2022 midterms: What to watch in Nebraska
The top race in Tuesday’s primary elections in Nebraska is a heavily contested Republican primary for governor.
By News Channel Nebraska
By GRANT SCHULTE
Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The top race in Tuesday's primary elections in Nebraska and West Virginia is a heavily contested Republican primary for Nebraska governor, featuring a Donald Trump-endorsed candidate who has been accused of groping multiple women.
Voters in Nebraska will also be nominating candidates to replace former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican convicted in March on charges he lied to federal authorities about an illegal campaign contribution he received from a Nigerian billionaire.
In West Virginia, two incumbent congressmen are facing off in a Republican primary after redistricting cost the state a seat in the U.S. House.
What to watch as Tuesday’s primaries unfold:
HOW MUCH SWAY DOES TRUMP HAVE IN NEBRASKA?
In Nebraska's Republican primary for governor, Trump has endorsed Charles Herbster, a wealthy agribusinessman and cattle breeder who has positioned himself as a political outsider.
Herbster has recently faced allegations that he groped young women, including a Nebraska state senator and a former legislative staffer. He vehemently denies the accusations and has filed a defamation lawsuit against the lawmaker, state Sen. Julie Slama. She filed a countersuit, accusing Herbster of sexual battery. Despite the allegations, Trump has stood by Herbster and appeared with him at a rally last week.
His main rival is University of Nebraska regent Jim Pillen, a former college football player and veterinarian who owns a hog farm operation and swine breeding-stock company. Pillen has won support from high-profile conservatives, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, former Gov. Kay Orr, the influential Nebraska Farm Bureau and former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne.
And in a surprising twist, state Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha has risen to top-tier status as well with support from Omaha's Republican mayor and ads in which he pitches himself as a “new generation” of leader. He is considered the more moderate option to Herbster and Pillen.
The winner of the GOP primary is expected to face state Sen. Carol Blood, who is all but certain to win the Democratic nomination for governor over a little-known candidate who hasn't actively campaigned.
HOW DID A CONGRESSMAN'S CONVICTION RESHAPE THE PRIMARY?
U.S. House primary races are usually low-key affairs in Nebraska, with little turnover among the Republican incumbents. But the state has an open seat this year following Fortenberry's resignation.
Fortenberry initially planned to seek reelection to a 10th term despite a federal indictment and launched attack ads against his main challenger, Republican state Sen. Mike Flood. He dropped his bid after his conviction, and Flood gained momentum with endorsements from Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman.
Flood is now the strong favorite to win the nomination for the 1st Congressional District out of a field of five Republican candidates. Fortenberry's name will still appear on the ballot because he withdrew after the state's deadline to certify candidates.
The GOP nominee is expected to face Democratic state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks in November. Pansing Brooks is running against University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Jazari Kual Zakaria in the Democratic primary.
Flood and Pansing Brooks will also face each other in a June 28 special election to decide who serves the rest of Fortenberry's term. The November general election will determine who fills the seat starting in January 2023.
The 1st Congressional District encompasses a stretch of eastern Nebraska, excluding Omaha and most of its suburbs. The Republican-leaning district includes Lincoln as well as large stretches of farmland and small towns.
HOW MUCH DO INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS MATTER TO WEST VIRGINIA VOTERS?
A Republican primary in West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District between two incumbents could hang on support for President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure law in the GOP-leaning state.
One of the incumbents, Rep. David McKinley, was among 13 House Republicans to vote for the bill. He cited the state’s “D” infrastructure grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers, saying it would have been a betrayal to vote based on “party politics” on an issue so important to residents.
West Virginia, one of the nation's poorest states, is slated to get $6 billion in infrastructure money.
The other incumbent, Rep. Alex Mooney, voted against the infrastructure bill and won Trump's endorsement the day Biden signed the measure into law. Mooney and Trump have called McKinley and other Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill RINOs, or “Republicans In Name Only.” Mooney called the bill “Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s spending masterplan” and said it will contribute to inflation.
While in Congress, McKinley and Mooney voted together the vast majority of the time. But the infrastructure vote will serve as a test of Trump’s clout in a state that wholeheartedly embraced him in two presidential elections.
Trump's clout factors into US House races in W.Va., Nebraska
By LEAH WILLINGHAM
Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Roads, bridges and former President Donald Trump will be on West Virginia and Nebraska voters’ minds as they choose congressional candidates in Tuesday's Republican primary elections.
Two incumbent GOP congressmen who have taken dramatically different approaches to their time in office are facing off in West Virginia's 2nd Congressional District, one of the most-watched U.S. House primaries on the day's ballot. Reps. David McKinley and Trump-backed Alex Mooney were pitted against each other after West Virginia lost a congressional seat based on the results of the 2020 U.S. census.
West Virginia's election is the first of five primaries in which two incumbent U.S. House members will face off. It will be followed by similar contests in Georgia and Michigan and in two Illinois districts.
The primary comes on the heels of a victory by Trump-endorsed conservative JD Vance, author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” who defeated six other candidates to win the Ohio Republican primary for U.S. Senate last week. The West Virginia contest will once again test the former president's clout when his own name isn’t on the ballot.
Nebraska voters will nominate candidates on Tuesday to fill the seat abandoned by U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Republican who resigned from office and ended his reelection bid after he was convicted of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign contribution. Fortenberry’s name will still appear on the ballot for the 1st Congressional District because he withdrew after a deadline to certify the ballot, but Sen. Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, appears to have the advantage over five other Republican candidates.
Voters will also pick nominees for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area. Three-term Republican Rep. Don Bacon faces a long-shot challenge from Steve Kuehl, an Omaha consultant who got a shoutout from Trump when the former president visited earlier this month.
