Ricketts’ Riches: How a wealthy governor and his family changed Nebraska politics
In the past decade, as he was running for and then serving as governor, Pete Ricketts and his family spent at least $9.8 million on Nebraska political campaigns and causes.
Their spending sets them apart from any other living Nebraska governors and their families.
It spiked when Ricketts first ran for the state's top job, jumping to 5% of all recorded Nebraska political giving, according to available Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission records.
And it spiked again as he prepared to leave office, when they spent $5.4 million – much of it funneled to electing his successor, Jim Pillen, who soon appointed Ricketts to the U.S. Senate.
In that cycle, Ricketts' money made up more than 7% of all political giving to every political campaign and cause in Nebraska.
The family – mostly the governor and his parents – donated money to all levels of government: high-profile ballot measures, low-level races like county sheriff and utility board, and PACs that bolstered candidates or attacked them. And they spent heavily in races for the Nebraska Legislature, the body that can advance or curb a governor's agenda.
"Legally, any American citizen can contribute whatever they want to a (Nebraska) campaign," said former Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican. "I think it's viewed differently when you're a sitting governor and you're making significant contributions to legislative races, primarily, to impact who might get elected who would reflect your views in terms of policy.
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It's easy to forget now, but Pete Ricketts' big spending entrance into politics nearly two decades ago ended in a landslide loss.
Ricketts says his interest in politics started when he joined the anti-gambling coalition Gambling with the Good Life in 2004. Ricketts declined an interview but did provide written responses to questions.
"We defeated a massive and well-funded effort to allow expanded gambling in Nebraska with a grassroots campaign, and I realized that real citizens can make a difference by getting involved," Ricketts said in an email.
Ricketts then spent $12 million of his money trying to unseat Sen. Ben Nelson in 2006. But Nelson cruised to victory, becoming the last Democrat elected statewide in Nebraska while thumping Ricketts by nearly 28 points.
When Pete Ricketts ran for Senate, state records show that the Ricketts family gave roughly $360,000 to state campaigns. Their in-state spending stayed in the low six-digits each election cycle before his 2014 run for governor.
This campaign was different. Ricketts spent less of his own money. He fundraised and traveled the state more.
"Every small donation matters – because each individual is committing to your vision and campaign," Ricketts wrote. "I also realized how powerful it is to ask people directly for their votes, and to ask them to bring their friends and neighbors along in support – generally the importance of grassroots campaigning."
Ricketts won the hotly contested Republican primary and sailed through the general election. On his second attempt for elected office, he was now Nebraska's governor, entering office with millions of dollars that he could use to help allies – and stymie opponents.
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The Ricketts family's national political giving far outpaces anything they have done in Nebraska. But politicians say the family fortune has more influence in the Cornhusker State.
Joe and Marlene Ricketts are the 29th largest donor overall nationally this election cycle, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Since 2005, Joe, Marlene and Pete Ricketts combined have contributed more than $100 million to federal races, much of it to super PACs that can raise unlimited amounts of money.
Joe Ricketts' other children have been active contributors, too. Laura Ricketts, a Democrat, co-founded a PAC centered on LGBTQ+ issues.
They're high-level federal donors, said Brendan Glavin, deputy research director at OpenSecrets. But billions of dollars will be spent in the presidential and congressional elections. It's hard to stand out.
In Nebraska?
"Five million spent in a cycle to elect members of the House and Senate – that's a big number, but it's not impactful," said Bob Kerrey, former Nebraska governor and U.S. senator and a Democrat. "Five million spent on Nebraska races? Impactful."
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One day in 2022, Matt Williams' phone lit up with friends urging him to check his mail.
He got home and saw his own face staring back at him from a political mailer. Alongside his photo: charges that the Gothenburg banker, state lawmaker, Republican and candidate for the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, was a secret liberal.
"Say no to Matt Williams on November 8th," said a mailer that went to voters across western Nebraska.
He was shocked that anyone would go to such lengths to keep him off the Board of Regents
Then Williams saw the mailer was paid for by a political action committee, the "Nebraska Future Action Fund." And he was less surprised.
Nebraska Future Action Fund was bankrolled almost entirely by then-Gov. Ricketts.
Williams had entered the Legislature the same year that Ricketts became governor. Ricketts donated $1,000 to Williams' campaign. The pair campaigned together.
"I had no reason to fear him," Williams said.
But it proved a tough first year for Ricketts. Williams and several other Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Legislature voted to override the new governor's vetoes on a few key bills.
