Jim Pylan, a regent from the University of Nebraska, backed by the powerful Ricketts political machine, won the Republican primary for governor of Nebraska, defeating a scandalous millionaire backed by former President Donald J. Trump.
The Associated Press has announced Mr Pilen as the winner over his main rivals, Charles W. Herbster, a Trump-approved agribusiness chief who finances his own campaign and has been accused of touching women in recent weeks, and Brett Lindstrom of the state. a senator who turned to the party’s moderate wing.
Mr Pilen’s victory made him a huge favorite to become the next governor of Nebraska in November. Democrats have not won an election across the state since 2006. The party nominated Carol Blood, a U.S. senator from the Omaha suburbs.
Mr Herbster is the first candidate approved by Mr Trump to lose Republican primary in 2022. Many more Trump-approved candidates face heavy winds in the upcoming primary, starting with the Idaho gubernatorial race. next week and in Georgia on May 24.
Mr Pilen, in his speech for victory in Lincoln, promised to run an administration focused on education and agriculture, two pillars of the state. He said he would promote Nebraska both to attract new residents and to prevent young people from leaving for other states.
“We all agree, we are all in unison, we never, ever give up on children,” he said. “We will invest the farm in our children so that all our children know that the grass is the greenest in Nebraska.
The 66-year-old Pilen ran a campaign based on the idea that Republicans in Nebraska were pleased with the administration of Governor Pete Ricketts, his main political benefactor and most prominent supporter, who is stepping down due to limitations. Mr Ricketts spent millions on television advertising, supporting Mr Pilen while attacking Mr Herbster and Mr Lindstrom.
After Mr Herbster began to gain strength in the race, the soft Mr Pilen took on some of his rival’s right-wing positions in social affairs. He tried to ban the teaching of critical racial theory in the University of Nebraska system and spoke out against allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports for girls at the state’s high school.
Mr. Pilen, a former defender of the University of Nebraska football team, has become an extremely successful veterinarian and pig farmer in the state. In addition to supporting Mr. Ricketts, he had endorsements from a handful of state figures, including Tom Osborne, his college football coach, who was also a three-term member of the West Nebraska Congress, and comedian Larry Cable Guy. which was raised on a farm in the southeast corner of the state.
To the great disappointment of his opponents, Mr Pilen missed all the televised debates during the primary campaign and instead chose to hold hundreds of small meetings with voters across the state. Opponents of Mr Pilen say he lacks charisma and is not ready to discuss the state’s problems; Mr Pilen said he was building coalitions away from the prying eyes of the media.
Mr Lindström has tried to restore the look of the Republican coalitions that existed before Mr Trump’s rise. He appealed to educated professionals in Omaha and Lincoln’s urban centers and set a political distance between himself and Mr Trump, saying the 2020 election was legitimate and that he would prefer a “new face” to lead the Republican Party in 2024
While Mr Lindström made a late accusation in opinion polls, much of the race turned into a proxy battle between Mr Ricketts and Mr Trump, to whom Mr Herbster attached his political identity. He spoke like Mr. Trump, accepted many of Mr. Trump’s political positions, and promised to dry up the “swamp” in Lincoln, the state capital.
In other Nebraska competitions, Mike Flood, a state senator from Norfolk who owns state-owned radio and television stations, won the Republican nomination for the Lincoln-based congressional seat vacated by former Jeff Fortenbury, who resigned after being convicted of lie to the FBI in an investigation into campaign finance.
Mr Flood defeated Mr Fortonbury, who remained on the ballot but did not run a campaign, and Curtis Huffman, an accountant.
Democrats in Omaha have nominated Tony Vargas, a U.S. senator, to face Representative Don Bacon, a moderate Republican running for a fourth term. Mr. Vargas, the son of immigrants from Peru, is a former public school teacher in Omaha who served on the city’s school board before being elected to the Nebraska legislature.
The campaign of the House of Democrats is optimistic. Mr Vargas could be competitive in November, despite a difficult national environment for the party.
Mr Bacon is one of 10 Republicans in the House of Representatives who hold a constituency run by President Biden in 2020. But in the last two elections, Omaha Democrats nominated Kara Eastman, a Democratic socialist who did not like voters. centrists in the county. Mr Vargas has not campaigned on left-wing issues, which Ms Eastman encourages.
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