That’s when Brown came across an old yard sign hanging on the wall and creativity struck. He grabbed a bottle of blue spray paint and painted a giant blue dot, inspired by his the district’s status as a democratic anomaly in a deeply red state.

“When we were watching the start of the Democratic National Convention, we were also hearing the resurgence of the concept of the blue dot,” Brown said on television. Washington Examiner. “We were very excited, very excited about Kamala’s candidacy.”

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Once the paint was dry, Brown showed his marry Ruth the final project. The two men became excited and decided to place the sign on their lawn, choosing not to add support for the candidates or anything more than the Blue Dot emblem.

“We decided not to do any other words, nothing,” Brown said. “Leave it a little mysterious. Leave it clean. Leave it as is.

From there, momentum started to build. A few hours after placing the sign on the lawn, a neighbor approached Brown to ask where he got it. Brown offered to make another sign, prompting the couple to order 10 blank signs. online. That way, they thought, if nine other people wanted a sign, they would have enough.

Things started to explode.

“It went absolutely viral,” Brown said. “And it really went viral in more of an old-fashioned way, because it was more like people were driving down our street… These friends of our neighbors were asking, ‘Where did you get your signs?’ Or where do these signs come from? And (the neighbors), you know, very graciously pointed them in our direction, and all of a sudden our doorbell rang and something was afoot.

Nebraska’s 2nd congressional districtwhich encompasses much of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, first appeared as what is called a blue dot after state law changed in 1992 to adjust how Nebraska allocates the votes of its electoral college.

Under this system, the state awards two electoral votes to the candidate who wins the statewide popular vote, then awards one electoral vote to the winner of the popular vote in each congressional district. Nebraska has three congressional districts, creating four popular votes in the state, often leading to split election results.

Since this change, the district has supported the Democratic candidate twice: President Barack Obama in 2008, followed by President Joe Biden in 2020. This year, the party is widely expected to support Vice President Kamala Harris — and it could be the vote that ultimately secures her victory.

“(The district is) extremely important because it’s a tie race,” Republican strategist Dennis Lennox told the newspaper. Washington Examiner. “Trump and Harris need an additional electoral vote wherever they can get it.”

But the district is receiving even more attention in the 2024 cycle thanks to a tight electoral map that shows the presidential race deadlocked between Harris and former President Donald Trump. According to some projections, the electoral vote alone could be what breaks a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College.

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“We would be so proud and so thrilled if we heard the news is that there is a tie, and (Nebraska’s 2nd District) is the tiebreaker for Kamala. We’d love to,” Brown said, adding that “we definitely don’t want it to be that tight.” We would love to see it be a victory bigger than us.

These electoral college calculations scared Republicans earlier this year, even sparking an effort within Nebraska’s Republican delegation to return the state to a winner-takes-all system to ensure Trump wins all five electoral votes. This initiative was supported by national Republicans, including Trump himself, but was ultimately not considered by the state legislature due to a lack of support.

Part of that could be attributed to the enthusiasm of the Blue Dot movement, Brown said.

“From our perspective, the other thing we saw was the power of this movement that can have a say in how Nebraska has pressured our legislators and our unicameracy to change the rules,” Brown said. “And that didn’t happen. And there are a lot of players in this case, who explain why this didn’t happen. And so that was really nice too. It was really cool to see.

However, strategists caution that such efforts might not be the end all be all, especially if the district proves a threat to the GOP.

“If Nebraska’s sole voter in Omaha ends up deciding this election, I can guarantee you this will be the last election in which Nebraska will have the system it has now,” Lennox said. “Because the Republicans those who control the state will certainly find the votes in the state legislature that they could not find a month or two ago to change the system.”

But in the meantime, Brown and his wife will do everything they can to motivate voter turnout and encourage Democrats in the 2nd District — expanding their garage sign project into a district-wide operation.

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As demand began to grow – with 100 to 300 to 1,800 handmade signs being ordered at once – the couple decided to outsource production to a local printer to begin mass production. Since launching the Blue Dot movement in early September, the group has created more than 14,000 signs across the neighborhood.

“Realistically, there was no strategy,” Brown said. “We didn’t have this idea and started to develop this big project. There was no plan. This all really came together because we were inspired by Kamala Harris’ comment about the need to do something.

From there, the group evolved to invest more in voter awareness hosting phone banking events as well as opportunities to gather with other supporters and wave signs along the sidewalks near busy Nebraska streets.

Dozens of Blue Dot members gather at these so-called “transition events,” emphasizing that they are excited for the opportunity to participate in positive campaign activity.

“I just want to be surrounded by positive energy, you know, doing everything you can before this election to feel like we’re doing something and we’re involved instead of scrolling through doom on our phones,” Allison Kinney-Walker, who is running for the Millard School District board of education, told the Washington Examiner.

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As the group waved their signs, several cars honked in support as they passed. Voters who show up empty-handed receive Blue Dot signs for participating.

“We realized that people really crave community,” Brown said. “They really like that feeling of joy of finding out there are a lot of blue dots people in Omaha.”