There’s a significant inside baseball development in the Omaha race for Congress, and a backlash against the Supreme Court ruling on abortion is arguably why.

The well-respected Cook Political Report announcing that the race between Republican Congressman Don Bacon and Democrat State Sen. Tony Vargas, once labeled “Likely Republican,” is now a “Toss Up.”

Cook says, “surveys taken by both parties" find Vargas, a former member of the Omaha School Board, leading or tied with Bacon.

Vargas’ campaign says its own numbers find Vargas leading Bacon 48-47, with a 9-point lead among independent voters as Bacon’s “extremist views on abortion… opposition to abortion without exceptions even in cases of rape, incest, and a mother’s life” find women across the political spectrum backing Vargas.

Bacon’s campaign appears convinced that voters don’t know the real “extreme” Vargas, but soon will as they expose an “anti-police, weak on crime record” along with Vargas’ “efforts to raise taxes in Nebraska to the fifth highest in the nation.”

According to Cook, “The abortion issue has swiftly galvanized Democrats. What's less clear is whether it will override independent voters' inflation concerns in the context of partisan races.”