At $25 million, Nebraska's abortion access vote most expensive ballot fight in state history
The fight over abortion access playing out on Nebraska's ballot this year is already the most expensive ballot question race in state history as the two groups vying to amend the state's constitution have combined to raise nearly $25 million ahead of Tuesday's election.
Billionaires and obscure nonprofits have poured millions of dollars into the fight in the last 10 days alone as Nebraskans become the first voters in the country to face an either-or vote on abortion access this month.
The campaigns backing the rival proposed constitutional amendments — one that seeks to expand abortion access until fetal viability in Nebraska and another that aims to enshrine the state's 12-week abortion ban — have now combined to raise $24.8 million this year, according to their latest campaign finance disclosure filings.
Protect Our Rights, the progressive-backed coalition that is seeking to enshrine "a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability" into the state's constitution through Ballot Initiative 439, has hauled in $13.24 million since January, according to the group's latest filings.
Protect Women and Children — the conservative-backed campaign that is seeking to amend Nebraska's constitution to outlaw second- and third-trimester abortions with exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies through Initiative 434 — has raised $11.63 million this year, according to campaign finance records.
That figure includes some, but not all, of the $4.96 million that has been poured into a newly formed political action committee called Common Sense Nebraska that has in turn donated millions to down-ballot candidates whose campaigns have funded advertisements backing Initiative 434.
The barrage of money marks the latest escalation in political campaign spending in Nebraska and reflects the continued nationwide fervor on both sides of abortion access fights more than two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving abortion to be governed on a state-by-state basis.
"I don't think we've ever had two dueling initiatives like this. We've just never had this scenario, and I think that's a huge factor here," said Gavin Geis, the director of Common Cause Nebraska, a transparency-in-government watchdog group.
"We have two very different ideas for what's right for Nebraska, and they are driving each other to spend more," he said. "So this is, without question, the most expensive ballot race we've seen."
"It's easily surpassed everything that we have ever seen before," he added.
The expensive fight over abortion access comes more than a year after Nebraska lawmakers passed a 12-week abortion ban in May 2023, prompting the Protect Our Rights campaign to launch a petition drive late last year in an effort to amend the constitution to protect abortion at the ballot this November.
In response, Protect Women and Children kicked off its own petition drive in March seeking to enshrine the 12-week ban.
It's unclear exactly how much either group has spent in the election cycle's waning days. The latest campaign finance filings only track spending through Oct. 21, but the campaigns are required to report new donations of more than $1,000 within 48 hours of receiving them this close to Election Day.
Protect Our Rights boosted by dark money
Protect Our Rights had raised $11.28 million and spent $10.22 million through Oct. 21, with much of the campaign's latest spending coming on television, digital and mail ads.
In the days since Oct. 21, the group has received another $1.96 million in contributions large enough to trigger their own disclosure filings — including a combined $1.4 million from a pair of Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organizations that double as so-called dark-money hubs , which do not disclose their donors' identities.
The Hopewell Fund donated $902,624 to Protect Our Rights on Oct. 25, the same day the New Venture Fund poured $506,000 into the campaign, according to campaign finance filings. The nonprofits had already donated a combined $1.4 million to the campaign prior to last week.
Other out-of-state groups and people have also contributed large sums to the Protect Our Rights campaign, including Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire and former mayor of New York City who gave $1.5 million to the cause in October.
The D.C.-based nonprofit The Fairness Project has also given $1 million in monetary contributions to the campaign, in addition to a few hundred thousand dollars worth of in-kind donations.
The Nebraska-based advocacy groups that launched the campaign have poured their share of money into Protect Our Rights, too.
The Nebraska Appleseed Action Fund has given $900,000 to the campaign, including a last-minute $200,000 contribution Monday, according to disclosure filings. Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska has donated $1.56 million to the campaign, including $220,000 since Oct. 22.
The campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Billionaires fund Initiative 434, proxy PAC
Protect Women and Children had raised $8.08 million and spent $7.64 million through Oct. 21, focusing its spending on producing and broadcasting ads — efforts that have been boosted by third-party campaigns whose spending isn't included in the ballot initiative group's filings.
The campaign and its proxies have relied less on dark money groups and more on some of Nebraska's wealthiest families, including the family of Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, whose father, Joe Ricketts, founded TD Ameritrade.
Pete Ricketts has donated $1.15 million to Protect Women and Children, while his mom, Marlene Ricketts, has given $4 million to the campaign — though the campaign has refunded $1.5 million to her, according to its latest filings. Two members of the family behind Sandhills Global, Thomas and Shawn Peed, have combined to donate $2 million to Protect Women and Children.
Marlene Ricketts has also given $3.5 million to Common Sense Nebraska, the PAC that is acting as a proxy for the Protect Women and Children campaign by funneling money into down-ballot campaigns — including Rob Schafer's run for University of Nebraska Board of Regents and Tanya Storer's run for the Legislature — that are in turn funding ad buys for commercials backing Initiative 434.
Common Sense Nebraska has also received $830,000 from Catholic Vote, a nonprofit political advocacy group based in Wisconsin.
The PAC and the two unaffiliated candidates spent at least $3.55 million in support of the Protect Women and Children in October.
"We have been fortunate in Nebraska that donors in our state have seen fit to stand up to the out-of-state activists and protect women and children with commonsense measures that are endorsed by more than 1,000 Nebraska medical professionals for being sound policy," Brenna Grasz, a spokeswoman for the group, said in a statement.
The effort has also been boosted by religious organizations in the state, including the Nebraska Catholic Conference, which has spent at least $112,608 on postcards, mailers or signage supporting Initiative 434 and opposing Initiative 439 and donated $115,000 worth of staff time to the campaign since last year.
Geis, the director of the nonpartisan transparency-in-government group, said the "shocking" spending on the abortion access fight likely won't be replicated in another election cycle anytime soon, pointing to the unique nature of the dueling initiatives and the zeal surrounding abortion access on both sides of the aisle.
The record-setting spending on the fight — first on petition drives to ensure the measures went before voters, now on advertisements to sway public opinion — "shows just how much money those with influence have on our politics," Geis said.
"If you have wealth — if you're an organization or an individual with a tremendous amount of wealth — you get to steer the political discussion," he said. "For the most part, average Nebraskans really only have their vote. And thank goodness we all have our vote.
"We get a say. At the end of the day, it all comes down to the voters."
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