Nebraska has what's called a unicameral legislature. That means there is only one house of the legislature, as opposed to a bicameral, or two-house legislature like every other state. You also hear the word "nonpartisan" thrown around a lot. In this context, nonpartisan means that in elections to the legislature (or simply "the unicameral") party affiliation does not appear on the ballot, nor are there formal party caucuses. But don't let that fool you, Nebraska's government is as partisan as any other state's.
Once upon a time, party politics in Nebraska wasn't as...well...partisan as it is now. The difference in the unicameral was more about urban versus rural than it was about Republicans versus Democrats. There was a time when both Senators were Democrats and the governor was Republican. Of course our Republicans weren't the fire-breathing radicals that you get now, and Democrats were pretty conservative. They were more concerned about property tax relief, aid to public schools, tax rates and the many mundane things that governments used to be concerned about. Little by little though, Nebraska politics became more aligned with the trends being set by the national parties - demonizing their opponents and holding on to power.
I'm not going to suggest that Ricketts started it, but he certainly brought things to a head. Shortly after he was elected he loudly chastised Republican members of the unicameral for not supporting a bill that was important to him. He then, utilizing the deep pockets provided by his family's ownership of TAmeritrade, he financed primary challenges against the Republicans that he deemed not partisan enough.
These days, though, Nebraska politics is a reflection of national partisan divides. Two years ago, Governor Ricketts, clearly sniffing the possibility of a Senate run, started mouthing MAGA talking points. He'd always been a conservative politician, but his utterances became more and more Trump-like, even though he opposed Trump's preference for governor, knowing that the MAGA base among at least the Republicans primary electorate would reward him for his remaking himself in the Trump image. Ricketts' chosen successor, Jim Pillen, pandered even more to the right-wing voters, posing in campaign ads with a rifle. Even more overtly, one of his goals was "more red sweaters", his way of saying that he wanted a filibuster-proof Republican majority in the unicameral. The results aren't all in, but it's likely that Republicans will get that thirty-third vote that would prevent Democrats from blocking nakedly partisan laws, such as a total abortion ban.
We're still waiting for the results of a few elections that will affect national politics, such as which party controls the Senate, but here in Nebraska, we've set the clock back...quite a bit more than an hour.
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