Pete Ricketts, (Liz Macias, Central Nebraska Today)
WASHINGTON D.C. — Pete Ricketts is seeking to be elected to the role he was appointed to, U.S. Senator representing Nebraska.
Ricketts was the 40th Governor of Nebraska and served the state from 2015 to 2023.
In January 2023, Senator Ben Sasse resigned his position to become the president of the University of Florida. Governor Jim Pillen, who had succeeded Ricketts one week earlier, appointed Ricketts to the position.
Ricketts announced after his appointment that he would run in the 2024 special election to serve the remaining two years of Sasse’s term. The seat will be up again in 2026 for a full six-year term, Rickett said he would pursue a full term in the Senate.
“It’s a privilege to continue to support Nebraskans, first as your governor, now as your senator,” Ricketts said.
Speaking of his background, Ricketts said he was born in Nebraska City and his family later moved to Omaha.
He attended Westside High School and graduated in 1982. He attended the University of Chicago, receiving a BA in biology in 1986 and an MBA in marketing and finance in 1991.
Ricketts said he became involved in politics in 2006 and ran for Senate the first time, unsuccessfully He then ran for governor in 2014 and was elected to the position.
During his time as governor, Ricketts said he strove to run government like a business, controlling expenses and improving services. He said $12 billion was delivered in tax relief through these efforts.
Speaking of his efforts since the appointment to Senate, Ricketts said he wants to offer the things that worked for Nebraska on the national stage. He also said he has been heavily promoting biofuels which he had done as governor.
“Nebraska solutions ready for American,” is a theme Ricketts highlighted.
Ricketts said he has also been involved in pushing back against what he sees as overregulation from the federal government, including the electrical vehicle mandate President Joe Biden was promoting.
“President Biden’s EV mandate is completely delusional. It’s foolish. It’s just plain wrong,” Ricketts said in a press release. “We lack the power generation, infrastructure, and domestic supply chain of critical minerals to make Biden’s mandate work. The end result of this EV mandate will be higher prices, greater dependence on the Chinese Communist Party, and less choice for consumers.”
Ricketts also cited the border with United States-Mexico as an issue, adding that 9.4 million people have entered the country through illegal means. He said the situation is creating a humanitarian, drug, sex trafficking and a national security crisis.
He said DNA tests of migrants coming into the country was ceased under the Biden administration and said these tests could help legitimate the claims of families, or to disprove those who might be using the guise of being a family member of children for a nefarious end.
Ricketts is also in favor of bills that ban foreign adversary-owned apps in the United States, best represented by TikTok being seen as a Chinese Community Party controlled news platform.
“The percentage of TikTok users who regularly get their news from the app has doubled since 2020. The problem, however, is what slant that news has, and it’s entirely being controlled by the Chinese Communist Party…” Ricketts said in a release.
Ricketts cited an example of statements that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China, that there are 400 times more posts on Instagram as opposed to TikTok. “The Chinese Community Party is suppressing that,” he said.
When asked why he is seeking to be elected to the Senate, Ricketts said that Nebraska has wisdom it can share with the rest of the country. “We have a common sense approach, we work together well, we collaborate, those are the sort of things I want to bring to (Washington) D.C.,” he said.
In his 16 months as senator, Ricketts says he has seen a lot of Washington-based bureaucrats and said they don’t understand what it’s like in the rest of the country. He cited the EV mandate and said it might sound great in urban areas, but the rest of the country currently lacks the infrastructure to support them.
He said he wants to stand up to regulations that are crafted by people who don’t understand the full impact they will have on the rest of the country. Ricketts said he wants the values and ideas of the Midwest better reflected in Washington D.C.
In closing, Ricketts said Nebraska is one of the best places in the world to live and said the state has a lot to offer the rest of the country. He said Nebraskans stand up to support each other whether it be from floods, fires, or a pandemic.
He said it is a privilege to represent Nebraska and to bring the state’s values to Washington D.C.
Editor’s Note: Pete Ricketts appeared on 1340 KGFW and this article was written using information provided during that interview. The full interview can be found here.
