(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
As she campaigns across Nebraska, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Lynne Walz has one less comment on the record for a highly charged social issue to account for, after reporting and follow-up by The Plains Sentinel.
In April 2024, The Hill quoted Walz as saying in a Unicameral debate about biological boys who identify as girls playing in girls’ school sports, “We all know what this is about, no matter how we dress it up, it’s discrimination. It’s a blanket ban on trans kids participating in extracurricular activities.”
The Hill’s story is wrong.
On Saturday, when asked by an audience member at an event in Omaha whether she still holds that view, Walz didn’t remember it, as reported by The Plains Sentinel’s Matt Johnson. For an experienced political reporter, such a claim gets taken with a grain of salt, as it is not too uncommon an occurrence when politicians are asked about inconvenient or out-of-touch comments in their past.
When The Plains Sentinel called The Hill’s reporter to ask what she made of this denial, she originally declined to comment.
Several hours later, the reporter, Brooke Migdon, who now works at another more left-leaning outlet, called back in tears to say she had made a “mistake.” In going back through her notes and a transcript of the Unicameral session in April of 2024, she found that Lincoln District 46 Democrat Danielle Conrad actually made the comment.
According to the transcript Migdon shared with The Plains Sentinel, Conrad said, “I raised important issues yesterday in regards to the committee amendment, recognizing that it was rife with medical discrimination against students with diagnoses like Turner Syndrome, intersex, intersex students, no one could answer that… Additionally, we all know what this is about, no matter how we dress it up. It’s discrimination. It’s a blanket ban on trans kids participation in extracurricular activities. … We’ve had a system in place in Nebraska for almost a decade that brings together (an) arduous and expensive process for parents and families to utilize with medical experts, with educational experts, with psychologists and mental health experts to ensure appropriate safeguards for the handful of kids that just want to participate in extracurricular activities to keep them safe, and all kids safe to ensure participation and protect privacy.”
Migdon said she was going to call her editors at The Hill to request a correction and the Walz campaign to deliver an apology. The Hill published a correction on the story after The Plains Sentinel sent the editor-in-chief an email asking about a correction.
For her part, Lynne Walz’s comment was, “Thank you for doing your job thoroughly.”
David Mastio is a Papillion resident and a former National Columnist for The Kansas City Star and Deputy Editorial Page Editor of USA TODAY.