Once upon a time Nebraskans were just as likely to elect Democrats as Republicans to statewide office. At one time we had two Democrats from Nebraska in the U.S. Senate. Liberal Democrat Bob Kerrey was elected to the governorship and the Senate. No more. In statewide elections the Republican typically receives around 60% of the votes. The closest it's been in recent years was in 2024, when Senator Deb Fischer received 53% of the votes in her campaign where her opponent was Dan Osborn, an unknown Independent. It makes a certain kind of sense for elections to the Senate and House of Representatives to mirror the presidential elections — after all, they're positions that set national policy. But in state specific elections: for governor and other state officers, as well as the theoretically nonpartisan unicameral legislature, the majority keeps electing Republicans even though they are demonstrably failures at governing.
Once upon a time you could count on Nebraska governors to concern themselves with "meat and potatoes" issues, roads, infrastructure, property taxes. Sure, there were differences between Democrats and Republicans, but governors from both parties were not primarily focussed on taking sides in national political battles. During Governor Heinemann's time he and the Republican legislators became more concerned with culture war issues and aligning themselves with national Republicans. It accelerated under Governor Ricketts. Even though the legislature is nominally nonpartisan, Ricketts expected party loyalty from Republican senators and financed primary opponents against Republicans who did not toe the party line. Ricketts made no secret that he was toeing the party line himself, since he was quite obviously planning on moving to the Senate after his two terms as governor were up.
Then came Pillen. Jim Pillen was a former Nebraska Cornhuskers football player, a veterinarian and owner of several large pig farms. He had the backing of outgoing Governor Ricketts, who financially supported him. Pillen's main primary opponent was billionaire Charles Herbster, who didn't even live in Nebraska! Herbster was kneecapped by a woman legislator and Ricketts ally who revealed that Herbster sexually harassed her. Pillen won the Republican primary with around 35% of the vote and since Nebraskans don't elect Democrats any more, he was elected as governor.
One of the biggest ongoing issues in Nebraska is high property taxes. Since we don't have any industry such as natural resources or tourism or entertainment to serve as a tax base, property tax is all that's available for local government. It's high. It was high last decade and the decade before that. Every governor ran on a platform of lowering property taxes. None of them have. All of them have been Republicans, yet we keep electing Republicans. Why? It all goes back to the nineties when local government got caught up in national politics and national politics became primarily about demonizing the other guys. The Republicans painted the Democrats as communists who were out to take their guns, kill their babies, and turn them all gay. A Democrat, no matter how moderate or even conservative, was portrayed this way. And a reliable 60% of Nebraska voters believed enough of it to keep voting for Republicans no matter how incompetent an individual Republican might be.
Pillen, just like every other Republican, campaigned on lowering property taxes. The problem was that in addition to repeating all the culture war bullshit he was as dumb as a box of rocks. Ricketts was dangerous because he was smart. He knew how to use his money and influence to get what he wanted. (Except for property tax relief of course). Pillen is in way over his head. During his first year in office he floated ideas (I use the term loosely) to reduce property taxes by 40%. His math was suspect and wildly optimistic. He was full of unwarranted confidence in his "plan". The only thing he and his allies managed to do was turn a previously enacted property tax credit that had to be claimed on a taxpayer's income tax return into an automatic credit that would come off the property tax bill. Three and a half years later and there's no property tax relief. And there won't be. Even smart, rich, and powerful Ricketts barely made a dent. Pillen is too dumb (with a "B") to realize how incompetent that he is. Instead he rails against "libtards", "woke garbage", musing that Palestinian babies are born with hatred for Jews, and pushes to redistrict the second congressional district.
Despite the problems that Republican gubernatorial candidates identify every election cycle persisting until the next over and over again, around 60% of voters will re-elect this moron. His opponent is former State Senator Lynn Walz, a relatively moderate, if not conservative, Democrat. Instead of considering that it might be time for a change, the most common comment I hear about Ms. Walz is that her surname is all that's needed to disallow her from consideration (she is a distant relative to Minnesota Governor and Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz). And property taxes will still be sky high.
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