OMAHA — John Glen Weaver, the challenger toting his toddler son to campaign events in Nebraska’s unexpected U.S. Senate primary, wants voters to see his race as a referendum for populist Republicans against the leading figure of the GOP establishment.
U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, appointed to the Senate after two terms as Nebraska’s governor, wants GOP voters to see him building a conservative bulwark against President Joe Biden’s worst spending, economic and immigration policy impulses.
Political observers consider Ricketts the primary’s overwhelming favorite, given his advantages in fundraising and name ID. One GOP consultant outside of the race described it as “David vs. Goliath if David were fighting with a Fruity Pebble.”
The congressional delegation and most of the state’s GOP donors back Ricketts, who at $7.35 million for various committees has raised 153 times Weaver’s $48,000 tally. Weaver has the backing of the populist-led state GOP and more than 20 county parties.
The last U.S. senator in Nebraska to lose in a primary or general election was David Karnes, who like Ricketts was a gubernatorial appointee.
He lost in the general election in 1988 to a Democrat, former Gov. Bob Kerrey.
Dona-Gene Barton, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said 95 percent of Senate incumbents win re-election. Beating them is “incredibly difficult,” she said, even if they were appointed or won a special election to fill a vacancy.
Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, Nebraska’s last Republican senator to face party pushback, won re-election in 2020 by 50 percentage points. His populist challenger, Lancaster County Republican Party chairman Matt Innis, won eight of Nebraska’s 93 counties.
“Once they’re there, it’s incredibly difficult for them to lose their seat,” Barton said.
Some activist Republicans in Nebraska — including volunteers for the party and GOP campaigns — have demanded more loyalty to former President Donald Trump from elected officials, particularly Congress.