Trump blasted Bacon as a “bad guy” during a recent rally in the state and had criticized him previously for his support of a federal infrastructure bill that most GOP lawmakers opposed. Bacon also has been mildly critical of Trump in the past, saying the former president bore some responsibility for the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump stopped far short of officially endorsing Kuehl, however, saying: “I think Steve will do well. Good luck, Steve, whoever the hell you are.”
Democrats in Nebraska will nominate either state Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha or Alisha Shelton, an Omaha mental health therapist, to challenge Bacon in the 2nd, the state’s only competitive district.
In the rural, geographically vast 3rd Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith faces a challenger but is expected to win his party’s nomination. Two Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination within the district, which is overwhelmingly Republican.
In West Virginia, incumbent Rep. Carol Miller is expected to hold her seat in the 1st Congressional District against four Republican challengers.
In the state's 2nd Congressional District, where McKinley and Mooney are battling each other for the GOP nomination, openly gay former Morgantown city councilor Barry Wendell is competing against security operations manager Angela Dwyer in the Democratic primary.
Mooney has attacked McKinley for voting with 12 other House Republicans in favor of President Joe Biden's $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Trump, who won every single county in West Virginia in two presidential elections and said Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill should be “ashamed of themselves," endorsed Mooney on the same day Biden signed the infrastructure law.
Rep. David McKinley, a civil engineer by trade, received endorsements and praise from Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin and GOP Gov. Jim Justice over his infrastructure vote. He said it was time to put party politics aside to meet the needs of his constituents.
“This wasn’t for Joe Biden — this was to help West Virginia,” he told The Associated Press.
Groping claims roil Nebraska governor primary
By GRANT SCHULTE
Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Republicans will pick a nominee for governor Tuesday in a bitter primary race that was upended in recent weeks after a leading candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump was accused of groping at least eight women over the last few years.
Charles Herbster, a businessman and cattle breeder who has denied the allegations, is in a nine-way GOP primary to replace Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who's prevented by term limit laws from running again. Other leading candidates include Jim Pillen, a veterinarian and hog farm owner endorsed by Ricketts, and state Sen. Brett Lindstrom, an Omaha financial adviser who gained traction recently with a surge of money and support from the city’s Republican mayor.
The winner will emerge as a strong favorite in November’s general election in Republican-dominated Nebraska. State Sen. Carol Blood is the top candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor.
Both Nebraska and West Virginia are holding primary elections on Tuesday night, with select races providing some measure of the former president’s enduring sway with GOP voters. In addition to the Nebraska governor's race, Trump has weighed in on a West Virginia congressional primary between two Republican incumbents. The former president backed Rep. Alex Mooney over Rep. David McKinley, who angered Trump by voting for President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure package and the creation of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Trump is facing some of the biggest tests of his influence in Republican primary elections later this month. In Pennsylvania, his endorsed Senate candidate, TV’s Dr. Mehmet Oz, is locked in a competitive race against former hedge fund CEO David McCormick and five others, while his candidate in North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, is competing in a field that includes a dozen other Republicans. In Georgia, Trump has endorsed primary challengers to Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both of whom defied him by rejecting his false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
In Nebraska, the allegations against Herbster, a longtime supporter of Trump's, didn't stop the former president from holding a rally with him earlier this month.
“I really think he’s going to do just a fantastic job, and if I didn’t feel that, I wouldn’t be here,” Trump said at the rally at a racetrack outside Omaha.
In a story last month, the Nebraska Examiner interviewed six women who claimed Herbster had groped their buttocks, outside of their clothes, during political events or beauty pageants. A seventh woman said Herbster once cornered her privately and kissed her forcibly.
One of the accusers, Republican state Sen. Julie Slama, said Herbster reached up her skirt and touched her inappropriately at the Douglas County Republican Party’s annual Elephant Remembers dinner in 2019. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they choose to come forward publicly, as Slama has done.
Herbster filed a defamation lawsuit against Slama, saying she falsely accused him in an effort to derail his campaign. Slama responded with a countersuit against Herbster, alleging sexual battery.
Herbster has suggested in television ads that Pillen and Ricketts conspired with Slama to falsely accuse him of sexual assault — allegations the three deny.
Lindstrom has faced a barrage of attacks as well, with third-party television ads funded by Ricketts that portray him as too liberal for the conservative state. One digitally altered ad shows Lindstrom standing in front of a rainbow flag with a coronavirus mask superimposed over his face. A mail ad notes that Lindstrom was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford, a moderate Republican-turned-Democrat who died last month of brain cancer.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen, a Republican, predicted that 35% of registered voters will cast ballots in the primary, the highest percentage since 2006, based on what he's seen so far.
Nebraska Republicans and Democrats will also pick their candidates to run for the seat previously held by Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, who resigned from office and ended his reelection bid in March after he was convicted of federal corruption charges.
State Sen. Mike Flood, a former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, is a top contender for the Republican nomination, while state Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks is likely to win the Democratic nod. Flood will enter the race as a strong favorite in the Republican-heavy 1st Congressional District, which includes Lincoln, small towns and a large swath of eastern Nebraska farmland.
In the Omaha area, Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon faces a long-shot primary challenge from Omaha consultant Steve Kuehl in the 2nd Congressional District. Democrats Alisha Shelton and state Sen. Tony Vargas are running for their party's nomination as well in Nebraska's only competitive congressional district.
Trump blasted Bacon during his visit, calling him a “bad guy.” The former president has criticized the three-term Republican for supporting Biden's infrastructure law. Bacon has been mildly critical of Trump in the past, saying he bore some responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack.
Trump stopped short of officially endorsing Kuehl, however, saying: “I think Steve will do well. Good luck, Steve, whoever the hell you are.”