While a national Democratic wave claimed GOP strongholds in Texas, Kansas, and Iowa, it was a notably successful night for Nebraska conservatives, as the Fairness for Girls Constitutional Amendment passed easily and sports gambling initiatives 440 and 441 went down to a surprising defeat.
First to hail the night’s results was the Nebraska Family Alliance (NFA), which went 3 for 3 on the initiatives, most notably on sports gambling. A mere six years after Nebraska approved casino gambling 65-35, it rejected online sports gambling 54-46.
“This is one of the greatest David-and-Goliath victories in the history of Nebraska politics,” said NFA Director Nate Grasz. “The odds were stacked against us, but we never gave up.”
Grasz and NFA were joined by Auditor Mike Foley, Treasurer Joey Spellerberg, former Husker coach Tom Osborne, former Congressman Hal Daub, and Nebraska’s three Catholic bishops among many others in resisting the push for app-based sports gambling, much of which came from outside of Nebraska.
“These corporations spent tens of millions of dollars flooding our state with deceptive ads and false promises of property tax relief, but Nebraskans saw through the deception,” Grasz said.
FanDuel and DraftKings alone sunk a collective $21 million into the effort.
“Those initiatives, like we said from the beginning, were never about helping our state. They’re about enriching out-of-state gambling companies on the backs of our kids and student athletes,” Grasz told The Plains Sentinel.
And despite existing protections for women and girls’ sports in Nebraska, initiative 442 succeeded as a “once and for all” option to prevent any future weakening of the statutes by requiring Nebraska schools to designate sports and spaces as sex-specified.
Opponents, such as the Nebraska Civic Engagement Table, argued the measure was an attempt to “ban transgender students from participating in school sports.”
“No girl should ever be forced to compete against or share a locker room with a boy,” Grasz said. “This is a victory for fairness, truth, and common sense.”
— Lewis Thune is a College Fix writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.