Jim Pillen declared winner of GOP primary for Nebraska governor | Politics & Government

In the hard-fought race to replace Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts, Republican voters Tuesday gave the edge to Ricketts’ preferred candidate: University of Nebraska Regent and Columbus hog producer Jim Pillen.

The results represented a victory for Ricketts and other influential Nebraska Republicans, who lined up behind Pillen in a contentious primary that roiled the Republican electorate. Pillen’s closest competitor, Charles W. Herbster, was backed by former President Donald Trump, who visited the state in the run-up to a race viewed as a three-way contest.

“I’m honored to serve as your nominee for the Republican nomination to be the next governor of Nebraska,” Pillen told a crowd of supporters Tuesday night.

Election officials were still counting votes, but Pillen held a roughly 7,000 vote lead over Herbster, a Falls City cattle rancher and Republican mega-donor who heads multiple businesses. State Sen. Brett Lindstrom, who had jumped to the front of the pack in the early returns Tuesday, fell to third place.

Both Herbster and Lindstrom conceded late Tuesday night.

As the night progressed, the excitement started mounting in the Embassy Suites in Lincoln, where Pillen and his family gathered with more than 100 supporters. Ricketts, who is being term-limited out of office, addressed the crowd early in the night.

“We are going to make Jim Pillen the next governor of the great state of Nebraska,” Ricketts said. “Jim is a true Christian conservative who shares our values.”

From nearly the start of his campaign, Pillen touted his hardline stances on hot-button national issues such as opposing abortion and critical race theory.

His team was packed with seasoned Nebraska political operatives, including some veterans of Ricketts’ past races. In addition to the governor, his supporters included former Gov. Kay Orr, former U.S. Rep. and Husker football coach Tom Osborne and the Nebraska Farm Bureau.

Mark McHargue of the Nebraska Farm Bureau said he admired Pillen’s grassroots work traveling across the state campaigning. Even a day before the election, Pillen — who notably did not participate in any of the debates running up to the election — embarked on a six-stop tour of the state with a handful of his most influential supporters.

“Every single time, it didn’t matter who was there, by the time Jim got done meeting every single person in that crowd, he had their vote,” McHargue said Tuesday night.

Not all Nebraska Republicans supported him, however.

The race quickly grew rancorous as Pillen and Herbster attempted to outflank one another from the right. The divide became apparent in October when Trump announced his endorsement of Herbster, which led Ricketts to state that Herbster was unqualified for the office.

As the race marched closer toward election day, multiple polls indicated it was a three-way contest between Pillen, Herbster and Lindstrom. In March, the first batch of third-party attack ads hit the airwaves, with Herbster and Lindstrom as their targets.

Eventually all three candidates became the focus of negative advertising, which flooded the race at a volume that observers said was unprecedented in modern times.

Ricketts gave nearly $1.3 million in March and April to one of the outside groups, the political action committee Conservative Nebraska. The ads focused on Herbster at first, then shifted focus to target Lindstrom with claims that he was not a true conservative. The week before election day, it came out with two new anti-Herbster ads.

In many ways, Herbster’s campaign was defined by his similarities to and endorsement from Trump, who traveled to Nebraska for a rally in Greenwood May 1. Herbster also had the backing of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former U.S. Rep. Lee Terry, and former Omaha Mayor and U.S. Rep. Hal Daub.

The race was rocked, though, by a political bombshell in mid-April, when the Nebraska Examiner reported allegations from eight women who said Herbster had groped them at events in recent years. Condemnation from powerful Nebraska politicians was swift, but not unanimous.

Herbster adamantly denied the allegations and insisted they were a political hit job devised by Ricketts and Pillen. Herbster has sued a GOP state senator who’s among the accusers, Sen. Julie Slama, for defamation (she has countersued, alleging battery).

Just after 11 p.m. Tuesday, Herbster appeared to officially concede the race, and said he called Pillen to congratulate him. Intermixed with thanking his campaign team and supporters, Herbster said he would continue to fight to remove critical race theory and sex education from Nebraska schools.

“It’s in God’s hands,” Herbster said. “I don’t know why.”

Herbster said the gubernatorial election was one of the “nastiest” elections in Nebraska’s history, and some audience members spoke out to add “in the country.” Although he never specifically mentioned the allegations against him, Herbster said he was disappointed that the negativity likely had an impact on the results.

“We didn’t lose,” said Jack Brewer, a former NFL player and well-known Trump supporter, shortly before introducing Herbster. “Nebraska lost today.”

State Sen. Tom Briese, who endorsed Herbster, said Pillen will have his “full support” moving forward. While the election was “very contentious,” Briese said it’s important for Republicans to “convalesce” around the winner and support conservative values in the November general election against the Democratic candidate, Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue.

Lindstrom also said he’d be endorsing Pillen, who he called to congratulate. At a watch party in Omaha Tuesday night, the two-term lawmaker thanked his supporters and family members.

“When we set out, it was a challenge, right? There’s no doubt about it, we knew it’d be tight,” Lindstrom said. “But we put in the work. We went to all 93 counties, we went to 150 different communities, towns, villages, all across the state of Nebraska — met a lot of great people. The people of Nebraska are fantastic, and who knows what the future holds.”

Asked how he came to congratulate Pillen after his backers attacked him during the race, Lindstrom said “it’s just part of politics sometimes.”

“I obviously don’t appreciate it, but I’m not going to respond that way and I never will,” he said. “I’ll try to continue to do the right thing. And that was the right thing to do.”

Pillen’s margin over Herbster was over 7,000 votes shortly after midnight. 

While there were some rural counties that still had not reported results late Tuesday, Pillen was generally outpolling Herbster outside of Nebraska’s three biggest counties.

Lindstrom carried Douglas County by a wide margin, while Pillen and Herbster were neck and neck. In Lancaster County, Pillen was outperforming Herbster.

Herbster did show strength in Sarpy County, where he was about even with Lindstrom and topped Pillen by more than 1,000 votes shortly after midnight. But it didn’t appear to be enough to overcome Pillen’s relative strength statewide.

Addressing his supporters, Pillen referenced his “love for Nebraska” and said he would focus on making the state a better place for future generations.

“We’re going to focus on what’s best for Nebraska,” he said.

World-Herald Staff Writer Henry J. Cordes contributed to this report.