to be held accountable.

“The major problem is the problem of transparency,” Backemeyer said, “that our residents, our farmers, need to know exactly how these data centers will be built, how their resources will be utilized, what their backyard is going to look like afterwards, and they have felt like they have not been given that.”

Flood agreed that localities should be given the information to make their own decisions, but he also highlighted the potential tax benefits of data centers.

“Listen, our environmental resources need to be protected,” Flood said. “Our Ogallala Aquifer has to be protected. But if the people in Kearney, Nebraska, decide they want this, that's their choice. That's not the federal government's choice.”

Healthcare

When asked about cuts to Medicaid in the One Big Beautiful Bill, Flood said work requirements are reasonable.

“I think it's reasonable to say that if you're in this country illegally, you do not get free healthcare,” Flood said. “I think it's reasonable to say to a 28-year-old able-bodied man that can work but chooses not to work, you don't get free health care.”

Backemeyer responded by returning to an earlier point that one rural dentist he spoke with hasn’t received a dollar from the Rural Health Transformation Fund.

“They're not all sitting in their parents' basement playing video games,” Backemeyer said. “Instead, they're the people that I just mentioned, that are struggling to get ahead, that are struggling to get jobs in this economy or to make enough of a living.”

In closing remarks, Flood argued that Backemeyer knows more about Iran than he does about Nebraska. Backemeyer argued that people in District 1 care about Iran because of rising fuel prices and its impacts on the economy.