(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
OMAHA — Republican leaders spoke in Omaha on Monday to GOP voters, rallying 150 guests with a message to get out the vote for the midterm elections. The message from many of the candidates at the event focused on public safety.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine credited support for law enforcement with Omaha’s lower crime rates.
“Our crime rate, as you’ve seen, is as low as it’s ever been—our homicide rate is as low as it’s been since 1962,” said Kleine. “Mayor Ewing tries to take credit for it, but he’s not the one responsible for it. No, he’s not. All right? It’s the county attorney, the U.S. attorney, the sheriff, the police department, our law enforcement people that are out there working.”
Attorney General Mike Hilgers also spoke and credited both Kleine and Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson—both of whom are on the ballot this year—for their tough stances on crime.
“We do not have anything unless we have public safety,” said Hilgers, “and these two gentlemen are not only the best in the country, in my view, but losing them would mean we’d be putting it into the hands of people who don’t know how to keep communities safe, and that would hurt everyone here.”
Hanson, who recently traveled to Illinois to retrieve roughly $158,000 worth of gold bars that had been swindled from a senior couple in Douglas County, told the room how good they have it in Omaha.
“I talked to a sergeant investigator with the Illinois State Police,” Hanson said. “Folks, they’re living in some tough times over there in these hardcore blue cities and states. They can’t arrest people without them being immediately released again. It is resulting in high-risk, recidivist criminal behavior, and innocent people all across their community are paying the price for that.”
Patrick Dempsey, president of the Omaha Police Officers Association, had particular praise for Kleine, Hilgers, and Hanson.
“Don Kleine and Aaron Hanson have been rock stars to the Omaha Police Officers Association and citizens of Omaha,” Dempsey said at a press conference later that day. “They’re the backbone of the reason we have a safe county and a safe city, because they hold those who harm our family, our neighbors accountable. So that’s what that was about. And then, you know, at the top we have Attorney General Mike Hilgers, who not only supports us here in Omaha, but supports law and order across the great state of Nebraska.”
Pillen on Juvenile Justice and Backing the ‘Blue’
Governor Jim Pillen also addressed the group, highlighting his own support for law enforcement along with that of Lieutenant Governor Joe Kelly.
“I have met ‘blue’ across the state. I will ask, ‘What’s your most frustrating thing?’ And so many ‘blue’ will say, ‘When we take extraordinary risks, and then we arrest somebody, and they get left off the hook,’” Pillen said. “And so I just want you to know that who your county attorney is is a big deal. … Joe Kelly, my lieutenant governor, he’s been a prosecutor his whole life in Lancaster County, putting bad people away.”
Pillen also cited the number of judges he’s appointed during his tenure, around 35, and that he’s focused on conservative-minded jurists.
“If there’s a judge that at one time used to be a Democrat and now they’re a Republican, that’s a pretty nick,” Pillen said. “We make sure that we have people that are conservative to the cellular level, and that you just didn’t become that in the last couple years.”
Both Hanson and Kleine praised Pillen for his willingness to listen to the needs of law enforcement.
“When we go down to the Legislature and talk about laws with OPD or the sheriff, and the attorney general, we know we have an ally in our governor,” Kleine said. “He’s standing there with us. So, unquestionably, he is there for the ‘blue.’”
Hanson also credited Pillen for passing juvenile justice reform legislation last year.
“In Douglas County, Don and I were struggling … where we had these recidivist behaviors, young kids ruining their lives, killing kids, shooting people, carjacking. And we went to Senator Riepe, Senator Bosn, and Governor Pillen, and in one session he got it fixed,” Hanson said. “We’ve seen a remarkable downward trend in that type of behavior, and that’s not only good for public safety, that’s not only good for innocent people, that’s not only good for taxpayers, it’s good for those kids.”
2026 and Beyond
With the election just days away, several speakers urged voters not to sit this one out.
“We’re talking about making sure that everyone here goes out and votes, obviously. But you’re the informed ones,” said Brinker Harding, who is running for Congress in Nebraska’s 2nd District. “Your friends, your neighbors, your relatives all look up to you for that information. My father-in-law calls me before every election, and we go through the ballot from top to bottom.”
“The recent history of the country is that when cities turn blue, and almost all of them around the country are now blue, when they turn, they turn fast, they turn hard, and they don’t turn back. And that impacts everyone,” Hilgers said.
Meanwhile, Nebraska Republican Party chair Mary Jane Truemper is already thinking about the next elections.
“The Republican Party has been working together better than I’ve seen it in a long time,” Truemper said. “And after this election is over, we’re all gonna have to put on our big boy pants and stop the crying, stop the moaning, stop getting ticked off at each other. We have to put on our big boy pants and start working toward 2028 and 2030.”
Pillen closed with a similar message, relating his strategy to former Alabama football coach Nick Saban.
“After he won a national championship, he had a meeting with his coaches the next morning at 7:30,” Pillen said. “That’s my mindset as your governor. When we win on November 3rd—on November 4th, we’re gonna be working. We’re gonna be figuring out how we win in ’28, how we win in ’30, because our third and fourth quarters are going to be unlike anything anybody’s seen.”
— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.