Free Republic

Ben Sasse wins the Nebraska Primary!

Ben Sasse 27,204 Sid Dinsdale 16.218 Shane Osborn 14,424

The Keystone XL pipeline may be stalled, but it's pumping a steady flow of cash into Washington — where inertia is a multibillion-dollar industry. The pipeline debate has become a money-making machine for lobbyists, advertisers, NGOs and political fundraisers in the U.S. capital, where tens of millions of dollars are being spent on the issue. The spending deluge will continue indefinitely, thanks to the two latest non-developments: the Obama administration has delayed a decision on the pipeline, and a congressional effort to speed up the process appears to have collapsed this week. The Washington insider news outlet, Politico, described the...

Senate candidate Bart McLeay has distinguished himself in the campaign as being willing to go further in-depth with his answers than his opponents. For example, at the candidates’ debate held in Gering in January, McLeay was the only candidate to actually lay out an alternative to Obamacare. “Ben Sasse now says he’s the only one to propose an alternative to Obamacare,” McLeay said during a Wednesday visit to Lexington. “I told him at a debate in Hastings, ‘Ben, you must be forgetting about the debate in Gering.’”

With less than 48 hours before polls open for the Republican Senate primary in Nebraska, immigration has emerged as an issue of newfound importance in the race after former State Treasurer Shane Osborn signed a pledge from an anti-amnesty group and urged his opponent, university president Ben Sasse, to follow suit. The pledge, from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), asks candidates to vow to oppose amnesty, increases in legal immigration, and increases in the number of guest workers. Osborn, who is behind Sasse in the polls, signed the pledge Friday, saying he is a “proven conservative” on the...

A federal judge has rejected the challenge of a Nebraska prison inmate and his transgender fiancée to a voter-approved constitutional amendment that says marriage must be between a man and woman. Harold B. Wilson and Gracy Sedlak, formerly John Jirovsky, sued the Nebraska prison system and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning in U.S. District Court in Omaha. In the suit, they sought to overturn Nebraska Initiative Measure 416 of 2000, saying their rights were being violated because they weren't allowed to marry the person of their choosing and weren't being treated equally to heterosexual couples who may be approved for...

Conservative Nebraska Senate candidate Ben Sasse has opened up a 14-point lead in the latest poll before Tuesday's GOP primary. A Megellan Strategies survey of likely GOP primary voters, 92% of whom said they would definitely vote in the May 13 primary, found Sasse leading with 38%, while liberal Republican Sid Dinsdale is in second with 24%. Establishment Republican Shane Osborn, who is backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is in third with 20%. Sasse is endorsed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Mike Lee (R-UT), conservative talk radio host Mark Levin, the...

The Republican contest for the 2nd District House seat took a nasty turn Thursday as Rep. Lee Terry's opponent accused the eight-term congressman of lying on a campaign mailing. Terry's mailing, sent to voters earlier this week, displays a photo of GOP challenger Dan Frei between pictures of President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, both Democrats. “Dan Frei supports spending your tax dollars to provide free health care for 11 million illegal immigrants,” Terry's mailing says.

A new campaign-trail pledge to vote against any immigration increases took center stage in the Nebraska GOP Senate primary race on Friday, when candidate Shane Osborne slammed his rival for not signing the pledge and also charged him with deception. “Nebraskans are learning that Ben Sasse isn’t the candidate he’s pretending to be [and] on the most important issues of the day, from Immigration to ObamaCare, Sasse is no conservative,” said a statement from the campaign, only four days before voting begins on Tuesday.

Ben Sasse, the Nebraska Republican gunning for a U.S. Senate seat, may have a bit of a liberal streak when it comes to issues such as immigration, according to a new Inquisitr op-ed, which accuses the candidate of creating a "facade to cover up glaring shortcomings." As of last week, polls showed the 42-year-old president of Midland University leading in the race for the Senate seat left vacant by Republican incumbent Mike Johanns. But with the primary less than a week away, some feel that Sasse may be secretly harboring liberal stances.

The Kansas man who helped draft Fremont's contentious immigration ordinance and several similar ones around the country has endorsed Shane Osborn for Nebraska's open U.S. Senate seat. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach issued the endorsement for Osborn Thursday, saying it's "absolutely essential that we have U.S. senators who will vote against amnesty for illegal aliens."