The very next year, the governor supported conservative opponents who defeated three incumbent Republican senators who voted as Williams had on some or all those votes.
From that point, it was clear that Ricketts would use his money to affect elections, Williams said, even within his own party. His consequences didn't come until years later, when Williams tried to become an NU regent.
Ricketts ended up spending six figures on the regent's race attacking Williams and supporting his opponent, Kathy Wilmot.
"It's a whole different feeling of being let down and damaged – almost disbelief," Williams said of the mailers against him.
Williams was no pauper, bringing in $455,000 after August 2021.
Still, Wilmot won the general election with 54% of votes.
Ricketts and longtime political adviser Jessica Flanagain, who answered interview questions and provided written statements, described a straightforward consideration that guides his campaign contributions: Who is the most conservative candidate in a given race who can actually win on Election Day?
"I can't think of any entity, any individual entity who has invested more in campaigns than the Rickettses have, and I think it's been impactful in electing people who have their same political philosophy," said Walt Radcliffe, a Nebraska lobbyist who's worked in and around the Legislature since 1969. "But, again, that's why you give money."
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While governor, Heineman would "go after" Republicans "he didn't especially like," said John Hibbing, a longtime political scientist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
One difference: He didn't have Ricketts' bank account, Hibbing said.
Heineman and Nelson, who served two terms as governor before being elected to the U.S. Senate, gave under $10,000 each in Nebraska over the last 20 years, according to available NADC data. (These analyses are limited to what FFP reporters could find – digital records weren't robust during their terms.)
Ricketts also extended his money, and influence, to the Nebraska Republican Party. By the 2022 cycle, Joe, Marlene and then-Gov. Pete Ricketts gave 45% of the state committee's $1.2 million total, according to NADC records.
But then an anti-Ricketts contingent of the party took over. Some Republicans who supported the change framed it as pushback against the status quo, the two-term governor and his money.
"Pete brought this on himself," Matt Innis told a Nebraska Examiner reporter at the 2022 state convention.
The Ricketts family's support for the state GOP – and the party's funding overall – dried up. As of late June, the Nebraska Republican Party's state committee had reported roughly $105,000 in contributions this cycle.
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In some ways, the Ricketts family isn't all that unique. Ray La Raja, political scientist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, noted that they may function similarly to the Koch brothers in Kansas, the Uihleins in Michigan, or Art Pope in North Carolina.
But the family appears to set itself apart by how and where it delivered money as its eldest son sat atop Nebraska's government.
Two politicians who are billionaires or members of billionaire families, Illinois Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and ex-Florida governor and now Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, both donated far more than the Ricketts family in their home states.
The Pritzkers gave $396 million in Illinois between 2005 and last year. But 85% funded J.B. Pritzker's own campaigns. Scott gave $67 million in Florida, and 90% went to his own campaigns.
North Dakota's Republican Gov. Doug Burgum appears to act more like the Ricketts family – spreading money around.
Burgum, according to North Dakota campaign finance records, has given $4.7 million since 2020 to a campaign finance group that promoted certain Republican legislative candidates and opposed others. He gave $2.2 million to his own gubernatorial campaign committee between 2018 and 2023, according to records.
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A week after he was sworn in as governor, Jim Pillen announced he was appointing Ricketts to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Ben Sasse.
He did so after the Ricketts family's spending in Nebraska spiked to unprecedented levels. The outgoing governor and his parents gave a combined $1.6 million to support Pillen and attack two Republican primary opponents.
What Ricketts' elevation to the Senate means for his and the family's political giving remains to be seen.
Through June, NADC records show they had given 5% of the state's total recorded contributions this election cycle, about $1.7 million.
Sen. Pete Ricketts' net worth was an estimated $160 million, according to Quiver Quantitative's live tracker that uses data from politicians' stock portfolios. By their calculations, that makes him the fourth-richest U.S. senator.
His giving at the federal level has increased since he entered the Senate. In the 2022 cycle, Federal Election Commission records show he gave about $886,000. Through June, he had given $2.6 million.
If Ricketts has leadership aspirations within the Senate, he might be generous with his colleagues, giving his own campaign money to support vulnerable Senate Republicans, said OpenSecrets' Glavin.
But he'll also still have money to send back home.
Said Glavin, "It's going to probably become more about: How much influence does he want to maintain within the state? ... Are things being done the way he feels that he wants them done?"
Flatwater Free Press reporter Jeremy Turley contributed to this story.
The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska's first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.
The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska's first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.
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