Pete Ricketts makes it official, files for U.S. Senate bid

OMAHA — Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts made it official Tuesday. He filed to run for the office Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen appointed him to last January. 

Pillen tapped Ricketts, a former two-term governor, to fill the open Senate seat that Sen. Ben Sasse vacated last year to take a job leading the University of Florida.

“With Nebraskans’ help, I will carry on the fight for our shared values and continue to be a voice in Washington for the common sense, conservative policies that have worked here in Nebraska,” Ricketts said Tuesday in a statement. 

Political observers consider Ricketts a heavy favorite to win the GOP nomination and the general election. But he enters a different political environment in 2024 than in his past races.

Many Nebraska Republicans, like some of their peers in other states, have swung toward the more populist brand of conservatism espoused by former President Donald Trump.

Ricketts’ record shows him as a fiscal conservative who held the state’s purse strings tightly. During his year in the Senate, he has emphasized border security and national defense.

Some critics in GOP circles

His announcement illustrated his transition to national politics, asking to “continue the fight to hold Joe Biden accountable, secure our southern border, stand up to the Chinese Communist Party, and defend our God-given rights and freedoms.”

Ricketts faces criticism from some in his own party for being noncommittal about which GOP presidential candidate he supports in the 2024 primary. The party’s base backs Trump. 

Some of that pushback is residue from a 2022 fight over the leadership of the Nebraska Republican Party, when populists and some old-guard conservatives toppled a team loyal to Ricketts.

Many also point to the 2022 GOP primary race for governor. Ricketts backed Pillen, often serving as his top surrogate. Trump backed multi-state businessman Charles Herbster, a top Trump donor.

Primary competitor

This spring, Ricketts faces at least one Republican competitor, John Glen Weaver, who lost a primary run in 2022 to U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., in the 1st District.

Weaver, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who helped Iowa Republicans caucus for Trump on Monday, is among those who have criticized Ricketts for not being loyal enough to the former president. 

Ricketts has not addressed his opponent directly. Instead he said he has focused on doing the job Nebraskans expect of a senator. 

On the Democratic side, Preston Love Jr., a civil rights and neighborhood advocate, is kicking off his campaign Wednesday in Omaha.