(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
OMAHA — Gov. Jim Pillen spoke on Wednesday to members of the Omaha Jewish community, the latest in a series of candidate forums hosted by the Henry Monsky Lodge and the Jewish Community Relations Council. The forum also fell on the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attacks on the Nova music festival and nearby kibbutz communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Remembering October 7
Pillen told the group about a trade and solidarity mission he took around a year earlier, where he was able to visit the Nova site and a kibbutz about a mile from the Gaza Strip. Pillen said that the area, even then, was not close to being habitable again.
“Out of 1,000 people, roughly 450 people were murdered that morning, 12 or 13 minutes after the bombing started,” Pillen said. “Seeing what took place was really, really hard to comprehend.”
Pillen said that he had been shown early footage of the attacks while attending a meeting with other governors around 30 days after the attacks took place.
“That footage was so difficult,” Pillen said. “There were a couple, three, that had to excuse themselves from the room. It was unspeakable, unspeakable what that video showed.”
Fighting Antisemitism
Pillen also discussed efforts in the legislature to fight antisemitism.
Earlier this year, Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering introduced a bill (LB538) that would have required school boards and postsecondary institutions to address antisemitism in their discrimination policies using the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition. It was passed over on select file and indefinitely postponed on April 17, 2026.
“It takes extraordinary leadership to bring people together, and sometimes to get 33 out of 49 to come together can really be an act,” Pillen said. “You would think something like that would be really simple, but we weren’t quite there.”
Pillen later signed Executive Order 26-14 on May 29, 2026, directing public schools and colleges to enact many of the same goals of the bill, including adopting the IHRA definition and to report and teach on antisemitism.
“It was simply an executive order to say, ‘Look, this is not going to be tolerated in our school system,’” Pillen said. “We’re not going to allow anybody to spew any hatred towards anybody, and especially the Jewish community.”
Church and State
One guest, who said that she works for Omaha Public Schools by day and volunteers at the Jewish Community Center, asked Pillen about the separation of church and state.
“One of the things that the Jewish community is always worried about is the combination of church and state in our public schools, and I think one of the things we want to ask you is to please help us keep religion out of the public schools,” she said.
Another guest cited proposals to post the Ten Commandments — “not exactly the Ten Commandments as we received them at Sinai” — and to replace academic counselors with chaplains. Pillen said that he was unaware of these proposals.
“There are 49 senators that have one heck of a lot of ideas. They don’t check with me on all those ideas, just saying,” Pillen said. “One thing I do have is an ink pen, and I don’t think we’ve ever lost a veto yet. We have a veto team. We have relationships. So the things you’re talking about, I’ve never heard of.”
The guest also asked Pillen about comments on chapters of Turning Point USA’s “Club America” being established in every high school across the state, including whether tax dollars would be used. Pillen said that he had met Charlie Kirk multiple times, and that he supports the clubs only as a means of civic debate.
“I’m a supporter of it to have civic debate. That’s all. Civic debate,” Pillen said. “And no, not a penny of tax dollars. Not a penny.”
Negative Ads and Transgender Rights
The Plains Sentinel asked Pillen about recent ads from his opponent, Lynne Walz, including one captioned “Governor Pillen profits, we pay the price.” The ad cites a $2.5 million no-bid contract to Global Sustainability Developers and its president, Julie Bushell. State Auditor Mike Foley said the award “smacks of favoritism,” and Lincoln police have been investigating the contract since March 2026.
“We’ve done several no-bid contracts—one’s with a blind lady that nobody’s wanted to talk about,” Pillen said. “We’ve got a $307 million dollar return for Nebraskans, and we’re getting stuff out. It’s silly season when people want to talk politics, I could care less. It’s not my problem. It’s their problem.”
Pillen also said that he stands behind his own ads, including one that criticizes Walz’s vote against the Let Them Grow Act in 2023.
“Everything that’s being said about my opponent, I own it. It’s the truth,” Pillen said. “If you want boys in girls’ locker rooms, vote for Lynne Walz. If you want boys playing in girls’ sports, vote for Lynne Walz. If you want your children to have sex-mutilating surgeries, vote for Lynne Walz.”
Pillen then elaborated, stating that he has no problem with transgender people, but the decision to transition should be made as an adult. He told of a meeting he had with a transgender woman named Josephine.
“She told me her story, when she got injured as a young boy, when she became a woman,” Pillen said. “I said, ‘Look, I love you like any other Nebraskan. I just believe they should do it like you did—make a decision to become transgender when you’re older, not when you’re a kid.’ Because the history’s pretty clear. Most young kids are getting messed up, and they have extraordinary regrets.”
Final Campaign Pitch
With Election Day a few weeks away, Pillen listed what he called the work of the last four years: kids, taxes, agriculture, and values. He said the state now funds community colleges at $350 million a year, that the state income tax on Social Security was repealed in 2023, and that the top income-tax rate falls to 3.99% in January.
On the projected shortfall, he said the state has a spending problem, not a budget problem.
“All of us in business, if we have less revenue, to stay in business, we cut spending,” Pillen said. “So we don’t have a budget problem. We’ve had a spending problem. We’re decreasing spend in the state a billion dollars. Nobody’s had the courage to even think about it, much less do it.”
He also pointed to the state’s AAA rating, which he said Nebraska had never held before and has now held for two years.
“You can say, ‘Pillen, you’re a knothead. I don’t believe what you said.’ Well, triple-A credit’s your proof in the pudding,” Pillen said.
Election Day is Nov. 3.
— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.