Negative Ads Escalate In Leg Races As GOP Candidates Fight Each Other to Make General Election
by Matt Johnson
Negative ads between dueling Republican candidates for the State Legislature are intensifying just days before the primary election. All are fueled by money from a web of Political Action Committees (PACs).
The attacks come as Republicans in two Omaha-area legislative districts, LD-14 and LD-18, try to garner enough votes to make the general election. Both races feature a Democratic candidate as well as two Republicans.
With only the top two advancing to the general and the Democratic candidates likely to advance in each race, the primary race has pitted the Republicans against each other.
Bill Bowes and the Fire Union
One PAC drawing scrutiny is Building Nebraska’s Future, run by Derek Oden and Matthew Zacher of Flyover Strategies. The firm handles the campaigns of Republican candidates Jay Jackson (LD-14) and Taylor Royal (LD-18).
Mailers attacking Republican candidate Bill Bowes in LD-14 in Papillion specifically highlight the fire union’s endorsement of his opponent, Jackson.
“Bill Bowes thinks he has us fooled, but the Papillion Firefighters are calling him out,” one mailer reads, featuring a sinister green-tinted photo of Bowes. “Bowes says he was a ‘leader.’ But when it mattered, his own rank-and-file didn’t back him.”
The Plains Sentinel reached Bowes for comment. He attributed the tension to differing perspectives on fiscal issues.
“From the management side, I have to look at customer service, budgeting, how we allocate available resources, and how many resources we have,” Bowes said. “And that’s usually a point of contention with the union because the union wants more resources. But oftentimes the community can’t afford all the resources they want. The only conclusion I can come to is that those differences of perspective we had are coming into play now with the election.”
Bowes is taking the attacks in stride and with a sense of humor.
“I especially like the greenish tint on that one,” he said with a laugh. “Up until this point I was just a voter, so I would get all these mailers. Now I’m looking at them as someone running a campaign, thinking as a voter: What effect, if any, do these mailers have? Do the ugly ones really work?”
Royal vs. Schwartz: Cease and Desist
In Bennington (LD-18), mailers and text messages have targeted Republican Derek Schwartz on multiple fronts—including an accusation that he did not vote for President Trump in 2016.
“Derek Schwartz turned his back on President Trump,” one text message stated. “Derek Schwartz failed to vote in the 2016 election.”
The ads cited Nebraska’s Secretary of State, but Schwartz lived in Iowa at the time. He says he not only voted for Trump but attended an election-night party in Des Moines during the Iowa caucuses.
Schwartz lived in Iowa for several years, prompting additional attacks claiming he had turned his back on Nebraska.
“Schwartz is from Western Nebraska, then chose to build his business in Iowa,” one ad read. “Now, he’s back and wants to represent Bennington and Omaha in the Legislature?”
Royal, however, faced a parallel situation: he moved to Texas to earn a master’s degree from Southern Methodist University and later worked as a CPA at Deloitte.
A PAC by Any Other Name
Building Nebraska’s Future shares a strikingly similar name with Build Nebraska, a separate PAC that has strongly supported Republican candidates in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District but has stayed out of primary races.
“It is extremely unfortunate that another political committee—completely separate from our organization and engaged in attack ads in Republican races—selected a name so close to Build Nebraska,” said Mary Harper, president of Build Nebraska, in a press release. “The similarity is causing real confusion among voters, supporters, candidates, and members of the public, and that is not acceptable.”
Harper also criticized the content of the ads.
“Nebraska voters deserve campaigns focused on solutions, conservative leadership, and the future of our state,” she said. “But some of the attacks we are seeing go too far and, in several cases, are simply untrue. Republicans should be better than this.”
Other PACs have entered the fray, targeting candidates backed by Building Nebraska’s Future. Cornhusker Conservatives sent mailers showing Royal in a crown and robe, literally slinging mud. Another declared: “Taylor Royal Wants to Rule! Nebraskans Keep Rejecting Taylor Royal but He Keeps Running.” The PAC is tied to Axiom Strategies, which also works for the Schwartz campaign.
In Papillion, The More You Know PAC has targeted Jackson. Its ads highlight now-deleted tweets from Jackson supporting left-of-center positions, including allowing non-U.S. citizens to vote in American elections, backing COVID vaccine and mask mandates, and opposing Nebraska’s Constitutional Carry law (LB77).
Another ad quotes Jackson from a New York Times article in which he described placing a Biden 2020 yard sign and calling himself a “classic RINO.” This contrasts sharply with a mailer from Building Nebraska’s Future featuring a photo of President Trump and the headline “MAGA Voter Alert.”
Is Unity Possible After the Primary?
Build Nebraska is hosting a “Unity Party” on Wednesday morning after the election, hoping to unite Republican candidates behind the primary winners for the general election. However, after waves of contentious ads, it’s unclear which of the candidates will attend.
The Plains Sentinel reached out to all four candidates, only Bowes responded.
— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.