Ricketts Holds Rally With Ted Cruz in Wake of Zipline Shutdown Controversy

by Lewis Thune and Matt Johnson

(Picture credit Lewis Thune)

LINCOLN — Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts hosted a campaign rally Friday with Texas Senator Ted Cruz at the Lincoln Country Club following the controversial and permanent shuttering of the initial venue, Zipline’s Beer Lounge.

While the Ricketts campaign initially scheduled the rally to take place at Zipline in Lincoln, they moved the event on short notice, citing overwhelming demand for the event. The same day the event moved, Zipline announced it was shutting down its brewing operations as well as its beer lounge.

On Friday, during the event at the new location, a few dozen demonstrators, most of whom wore Osborn merchandise, protested the event. Despite the initial change in plans, 300 people showed up to listen to Cruz and Ricketts speak.

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers delivered a brief opening message before welcoming Senator Ricketts to the podium, warning of poor polling nationwide in safe red states.

“This is one of the worst cycles I’ve seen in my lifetime” he said, “If you don’t walk out of here today with an enormous sense of urgency to win this race, then we haven’t done our job. This very well may be the seat that makes the difference between having the Senate and not.”

Ricketts also emphasized the need for Republican turnout in his second statewide Senate election in three years. Ricketts finished former Senator Ben’s Sasse term after beating Democrat Preston Love Jr. in a 2024 special election, but now faces independent candidate Dan Osborn.

“Some people don’t even know. I was talking to a businessman in Omaha this week, and he said, ‘You’re up for reelection? When is the election?’”

In a fifteen minute speech before welcoming Cruz to the podium, Ricketts underscored his work with the Trump Administration in border security, defense, and tax cuts, drawing a point of difference with Osborn on the last of these, the first of numerous criticisms he and Cruz would levy against his opponent.

“He said he would have voted against our working families tax cut, which would have raised your taxes $2,400” he said, “He wants the border open. He wants the government shut down. That’s what my opponent stands for.”

‘Fake Independent Guy’

Ricketts took further issue with Osborn campaign donors, recalling his opponent’s 2024 Senate bid against Deb Fischer in addition to his 2026 campaign.

“My opponent has been telling people he’s an independent. But folks, all his money is coming from the Democrats” he said, “When he ran against Deb Fisher, 95% of his money came from outside the state of Nebraska. His top zip codes where he got money from? Washington D.C., New York City, California.”

Cruz likewise criticized Osborn’s support network, referencing recent Wall Street Journal reports that Boston-based Democrat consultant Daniel Moraff orchestrated the rise of Osborn, embattled Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani

“By the way, who is this fake independent guy? Well as Pete just told you, he was recruited by the same Democrat consultant that recruited Comrade Mamdani and the Nazi oyster farmer,” he said.

Cruz went on to castigate Osborn as a Democratic ploy.

“They find a fake independent – a fake independent who pretends he’s not a whack job left wing nutcase – and they hope the voters will be fooled,” he said.

Cruz likened Osborn to the case of Dan Sullivan, a Republican currently filed to run against the incumbent Republican Senator from Alaska who is also named Dan Sullivan.

“The person who wrote fake Dan Sullivan’s press release, you click on the metadata, it was the Democrat political consultant running the campaign for the Democrat,” he said, “They’re doing the same thing here in Nebraska. Heck, they’re counting on some chunk of the voters thinking on election day that Pete’s running against your old football coach!”

In closing, Cruz echoed Hilgers and Ricketts’ dire message to unconcerned Nebraska voters.

“The biggest challenge Pete has is people who say, ‘Oh, this isn’t a real race, Pete will win easy.’ I believe Pete’s going to win, but every single poll that comes out right now shows this race basically tied” he said, “If we lose Nebraska, the Democrats are almost certainly in charge of the Senate. So, let’s not let it happen.”

Initial Location Fallout

On Thursday afternoon, Zipline announced its sudden closure after more than a decade in operation. The closure, which was publicly announced in a statement online, caught both customers and employees by surprise, though the circumstances remain unclear.

Zipline’s statement claimed its decision to abruptly cease operations “was made some time ago as part of a business transition and is not related to any past or future events.” One former employee suggested there might be more to the story.

Speaking with The Plains Sentinel on background, the employee said she first learned of the scheduled event with Ricketts and Cruz on Wednesday, when news of it went viral online, and the phones began ringing nonstop.

“I kept getting phone call after phone call after phone call. It ranged from people being supportive to people cussing me out and chewing me out. I had regulars coming in crying on my shoulder—like a 60-year-old man. And I was like, ‘Guys, I don’t know anything about this.’”

The employee said the event had been booked three months earlier, but staff were not told it was a political campaign event. Once they learned the details, employees began pushing back against AKRS, the parent company and co-owner of the venue.

“We found out that Pete Ricketts and Ted Cruz were going to come to Zipline and talk and do all these things,” she said. “We started telling AKRS, ‘Guys, this isn’t a good idea. We don’t bring politics into work.’”

Zipline management then planned a meeting with AKRS for Thursday and even discussed the possibility of striking in response. That same day, the employee learned she and the rest of the staff had been terminated.

“I was going to work when I got the text,” she said. “I was looking on our 7shifts app—that’s our scheduling app—to see who was working, and it said ‘you are no longer aligned with this company.’ And this was before they officially told us we were done.”

When she stopped by the venue, locksmiths were already changing the locks. The terminations happened so abruptly that brewers were told to leave in the middle of a batch.

“They just got the temperature up to the right temp,” she said. “They were at work delivering beer, getting ready for the batch, and they just got told to leave.”

The Plains Sentinel reached out to a representative from AKRS for comment.

“AKRS does not own Zipline directly—there are mutual owners between the two organizations, but separate entities,” the representative said. “It was not an AKRS decision is all I can say.”

Around 18–20 employees were affected, many of whom relied on Zipline as their full-time career. The employee The Plains Sentinel spoke with remained optimistic, noting she had already lined up three job interviews for the following day.

— Lewis Thune is a writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.