OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — A political dispute is unfolding ahead of the May 12 primary election for Secretary of State, with Rep. Don Bacon accusing candidate Scott Petersen's supporters of posting antisemitic comments on social media.
Bacon referenced screenshots of Facebook posts on his X account, claiming they come from members of Petersen's "inner circle." The posts range from general language about Jewish people and foreign policy to the death of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
When asked about his relationship with the individuals listed in the posts, Petersen pointed to his past work for Bacon.
"Actually what I’ll tell you is Congressman Bacon did you know I worked for him I helped him get elected in 2016," Petersen said.
The authors of the posts include Robert Borer and Edward Weniger. I reached out to both of them but did not get a response.
When asked about their positions in his campaign, Petersen said they help out.
"They help absolutely, they’re helping like you know Robert Borer puts up a bunch of signs and Robert's a different character if you ever meet him he is so passionate you know he’s a faithful Christian," Petersen said.
I explicitly brought one of the messages to Petersen’s attention, which stated "the problem is being anti-christ not anti-jew," and asked if a message like that causes a problem for him.
"Yeah because they can take anything that my supporters say, they can twist it that’s part of the dirty politics," Petersen said.
I also sat down with Bacon and asked him about the same post.
"It is an antisemitic comment any normal person can read that," Bacon said.
When asked about his own thoughts about Jewish people, Petersen said you will not find any posts of similar content in his digital footprint. I asked if he would denounce antisemitism.
"Absolutely there’s no contest, there’s nothing there," Petersen said.
Bacon shared what he believes Petersen should do regarding the social media posts.
"Now if he would’ve saw it and said I denounce this behavior, I think it's reprehensible, I don’t want these folks volunteering on my team. That would’ve been the appropriate action to take if he didn’t know about it," Bacon said.
Since the interviews, Bacon has continued posting online about Petersen. At the time of this story, his most recent post on X about the alleged antisemitism was published Wednesday night.
After our interview, Petersen texted me saying he reminded the authors of those posts about the opposing campaign.
"The desperate Evnen campaign is resorting to dirty politics and will take anything they say and twist it into a negative and try to attribute it to my campaign," Petersen said.
Secretary of State Bob Evnen, who is running against Petersen in the primary, said he is committed to running a positive campaign.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
