A Republican, Democrat and two independent candidates are trying to unseat Republican incumbent Adrian Smith this year in Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District.
It won’t be easy in one of the most red-leaning districts in the country. The Cook Partisan Voting Index gives Republicans a +27 advantage. That shows in the polls. A Republican has held the seat since the early 1960s.
Most of the district is agricultural, with nearly 92% of its population living in rural areas. Those rural voters have been especially affected by the Trump Administration’s tariffs and ongoing trade disputes.
They’ve caused equipment and input costs to rise, and bottlenecked international markets for the district’s farmers. Along with skyrocketing farm bankruptcy claims in the state, multiple challengers have emerged in the race, each calling for a leadership change, and each with their own priorities.
Adrian Smith
Republican Adrian Smith has held the 3rd District’s congressional seat for nearly 20 years, longer than anyone in history. In races for the seat, Smith has only once failed to earn less than 70% of the district’s vote. That was when he first ran for the seat in 2006.
Smith is a Nebraska native, born in Scottsbluff and raised in Gering. He graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
He served in the Unicameral from 1999 through 2007, then successfully won his seat in the House of Representatives, which he’s held ever since.
He’s been supportive of stronger borders, saying he’s pleased with the immigration policy of Trump’s second term.
“Our border is so much more secure than it was,” Smith said in an interview with Nebraska Public Media. “Illegal border crossings are down some 90%. That’s something, I think, that doesn't get the coverage that it deserves.”
Smith said despite his 18 years in Washington, his job is far from over.
“I feel like I've gotten better able to effectively help Nebraska over time," he said. "We've got a lot of work to do on spending. I'm in the best position to ensure the Nebraska voices are heard in Washington.”
Smith currently serves as chair of both the Ways and Means Subcommittee, and the Agriculture Trade Caucus, and he supports the ongoing tariffs that have hit the region’s ag producers.
Smith said the tariffs might be necessary for a brighter future for the district’s farmers.
“I’m not a fan of tariffs,” he said, “but on trade, the reality is we’re either gaining or losing ground. What I want to see is a leveling of the playing field, and we’re starting to see some success with that.”
Smith, alongside most of Nebraska’s congressional delegation, has advocated for year round sales of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol, called E15.
“What I’m proposing offers a certainty that encourages more investment,” he said. “That stability is so important. It is absolutely key moving forward.”
He currently serves as a member of the newly established E15 Rural Domestic Energy Council and said that’s where he hopes to push the issue further.
“I'm glad to say that I've led the way on E15 becoming a higher-profile issue,” Smith said. “We've got the support of the House leadership right now. The president has spoken out on this very emphatically. We just have to get it across the finish line.”
Smith supported and helped draft President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which he said sets him up for his next big objective in Washington: strengthening Social Security through bipartisan cooperation.
“If we don't get our work done on Social Security, those benefits will automatically reduce 25%. That would lead to senior poverty like we’ve never seen before,” Smith warned, “but it’s completely avoidable.”
David Huebner
Lincoln County’s David Huebner has emerged as the primary Republican challenger to Smith. The campaign is Huebner’s first foray into politics at the national level.
Huebner is a former U.S. Border Patrol agent and fifth generation Nebraskan. He is a born-again Christian and believes that Washington suffers not just from political problems, but spiritual ones as well.
“We have a spiritually sick nation,” Huebner said in an interview with the Grant Tribune. He added that reform in Washington starts with a change in character of the people sent there.
Huebner’s stances closely resemble his Republican counterpart’s, but as a challenger, Huebner said he’d be stricter on several key issues and align himself with the farthest right-leaning House members in Washington.
In talking with the district’s voters, he’s heard that immigration is one of the most important issues facing Nebraska, and said he’d take a harder stance on border security.
“I am a staunch advocate of legal deportation," he said. "I’m a staunch advocate of our current immigration law.”
Huebner also said he’d push for stronger pro-life measures, Second Amendment protections and term limits.
He argued he’s different from the district’s previous Republican challengers because of his occupation. Huebner and his wife are ranchers. They own a Black Angus operation and haying business near the North Platte airport.
He said his occupation might give him an edge in the race, as neither Smith nor his recent Republican challengers come from agricultural backgrounds.
