Centrist Rep. Don Bacon is done with Congress — but open to a potential presidential bid
But Bacon, who spent 30 years in the Air Force and specialized in intelligence matters, said he's interested in serving in an executive role down the road, and wouldn't rule out running for Nebraska governor, or even president in 2028.
'I got asked the other day, 'You say you're interested in being an executive — is that governor or president?' I go, 'Yes,'' Bacon said in an interview in his office. 'If there's an opportunity and I can make a difference, a unique difference, I would like to keep serving. I just don't want to do two-year elections.'
Bacon, 61, acknowledged that it'd be incredibly difficult to run for the White House as a current or former House member — James Garfield was successful way back in 1880. And Bacon said he's not sure his brand of Republicanism — Reaganism and a muscular view of foreign policy — can ever make a full comeback in the party, though he said he will continue making the case for it.
'I don't think it would be very easily done,' he said. 'All I know is I have a heart to serve our country, and I have a vision.'
Defense secretary is another option 'if God opens up that door,' he said, though he's not sure a Republican president would nominate him. He said he would not run against incumbent Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, a fellow Republican and close friend who took office in 2023.
Bacon's retirement from Congress is notable because he is one of the few sitting Republicans on Capitol Hill who have been willing to publicly criticize President Donald Trump, who has a reputation for retaliating against his enemies and ending their political careers. Bacon's announcement came just a day after another Republican who's clashed with Trump, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said he wouldn't seek re-election in 2026.
The pair of retirements came as both Tillis and Bacon were preparing to vote on Trump's mammoth domestic policy package — what the president calls his 'big, beautiful bill' — as both lawmakers expressed concerns about Medicaid cuts in the package. Tillis voted against it; Bacon voted for it.
But in the interview, Bacon insisted that neither the public feuds with Trump nor the violent threats he and his wife have faced had any impact on his decision to leave Congress.
First elected alongside Trump in 2016, Bacon represents a swing district that includes Omaha and rural areas to the west; in 2024, Democrat Kamala Harris beat Trump in the district by 4.6 percentage points, while Bacon prevailed over his Democratic challenger, Tony Vargas, 50.9% to 49.1%.
Bacon lamented that running in a tough battleground district every two years was an exhausting endeavor, and that he didn't have 'the fire in my belly' to win a sixth race.
'This job requires a 14-hour day during the week, Saturdays, parades and a variety of things, and Sunday sometimes. And do I want to do this for two more years? I just didn't have the hunger to want to work at that intensity level,' said Bacon, who has a large pig figurine sitting on his desk. 'And my wife has wanted me to come home. I'm gone to D.C. four days a week, and I have a chance to be home now seven days a week, and I have eight grandkids within 10 minutes of my house.'
Bacon said he thinks he could have won re-election had he run, even though the party that controls the White House typically loses House seats in a president's first midterm election. On top of that, Democrats are salivating at the chance to attack Republicans for voting for Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which slashes Medicaid benefits that are critical to districts like Bacon's.
A Nebraska rural hospital said Thursday it would close in the coming months due to looming Medicaid cuts. Bacon argued the legislation had not taken effect yet and that it included $50 billion for rural hospitals. He said he had to weigh the pros and cons in the bill; he decided that extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts and boosting military and border funding outweighed any negative impacts.
'There's some things I wish were better,' he said. 'But am I going to vote to raise taxes on middle-class Americans? I'm not.'
On the day of the interview, NBC News and other outlets reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered a pause in sending a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine amid concerns about the U.S. military's stockpiles. Bacon, who has a photograph on the wall of him meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has consistently been critical of Trump's handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and his 'appeasement' of Putin.
Whoever ordered the weapons pause should be fired, Bacon said.
'If Ukraine falls, the world's a more dangerous place. I really don't understand why President Trump doesn't see that. And if Ukraine goes down, Moldova will definitely fall. I think Georgia is in trouble,' said Bacon, a retired brigadier general who did four tours of duty in Iraq and also spent time in Afghanistan.
'President Trump has done worse than Biden [on Ukraine], and I'm embarrassed to say that,' he continued. 'I don't like it. He seems to have a blind spot with Putin. I don't know what purpose it serves to withhold weapons to Ukraine and not see that Putin is the invader.'
'I do believe that if I was the president,' Bacon said, 'I'd be trying to provide Ukraine with every weapon they needed to convince Putin he has no chance to win.'
Bacon said he was a big fan of former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley when she ran for president in 2024, and he likes Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as potential candidates in 2028.
Asked about JD Vance, who famously dressed down Zelenskyy at a White House meeting in February, Bacon suggested the vice president needed to take a tougher stance toward Moscow.
'He's a contender. I like him personally, but I wish he saw the Russian threat a little better,' Bacon said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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