Aaron Sanderford
OMAHA — Nebraska U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts on Tuesday finished the job he started during his first run for office in 2006, winning election to the U.S. Senate.
Ricketts, an Omaha Republican, comfortably defeated Preston Love Jr., an Omaha Democrat. Ricketts was running as an incumbent because his successor as governor, Jim Pillen, appointed him to the seat in early 2023. That appointment came after former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse resigned from the seat.
The Associated Press called the race for Ricketts after the first round of election results were announced from early voting.
He appeared likely to win by a larger margin than U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., on Tuesday, although his race was closer than Sasse’s 38-percentage point win in 2020.
Traveling the state
Ricketts attributed his success to connecting with Nebraska voters where they are. He said getting out in the state helps him hear what matters. His campaign helped organize a three-day barnstorming tour with the federal delegation.
“People are worried about inflation,” Ricketts said. “It’s putting a squeeze on the pocketbook people don’t like. And the fact, our southern border is open and they’re seeing the impacts on their communities.”
The former governor’s win over Love, a longtime civil rights activist and advocate for North Omaha, followed a race in which Ricketts largely targeted the state’s Republican base.
Some in that base had criticized Ricketts for securing his appointment from Pillen, who was publicly supported by Ricketts during the contested 2022 gubernatorial primary. Pillen called Ricketts the most qualified applicant.
Ricketts pledged to conservative Nebraskans that if elected he would check the worst spending impulses of President Joe Biden and his potential successor, Vice President Kamala Harris.
He also pledged to be a reliable vote for tax and regulatory cuts sought by former President Donald Trump. He emphasized work to make the federal government more effective and efficient.
Record as governor
Ricketts’ record shows him as a fiscal conservative who held the state’s purse strings tightly as governor. In the Senate, he has emphasized national defense, support for Israel and border security.
Ricketts said the Senate needed a stricter immigration bill than the bipartisan border bill proposed by Oklahoma U.S. Sen. James Lankford, which Republicans stopped after Trump intervened.
Love has said he ran in part to give Democrats a choice in the race and to boost turnout among populations that may have lost hope about voting.
He said no family should have as much political influence as the Ricketts family does, as top donors to conservative causes and ballot initiatives, including one this year supporting abortion restrictions.
Ricketts backed Initiative 434, a constitutional amendment that would ban abortion after the first trimester, with some exceptions. Love supported Initiative 439, an abortion-rights amendment that would add a right to abortion to the Nebraska Constitution until fetal viability, the timing of which would be defined by a treating health care practitioner.
Love glad he gave voters a choice
Love, in an interview with the Examiner on Tuesday, said he was proud of his campaign for working to connect voters with a better way forward. He said he was “encouraged by the turnout in communities where people have lost trust in the process of voting.”
“I know we did all that we could do,” he said.
With Tuesday’s win, Ricketts will finish the last two years of Sasse’s term and has said he will run again in 2026 for a full six-year term. Sasse left to lead the University of Florida, which he has since resigned.
Ricketts lost his first Senate race in 2006 to former U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., in what was then the most expensive Senate race in Nebraska history. He largely self-financed his bid, and later described that decision as a mistake.