Nebraska political observers have wondered for a while if wealthy agribusinessman Charles Herbster will launch a 2024 Republican primary challenge against his old foe, appointed Sen. Pete Ricketts, and Herbster tells The Dispatch that he’s indeed considering a Senate run. Herbster lost a close 2022 primary to replace Ricketts as governor to Jim Pillen, who benefited from heavy spending by Ricketts, and he’s shown he’s not interested in letting bygones be bygones.
Pillen went on to appoint Ricketts last month to fill the Senate seat that Ben Sasse gave up to become president of the University of Florida, a move Herbster was not happy with. He instead issued a brief statement reading, “The lengths to which Pete Ricketts went to assure his handpicked successor for Governor were, by all standards, unprecedented. Today it is clear why it was so important for Pete Ricketts to fight my candidacy in the 2022 Primary Election.”
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While Herbster did not specifically say which of the Cornhusker State’s seats he’s looking at, a staffer informed the Nebraska Examiner that he wouldn’t go up against GOP Sen. Deb Fischer: Both senators will be up in 2024, though Ricketts will be competing in the special election for the final two years of Sasse’s term. Herbster, who also said he could seek a rematch with Pillen in 2026, added that he had “no pending announcement” about his plans.
Ricketts and Herbster have had a terrible relationship going back to at least 2014 when it was Herbster who financed a campaign to boost a Ricketts rival in the primary for governor, an effort that didn’t work. Things only escalated further last cycle when the termed-out Ricketts unsuccessfully tried to deter Donald Trump from endorsing the agribusinessman, who had attended the infamous Jan. 6 Trump rally that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol, in the primary to succeed him.
The race took a dark turn about a month before the primary when eight women, including Republican state Sen. Julie Slama, accused Herbster of sexual assault. Herbster responded by running a TV ad that took the remarkable tack of directly attacking Slama and claiming her allegations were part of a scheme orchestrated by Pillen and Ricketts. Herbster also sued Slama for defamation, to which Slama responded with a counterclaim seeking damages for sexual assault. Trump unsurprisingly remained committed to his candidate, who self-funded almost all of his $13 million campaign.
Pillen ended up prevailing 34-30 ahead of an easy general election win, which represented one of the first times in the 2022 cycle that GOP primary voters rejected Trump’s pick. In October, Slama and Herbster also reached an agreement where they dropped their respective lawsuits.
