Walz Pitches Herself as 'Purple' Alternative in Governor's Race

by Matt Johnson

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

FREMONT — On Monday evening, Lynne Walz, Democratic candidate for governor of Nebraska, hosted a meet-and-greet fundraiser at Greens Tavern in Fremont with around 65 guests in attendance.

The event was organized by Kim Cuda of Omaha, a Democrat, and Jeff Hoffman of Fremont, a Republican. Walz presented the two with a paper heart that she had colored inside with colored pencil to highlight the bipartisan nature of the event.

“For me, Nebraska is the heart of America, and this heart, you can see, has some red on the outside and it also has some very blue on the outside,” Walz said. “But in the middle, the majority, if you mash it together, it turns purple. And that’s where we need to be, guys. We need to be where 80 and 90 percent of us already are. We just need to stop listening to the extreme red and that extreme blue and come together as purple.”

The Plains Sentinel spoke with both organizers after the event.

Cuda described herself as fiscally conservative and more socially progressive. She voted for Congressman Don Bacon and may have supported Pillen in his first term because she knew him and his wife. Now, however, she said, “he’s just swung too far right with the other people.”

Hoffman, the long-time Executive Director of John C. Fremont Days, met Walz through his community involvement. He described himself as a former straight-ticket Republican voter who voted for Trump in his first term but became disenchanted with him afterward.

“It’s not so much for me a Trump issue,” Hoffman said. “It’s an issue that our society’s in trouble. We need people to fix it. And I think Lynne is a compassionate, thoughtful person. She cares about people. And I think that we need that in our government.”

Partisan Politics in the Legislature

Walz, when describing problems with partisan politics, focused on 2023 as an extremely divisive year in the Legislature.

“The entire legislative session that year was focused on extreme left and extreme right issues. And it was very divisive,” Walz said. “We didn’t get anything done except argue and point fingers at each other the entire year. There was a lot of emotion, and it was a lot of wasted taxpayer money.”

Republicans remember 2023 differently. In April, Governor Jim Pillen described the Democratic filibuster as the catalyst for uniting the Republicans in the Legislature.

“I said, you know, we should be sending them [Democrats] flowers every day. Because of what they did, we had a historic session,” Pillen said. “Because they were so obnoxious, they kept the conservative coalition together. It kept us together.”

State Sen. Ben Hansen (LD-16) spoke at an event in Omaha in December last year, where he largely agreed:

“That was the best year for the Nebraska unicameral from a conservative standpoint … mainly because the Democrats were a little ‘over emotional’ about some of the bills that we were passing.”

After the event, The Plains Sentinel asked Walz how she would help rein in division in the Unicameral. Walz replied that the 2023 session suffered because divisive issues were brought to the floor early.

“If you want to talk about divisive issues, then maybe we bring them the last week or the last couple of weeks,” Walz said. “What we should be doing as a body is really looking at what 80-90% of Nebraskans want us to do. And that’s accessible health care, that’s affordable housing, that’s making sure that we’re providing quality education for our kids, it’s accessible and affordable child care, increasing wages, it’s making sure that people have great-paying jobs. So those are the things that we should have been concentrating on very early on, and we didn’t.”

Among the past bipartisan efforts Walz highlighted was a property tax relief plan she proposed with then-State Sen. Brett Lindstrom in 2022. Lindstrom has been considering a run for governor himself. The Plains Sentinel asked Walz if she had heard from him lately, to which she responded emphatically, “No! I haven’t.”

According to a recent poll from her campaign, Walz and Pillen are just two points apart—within the margin of error. This suggests a potentially tight race in November, with only five months to go until Election Day.

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