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Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is a step closer to serving a full six-year term in the Senate, after winning renomination in red-leaning Nebraska’s primary.
Ricketts, who was appointed in 2023 to replace Ben Sasse, and who won a 2024 special election to fill out the final two years of Sasse’s term, topped four GOP primary challengers on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.
Ricketts now heads to this autumn’s midterm elections, where he will face off in what’s expected to be a competitive Senate race against independent candidate Dan Osborn, the industrial mechanic and military veteran who gave Republican Sen. Deb Fischer a scare in her 2024 re-election.
Tuesday’s primary was held with less than six months to go until the midterm elections, when Republicans aim to hold their razor-thin House and slim Senate majorities, and Democrats hope to ride a blue wave to escape the political wilderness.
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“Thank you, Nebraska! I’m honored to be your Republican nominee,” Ricketts said in a social media post following his primary victory.
But looking ahead to the general election showdown, he added, “Our work is far from over.”
In a fundraising pitch, Ricketts argued, “Out-of-state liberal donors are going to pour millions into Nebraska this fall. Chip in now and send them a message: Nebraska elections won’t be bought by liberals in California.”
Even though the Nebraska Democratic Party supports Osborn in the general election, community college instructor Cindy Burbank and pastor Bill Forbes faced off for the Democrats’ nomination in the primary.
Burbank secured the Democratic nomination, the Associated Press reports, as she crushed Forbes in the primary election.
Both candidates were last-minute filers, and some Nebraska Democrats alleged that Forbes jumped into the race so that a Democrat would be on the fall ballot and siphon votes away from Osborn to help Ricketts.
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Forbes denied the claims.
Burbank says she jumped into the race to keep Forbes off the ballot in November.
Ricketts is the eldest son of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, and, along with other family members, is part owner of Major League Baseball’s Chicago Cubs.
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Ricketts won election in 2014 and re-election in 2018 as Nebraska governor. One week after finishing his second term, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate by his successor as governor, Republican Jim Pillen.
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Top nonpartisan political handicappers rank the Senate general election showdown in Nebraska as likely Republican.
The GOP currently controls the Senate with a 53-47 majority.
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