Omaha city councilman Garry Gernandt endorsed Jim Rogers to represent District 4.
This comes after a very close primary race between Rogers and his opponent Vinny Palermo.
Rogers received 1,843 votes compared to Palermo's 1,888.
Gernandt decided not to run for re-election after serving on the city council for over 16 years. He said Rogers posses qualities that will be beneficial to the district, "His energy, his listening ability and his fact-finding ability will keep South Omaha connected."
Rogers said his platform is to create more of what he calls 'event tourism' to bring people together and fixing street, "We need to have an actionable plan where we are fixing our infrastructure, in terms of our streets and our bridges, folks are very colorful in ways they describe the conditions of our streets that are existing in Omaha," said Rogers.
Meanwhile Rogers' opponent, Palermo, was door knocking on houses across the district spreading his message, "Public safety, neighborhood development and equity in city services which highlights roads," said Palermo.
Palermo said Gernandt's endorsement doesn't phase him.
"I think the people have spoke loud and clear through the primary that endorsements will not be the determining factor in this race, I think dedication and hard work will be and that’s what you get with me," said Palermo.
And in a race this close within 1-percentage point, both Rogers and Palermo said understand the value of each vote.
"It’s going to get voters actively out there to vote and in all honesty we are going to need people to show up and vote," said Palermo.
"All the sudden they feel empowered, because they know there’s only a few votes that separate them and then amplify that by what’s going on in the District 4 race, which is even tighter and then people are like now I really can make a decision," said Rogers.
Both candidates are Democrats in an officially nonpartisan race.
The general election is on May 9th.