“I like active and present representation,” he said in an interview with the Nebraska Examiner. “It doesn’t feel like we’re getting that right now.”
He’s also concerned that Smith has grown out of touch with what the district needs.
“Life is very different in western rural Nebraska than it is in D.C.,” he argued. “It’s very easy to get out of touch up there.”
He has said that environmental regulations have been an unnecessary burden on the district’s farmers and is a proponent of mandatory country of origin labeling on beef. He argued this would help the state’s beef producers see long-term, sustainable profitability, and encourage future generations to continue in beef production.
He said he was prompted to return to Nebraska and run for office due in part to concerns he had regarding President Joe Biden’s orders for the Border Patrol.
“With the directives we were given, I just didn’t think I could fulfill my oath to the Constitution," he said.
Huebner did not respond to an interview request with Nebraska Public Media.
Becky Lynn Stille
Becky Lynn Stille is a lifelong Nebraskan, running for Nebraska’s 3rd District seat as a Democrat.
While left-leaning candidates have historically struggled in the district, Stille said this election is different. Many voters she’s talked with share the same concerns regardless of their party affiliation.
“We need to get away from red and blue, left and right, because that’s not where the problems are,” she told Nebraska Public Media. “I think a lot of traditional Republicans have the same concerns that I do.”
One of the biggest concerns for the district, according to Stille, is a lack of proper representation.
“I don’t believe Adrian Smith is representing anyone in the 3rd District,” she said. “He supported the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’ That would raise the debt by several trillion dollars. You’re looking at elderly farmers, working families, everybody in the district would have to help pay that back.”
She’s against the current Trump administration’s increased tariffs, which Smith supported, and said the relief provided to the district’s farmers isn’t nearly enough.
“Some of them are only receiving $155,000. That’s a drop in the bucket," she said. "They’ve got to pay back loans, and start up this spring.”
Stille has decades of experience in the biosciences, having worked for Nebraska-based Ag Processing. She said one of the solutions she’d look to pursue in Washington to offset tariffs is expansion of domestic soybean markets.
“The technology’s already there. We just need to spread the word about what’s possible with some of these crops.”
Additionally, Stille holds an accounting degree. She said she’d bring her auditing experience to Washington, which in her eyes sorely needs to cut costs.
“Cutting spending has got to happen,” she said. “There is waste, fraud and abuse. I don’t believe it’s with government programs, but with the government itself. I’m not saying take a chainsaw to it, but there are a lot of things that need to be looked into.”
The campaign is the South Sioux City resident’s first foray into politics at the national level. She said she was moved to run in part because of her neighbors’ ongoing financial struggles.
“One of the fields out here had a ‘For Auction’ sign put up,” she said. “I knew that couldn’t be our future.”
Stille’s ultimate aim in Washington is to represent all corners of the district equally. Something she said the incumbent hasn’t been doing over his past few terms.
“The population of the district is so economically diverse, that to be unable to represent anybody is careless, it’s irresponsible," she said. "But that’s what I intend to remedy.”
Mark Cohen
Mark Cohen has been living mostly in Nebraska since 1983. The Lemoyne resident and retired Air Force officer teaches karate in Ogallala. He’s the only veteran running for the 3rd District seat.
He’s running as an independent, uncommon in a deeply Republican district. He told Nebraska Public Media he was encouraged to run in part because of Dan Osborn’s 2024 Senate campaign against Deb Fischer.
“I was impressed that an independent could get 46% of the vote.”
Most non-Republican opponents to Smith have come from the Democratic or Libertarian parties.
Cohen said he may have been considered a Democrat at one point, but has grown disillusioned with the party’s messaging.
“I left that party about four years ago for a couple different reasons,” he said. “I’ve grown frustrated with how they’ve handled gun control, and I don’t think they’re ready to face the circumstances we’re up against today.”
He doesn’t align with the beliefs of the current Republican Party, either. And in his conversations with voters across the district, he said he isn’t alone.
“A lot of people who are conservative and in agriculture aren’t really happy with the ‘one size fits all’ immigration policy, because it hurts the workforce," he explained.
He also sees discontent with the ongoing tariffs issued by the Trump Administration, which he opposes.
“The tariffs were ill-conceived,” Cohen said. “There are a flow of negative consequences from them, including increased input expenses.”
