Sen. Pete Ricketts wins Nebraska's special two-year US Senate election

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts will be heading back to Washington after winning Nebraska's special two-year Senate election over Democratic challenger Preston Love.

Ricketts, the former two-term Nebraska governor who was appointed to the senate seat by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen last year, will finish the term of former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, who resigned his seat in 2022 for a brief tenure as the president of the University of Florida. Ricketts has said that he will seek a full six-year term in 2026.

The Associated Press called the race for Ricketts just after polls closed at 8 p.m. Ricketts delivered his acceptance speech at 8:26 p.m. at the Republican gathering at the Beardmore Event Center, 3750 Raynor Parkway in Bellevue.

"I feel, with your help, we are on the cusp of taking back our country from the radical left," he said. "Every year, you hear politicians say, 'this is the most important election of our life.' There's a reason for that. The stakes get higher and higher, and that's the case this year."

"It's a very dangerous time. It's why I want to continue to serve Nebraskans and represent Nebraskans in Washington D.C. Folks, we live in the best place in the world. Nebraska is what America should be. We value our families, communities, our faith. We work together to solve our problems, we hold people accountable, we know the unlimited potential of the people."

Love, a community leader and professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, mounted an underdog campaign to challenge Ricketts, a millionaire who has been a perennial figure in Nebraska's Republican politics for more than a decade. Ricketts far outpaced Love in both fundraising and spending, according to pre-election reports filed with the Federal Election Commission, with Ricketts raising $5.4 million to Love's $246,000 and spending $4.1 million to Love's $205,000.

In an interview with the World-Herald in late September , Love acknowledged that his campaign was a "long shot," but said he hoped that his stature in North Omaha would help boost turnout in the area and in Nebraska's Black population.

The victory for Ricketts is a sharp contrast to his last Senate run in 2006, when he lost to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson by 28 percentage points despite spending nearly $12 million of his own money on the race. Ricketts took a break from political life after the loss before returning to the stage in 2013 to run for governor. In the 2014 and 2018 elections, he won 57% and 59% of the vote, respectively.

Ricketts did far less self-funding in this election cycle than in 2006, contributing just over $113,000 to his campaign. His major donors included the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, which contributed nearly $223,000, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which contributed more than $405,000.

Love also loaned his campaign more than $60,000 of his own money, according to FEC records . He received sizable donations from members of the Weitz and Lozier families, two wealthy Omaha families known for their philanthropy and support of Democratic causes.

In his short Senate stint, Ricketts has rarely crossed party lines and has been a reliable Republican vote. In the L ugar Center's annual bipartisan index scores, Ricketts placed near the bottom — 85 out of 100 — indicating that he rarely co-sponsors bills from Democratic lawmakers. His Senate counterpart, U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, placed 25th.

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Julie Anderson