Brinker Harding and Omaha Republicans Gather for Post-Primary 'Unity Rally'
by Matt Johnson
(Picture credits Matt Johnson)
OMAHA — The morning after Nebraska’s primary election, Build Nebraska—a PAC formed to boost Republican candidates in the Second Congressional District—hosted a unity event at its office in Omaha.
Attendees included County Attorney Don Kleine, congressional nominee Brinker Harding, candidate for state legislature Derek Schwartz, candidate for county commissioner Chris Chapplear, and Secretary of State Bob Evnen’s campaign manager, Cole Lumsden.
Harding secured the Republican nomination unchallenged after his sole opponent, Brett Lindstrom, dropped out in January. He emphasized the need to reach beyond the party base in CD-2.
“We need to make sure that we energize not only our base, but we need to energize those non-partisans and Democrats,” Harding said. “I’m running for District 2 of Nebraska. I’m not running for a little blue geometric shape—a blue dot—because that only represents a part of the second district.”
Former Congressman Hal Daub also spoke, warning Republicans against taking any race for granted this fall.
“We feel confident of Western Sarpy County. We feel confident of Saunders County. But not Douglas County,” he said. “I don’t think you should think that the Senate race is a slam dunk. I think we’ve got a tough race for the Senate. I think we’ve got a tough race for governor. These are not easy races anymore.”
Charles Herbster, in particular, warned that Democrats are targeting the governor’s race and the U.S. Senate race in both Nebraska and Iowa. The Plains Sentinel asked Herbster—who was long rumored to be considering a rematch against Gov. Jim Pillen—whether he had any advice for the governor’s reelection bid.
“He’s going to have to be willing to do some debates,” Herbster said. “You cannot hide in the basement, you can’t hide somewhere, you can’t not do a debate if you’re running for governor… because the voter wants to hear both of them present what their plan is if they get elected governor.”
Pillen did not participate in a full debate in his 2022 run for governor, calling them “political theater.”
During his unity speech, Herbster took a swipe at Evnen in the form of advice to winning candidates, saying that voters “didn’t trust him” following the secretary of state’s loss on Tuesday evening.
“People will not give you money, people will not do business with you, they’ll not vote for you if they don’t trust you, number one, and they don’t like you. There was a race in Nebraska last night, a person without mentioning names who was in office, who got beat last night, at the state level. You know why? They didn’t trust him, and they didn’t like him. We’ve got to remember that.”
Herbster stressed that pocketbook issues will be the biggest challenge for Republicans in the midterms, though he expressed optimism that President Trump’s ongoing trade negotiations with China could deliver economic benefits.
He also urged Republicans to find common ground, pointing to the relationship between President Ronald Reagan and Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill as a model.
“Tip O’Neill would say this almost every week,” Herbster recalled. “‘Mr. President, we know there are certain issues that we don’t agree on. But let’s not waste our time talking about those, because 80% of the issues we can come together on. Let’s work on the 80%.’”
Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.