Republican Ricketts wins GOP Primary in Nebraska, advances to key Senate showdown

Republican Ricketts wins GOP Primary in Nebraska, advances to key Senate showdown

After primary win, Ricketts braces for tough general election fight against Independent Osborn

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Nebraska senator reassures public on hantavirus readiness

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., discusses the state's role in containing the hantavirus and President Donald Trump's upcoming summit with Xi Jinping.

Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is a step closer to serving a full six-year term in the Senate, after winning renomination in red-leaning Nebraska's primary.

Ricketts, who was appointed in 2023 to replace Ben Sasse, and who won a 2024 special election to fill out the final two years of Sasse's term, topped four GOP primary challengers on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.

Ricketts now heads to this autumn's midterm elections, where he will face off in what's expected to be a competitive Senate race against independent candidate Dan Osborn, the industrial mechanic and military veteran who gave Republican Sen. Deb Fischer a scare in her 2024 re-election.

Tuesday's primary was held with less than six months to go until the midterm elections, when Republicans aim to hold their razor-thin House and slim Senate majorities, and Democrats hope to ride a blue wave to escape the political wilderness.

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Independent candidate Dan Osborn this year is making a second straight run for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)

Even though the Nebraska Democratic Party supports Osborn in the general election, community college instructor Cindy Burbank and pastor Bill Forbes faced off for the Democrats' nomination in the primary.

Both candidates were last-minute filers, and some Nebraska Democrats alleged that Forbes jumped into the race so that a Democrat would be on the fall ballot and siphon votes away from Osborn to help Ricketts.

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The Nebraska state capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska (Getty Images)

Forbes denied the claims.

Burbank says she jumped into the race to keep Forbes off the ballot in November.

Ricketts is the eldest son of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, and along with other family members, is part owner of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs.

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Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is running this year to serve a full six-year term in the U.S. Senate. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Ricketts won election in 2014 and re-election in 2018 as Nebraska governor. One week after finishing his second term, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate by his successor as governor, Republican Jim Pillen.

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Top nonpartisan political handicappers rank the Senate general election showdown in Nebraska as likely Republican.

The GOP currently controls the Senate with a 53-47 majority.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."

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