PERSON: Don Bacon

Congressman

Donald John Bacon (born August 16, 1963) is a retired United States Air Force Brigadier General and current U.S. Representative for Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district.

Bacon is a native of Illinois. He attended Northern Illinois University and then gained his commission through Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. He has been stationed in Arizona, Iraq, Germany and Nebraska. Congressman Bacon has earned two Masters Degrees, from the University of Phoenix in Arizona and the National War College in Washington D.C. His last or penultimate assignment was Director of ISR Strategy, Plans, Doctrine and Force Development, AF/A2, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, the Pentagon July 2012-mid-2014. He picked up the nickname “Bits”—a reference to his last name.

In 2015, at the age of 50, Bacon retired from the Air Force. During his 29.5 years in the Air Force, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, two Legion of Merits, and two Bronze Stars, and was selected as Europe’s top Air Force Wing Commander in 2009. He served as an aide to U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry and as an assistant professor at Bellevue University.

Bacon and his wife, Angie, have four children and live in Papillion, Nebraska.

Bacon won the Republican Party primary election for the U.S. House of Representatives in Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district in the 2016 elections.

The general election race was characterized as a tossup, with Democratic incumbent Brad Ashford being seen as having the edge. Bacon faced and defeated Ashford in the general election on November 8, 2016. Bacon received 49.4% of the vote to Ashford’s 47.3%. He is the only Republican who defeated an incumbent Democrat in the 2016 House elections.

Bacon was assigned to the House Agriculture Committee. He also sits on the House Committee on Homeland Security and House Armed Services Committee.

He is a member of the Republican Main Street Partnership.

— Wikipedia