District details

Dungan, a Democrat, is an attorney. He has served on the executive board of the Robert Van Pelt Inns of Court since 2020.

Howard, a Republican, is a custodian. He has lived in Lincoln for about 15 years.

Dungan has endorsements from the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska and the Nebraska chapter of the Sierra Club.

On the issues

Dungan said he’s running to continue to stand up for northeast Lincoln and to give families a voice at the legislative table. Howard said he is running to start getting into local politics and step up to challenge an incumbent.

The cost of living is the top issue in the district, Howard said. He said lawmakers need to make Nebraska more enticing for businesses to drive economic activity, labor demands and competitive wages. The No. 1 issue in the district is rising everyday costs, Dungan said. He said lawmakers should prioritize kitchen table issues to strengthen the middle class. 

Dungan said the state must find alternative revenue sources while delivering targeted property tax relief. He said he does not support Gov. Jim Pillen’s plan to increase sales tax revenue to offset property tax relief and would instead expand the number of income tax brackets. The governor’s plan sounds good on paper, Howard said, but he wants to see more economic estimates. He said the plan could help decrease housing and rental costs while making Nebraska more economically attractive.

Concerning changes made to recent voter-approved ballot measures, Howard said that sometimes, concessions have to be made in the face of reality. Lawmakers should strive to pass what voters wanted via ballot measures, he said, but that can be complicated by issues such as the state’s budget deficit. Dungan said he does not support changes made to voter-approved ballot measures. If elected, Dungan said, he would respect voters’ decisions and vote to restore the measures to their original language.

Dungan said he would support a moratorium on data centers, mandatory reporting requirements on environmental impacts, contracts to ensure the protection of water and air quality and community dividend agreements. Howard said the building of data centers is inevitable, but Nebraskans should be aware of their impacts while having control of their local communities. He said he favors companies building their own power structures and selling communities the excess, or investing in communities’ already-established power structures. 

Financial oversight of institutions that receive state funds and increased investigations into fraud to help bring down expenses are two solutions Howard proposed for solving the state’s budget deficit. If elected, he said, he would work toward legalizing marijuana for recreational use while regulating it and aggressively taxing it. The state should increase the number of income tax brackets and its revenue base, Dungan said.

Nebraska needs to be a place where people want to build a life, Dungan said. He said the state needs to attract and retain high-paying jobs with pathways to climb the economic ladder. Howard said the state should increase the job market to alleviate the cost of living. He said the University of Nebraska campuses should consolidate to bring in more STEM research, and, if elected, he would examine which industries degree-holding professionals are leaving.