Cohen said that because Smith is a stalwart Republican, he’s been implicit in supporting policies that have hurt the 3rd District’s rural residents.
“I’m against the current tariffs, the way immigration’s handled, the revocation of Biden-era regulations on meatpacking. Adrian’s silent on those things. He’s silent on a lot of things," Cohen said.
Cohen proposes several solutions to voter concerns. He said he’d like to see a reduction of Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding to its pre-2024 levels, and clarify a path to citizenship for those undocumented in the country.
He’s also witnessed the closure of several rural hospitals and thinks health care should be a priority for Congress, especially in rural areas. He said there’s a simple fix.
“You cannot separate that from the tax cuts for billionaires,” Cohen argued. “It’s that tax revenue that provides grants to state and local governments. Cuts to Medicaid directly impact rural hospitals. We need to have a serious discussion about raising taxes on the super wealthy.”
Macey Budke
Macey Budke has been a resident of Nebraska’s 3rd District since she was 3 months old.
Her decision to run for the 3rd District’s House seat, however, is much more recent. She announced in mid-February, and said the decision is due to feeling unrepresented by the status quo, despite her lifelong residency.
“After a while you realize that if you really want to see things change, you’ve got to step up yourself and take a crack at it, see where it goes,” she told Nebraska Public Media.
The North Platte resident said the voters she’s talked to are tired of a lack of transparency in Washington and feeling left out of conversations that directly affect them.
“People want straight answers to things, and they want to understand why a vote was cast and not just receive some party talking point," she said.
Budke is taking on Smith as the second Independent in the race because she wants to represent the district as a person, not a party.
“As an Independent, I can look at issues clearly and ask myself one simple question: is this going to work for District 3?" she said.
Though running against him, Budke agrees with Representative Smith's support of year-round E15 access, saying that it benefits the district's farmers. However, she said, he hasn’t done enough when it comes to health care.
“We have multiple health care deserts, maternity deserts, and a lot of clinics and hospitals that are working on very thin margins right now," she said.
Health care is Budke’s specialty; she holds a graduate degree in organizational psychology and health care administration and currently works in private psychiatry.
She said that if policy trends continue in Washington, the district’s health care situation could deteriorate further.
“My concern is the yearly reduction in Medicaid funding from the federal government. Rural hospitals rely on those dollars to remain operational.”
She also believes that ongoing tariffs and trade disputes are adversely affecting the district’s farmers.
“I know that there can be some use and purpose for them, but our ag producers have definitely felt it," she said. "Exports are tightening, inputs are climbing and that puts a lot of stress on our farmers.”
Fundamentally, though, Budke thinks that just being present in the district could go a long way to addressing ongoing concerns, something she feels isn’t happening.
“I feel that it is absolutely critical to be present in communities," she said. “Congress has a lot of recesses, and representatives spend a lot of time at home. Being able to listen to your constituents is a big part of leadership. You need to be listening to what people are telling you.”
Important election dates
Nebraska’s 2026 primary election is Tuesday, May 12. It will narrow the field of candidates ahead of the general election, which will be Tuesday, Nov. 3.
Voting begins when county election offices start mailing early voting ballots on March 27 to Nebraskans and military members overseas. County election offices start mailing early voting ballots on April 3 to registered voters in Nebraska. Voters can cast their ballots early, in person at their respective county election office starting April 13. Voting in person at county election offices will end Monday, May 11. All early voting ballots are due back to county election offices by the close of polls on election day. Ballots received after the polls close will not be accepted.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central Time on election day, Tuesday, May 12. Voters can locate their polling place online at Nebraska’s VoterCheck system, as well as verify their voter registration information is up to date and preview their ballot once those are finalized by county election offices.
There are two voting registration deadlines ahead of the primary election. April 27 is the final day Nebraskans can update their voter registration information or register to vote online, by mail, at the DMV, via personal agent or via deputy registrar. May 1is the final day Nebraskans can update their voter registration or register to vote in person at their respective county election offices.
This will be the second statewide election cycle with Nebraska’s voter ID law, which requires voters to present a photo ID before casting a ballot. Voters can complete that process when they submit their requests to vote early by mail, or they can present their photo ID before they cast their ballots at county election offices or at the polls.
Voters who have questions about voting in this year’s election can contact their respective county election office by phone or email.