Read the memo circulated by Shane Osborn's U.S. Senate campaign to counter criticism about his decision in April 2001 to land a disabled Navy reconnaissance plane in China. * * *Dogged by questions about his 2001 decision to land a crippled Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane in China, U.S. Senate candidate Shane Osborn has distributed an official-looking Navy memo supporting his account.The memo, written Aug. 8, 2013, on Navy letterhead, is titled “Disposition of actions by EP-3E flight crew on April 1, 2001.” It explains that Osborn's plane was authorized to land on China's Hainan island “due to the extreme circumstances...

Nebraska Senate candidate Shane Osborn seems to have made a habit of, one might say, overreaching during this campaign.First, there was the misrepresented memo:  In an effort to defend his military service, Osborn had a friend in the Pentagon write up a memo saying that Osborn was authorized to land in China, put it on official Navy letterhead, and release it without proper authorization. As the Omaha World-Herald reported, Osborn’s campaign then circulated that memo as if it were an official Navy document.  Osborn has since apologized. Now, Osborn is claiming to have the support of 51 economists from across the country. ...

Sacramento, CA – Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee, is proud to announce its endorsement of Ben Sasse, who has continued to expand his conservative support in the election to represent Nebraska in the United States Senate. Tea Party Express’ Executive Director Taylor Budowich said, “America’s economic decline is rooted in the ‘we’ll-deal-with-it-tomorrow’ culture of Washington, D.C. If we are going to turn things around, we need to elect leaders that are willing to tackle America’s biggest problems with bold ideas. That’s why Tea Party Express is endorsing Ben Sasse for the U.S. Senate. “Ben...

Former presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Wednesday will endorse Republican Ben Sasse for Nebraska's Senate seat, National Journal has learned, yet another high-profile endorsement for the Cornhusker State conservative ahead of his competitive primary. Santorum, who finished second to Mitt Romney in 2012's GOP presidential primary, is particularly popular with social conservatives, and in his endorsement, he touted Sasse's strict opposition to abortion rights. "Ben Sasse will be a fighter on life issues and on issues that support our families," Santorum said in a statement. "Ben Sasse says he will be a 'champion for the unborn,' and I believe him....

Mark Udall, D-Colo., is facing calls on both sides to clarify his position on the Keystone XL pipeline. The Keystone XL pipeline wouldn't run through Colorado, but it's about to take center stage in the state's politics. The Senate is near certain to vote this week on legislation that would approve the oil-sands pipeline, and that's leaving Sen. Mark Udall—a Democrat facing a tough reelection challenge—with an unenviable choice to make. If Udall votes yes, he'll anger a liberal base that has put blocking the pipeline at the head of its environmental charge. But if he votes no, his opponent...

The Republican Establishment always says conservative purists would rather lose than compromise. But the opposite is playing out in Nebraska. The moment Ben Sasse got endorsed by the Senate Conservatives Fund, Mitch McConnell went all in for Shane Osborn. Well, Osborn is now toast. He has extremely high negatives, extreme negative poll numbers, and outside groups have just finished him off with an ad blasting his involvement in a made up military memo. That leaves Sid Dinsdale who’d have you know he is a lifelong Republican despite years of significant giving to Democrats. Dinsdale too, however, is behind in the...

The vote to authorize immediate construction of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline may come to a crucial head next week, as two Senators introduced a bill on Thursday calling for binding legislation.

On April 30, 2014, we invited Adrian Smith, Tom Brewer and Mark Sullivan to attend a Townhall type meeting. Tyson Havranek was our moderator. Adrian Smith could not be present but sent his campaign manager to give a short statement at the beginning. This is the full 1 hour and 29 minute video. For your convenience this video is available in 6 parts also for those who wish to split up their viewing.

The idea of granting illegal immigrants a form of legal status — but without the possibility of citizenship — has the backing of two Republican U.S. Senate candidates in Nebraska. Sid Dinsdale and Bart McLeay both said it would be a good compromise toward ending the nation's long-standing dilemma over what to do with an estimated 11 million people living in this country illegally.