OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Jim Pilen, a regent from the University of Nebraska, backed by the outgoing governor of the state, won the crowded Republican primary election for governor on Tuesday over a candidate backed by Donald Trump, inflicting significant losses on the former president as he tries to shape the future of the Republican Party.
Pilen, a pig farm owner and veterinarian, defeated eight contenders, including Charles Herbster, a businessman accused at the end of the campaign of groping young women, and Brett Lindstrom, a U.S. senator and financial adviser in Omaha who was generally seen as more moderate. choice.
While Trump-approved candidates won the primary race in West Virginia for the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, the loss in the state of Nebraska was an obstacle for Trump. He has issued hundreds of approvals and organized campaign-style rallies in support of his favorite candidates, including Herbster, in a bid to push the Republican Party in his direction ahead of another possible presidential bid in 2024.
Herbster’s loss raised the stakes in other high-profile races this month in Pennsylvania and Georgia, where Trump also intervened in campaigns.
In this Republican fortress, Pilen will be a strong favorite in the November general election against his Democratic opponent, Senator Carol Blood. Nebraska has not elected a Democrat governor since 1994.
Pilen was approved by many senior Republican leaders in the state, including Gov. Pete Ricketts, former Gov. Kay Or, and renowned former football coach and congressman at the University of Nebraska Tom Osborne. Ricketts was thwarted by time constraints to start again.
In Nebraska, allegations against Herbster, a longtime supporter of Trump, did not prevent the former president from holding a rally with him earlier this month.
“I really think he’s going to do a fantastic job, and if I hadn’t felt it, I wouldn’t be here,” Trump said during a rally on a racetrack near Omaha.
In a story last month, the Nebraska Examiner interviewed six women who claimed Herbster felt their buttocks out of their clothes during political events or beauty pageants. A seventh woman said Herbster once hugged her in a corner alone and kissed her forcibly.
One of the prosecutors, Republican Sen. Julie Slam, said Herbster lifted her skirt and touched it inappropriately at the annual Douglas County Republican Dinner Elephant Remembers dinner in 2019. The Associated Press usually does not identify people who say that they are victims of sexual assault unless they decide to go public, as Slama did.
Herbster has filed a defamation lawsuit against Slam, claiming that she falsely accused him of trying to thwart his campaign. Straw responded with a counterclaim against Herbster, alleging sexual assault.
Herbster has suggested in television commercials that Pilen and Ricketts have spoken to Slam to falsely accuse him of sexual assault, allegations the three deny.
Some voters said the accusations did not dissuade them from supporting Herbster.
Speaking at a primary school in northwestern Omaha on Tuesday, Joan Cotan said she was “upset by the stories, but I don’t know if I believe them.” In the end, the 74-year-old said she voted for Herbster, “because President Trump recommended it.”
Lindström has also faced a number of attacks, with Ricketts-funded third-party television commercials portraying him as too liberal for the conservative state. A digitally modified ad shows Lindstrom standing in front of a rainbow flag with a coronavirus mask superimposed on his face. A post advertised that Lindstrom was backed by US Representative Brad Ashford, a moderate Republican who became a Democrat who died last month of brain cancer.
But Devon Leesley said she supported 41-year-old Lindström because “it’s time to pass on politics to the next generation.” Both Pilen and Herbster are in their 60s.
Leesley, 45, who lives in Omaha, said he did not pay much attention to the various approvals in the race.
“I do not trust any politician who talks about another politician. It’s all dirt, “he said.” We would never vote for anyone if we listened to their opponent.
Carol Bruning, 59, of Omaha, said she took part in the debate on election day between Pilen and Lindström, but was with Pilen because of his age and experience. She said she liked Ricketts and Osborne supporting Pilen. The fact that Trump approved of Herbster may even be a little repulsive at the moment, Bruning said, even though she voted for Trump.
The charges against Herbster are not a very important factor, she said. “You don’t know what to believe. That’s the hard part, “Bruning said.
Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnon, a Republican who also won a nomination Tuesday, predicts that 35 percent of registered voters will vote in the primary, the highest percentage since 2006, based on what he has seen so far.
Republicans and Democrats in Nebraska also chose their candidates for the post previously held by U.S. Republican Jeff Fortonberry, who resigned and withdrew his re-election in March after being convicted of federal corruption charges.
State Sen. Mike Flood, a former chairman of the Nebraska legislature, won the Republican nomination, while U.S. Sen. Patti Pansing Brooks won the Democratic nomination. Flood will enter the race as a strong favorite in the 1st Congressional District with Republicans, which includes Lincoln, small towns and much of the agricultural land in East Nebraska.
Despite Trump’s loss in the run for governor of Nebraska, his influence proved decisive in West Virginia, which also held primary elections on Tuesday. In a race in which two Republican presidents face each other, Trump’s candidate, Republican Alex Mooney, defeated MP David McKinley, who angered Trump by voting for President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure package and setting up a House of Representatives committee. investigating the case on January 6. attack on the US Capitol.
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Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this report.
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