Gov. Pete Ricketts campaigns on keeping Nebraska local and stopping outside interference. But his actual record shows what $28.9 million in outside money really buys.
The contradiction
In June 2026, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz came to Lincoln to warn Nebraskans about outside interference in their politics.
The Democrats, he told a crowd at the Country Club of Lincoln, were "dropping millions of dollars into Nebraska" to "deceive the voters." He was there to support Gov. Pete Ricketts, who's running for U.S. Senate on a message of keeping Nebraska local. He promised to protect Nebraskan interests from coastal elites and national political machines.
The problem is obvious: the man warning about outside influence *is* the outside influence. And the candidate he's supporting has built his entire political career on it.
How $28.9 million shaped Nebraska politics
Pete Ricketts didn't invent his political fortune. His family did.
Since 2010, the Ricketts family has poured $28.9 million into Nebraska politics. That's not just campaign contributions. That's a controlling interest in how Nebraska votes. Of every 11 dollars spent on any Nebraska political race over the last 12 years, one came from the Ricketts family.
What this means
"At this level of giving they may not own Nebraska politics but they seem to have a long-term lease." — Former Senator Bob Kerrey
That lease has been profitable. As governor, Ricketts delivered.
Campaign messaging about "local values" and "keeping Nebraska first" sounds good. The problem is asking what Ricketts actually did when he had the power to shape Nebraska's laws.
On wages, the answer is clear: he opposed them.
Ricketts didn't just fail to raise Nebraska's minimum wage. He actively fought against it. More damaging, under his governorship, the Legislature passed a law that caps how much the minimum wage can rise each year. For workers under 20, there's an even lower "youth wage" - below $15 an hour, capped until 2065.
That's below poverty for a family. This wasn't accidental. It was policy. Ricketts chose to oppose wage increases and to cap wage growth. That's what the money bought.
Here's how outside money actually works in politics: it doesn't just pay for ads. It shapes what politicians do once in office.
Ricketts' record shows the pattern clearly. Millions flowed in from the Ricketts family, corporate PACs (Walmart, Google, Microsoft), and now the national Republican establishment. In return, what did they get? A governor who fought wage increases, capped wage growth, and cut taxes for corporations while workers fell further behind.
Now, in 2026, that same machine is running again. National Republicans are investing heavily, Ted Cruz is flying in to campaign, and the message is the same: outside forces are threatening Nebraska.
The irony is lost on no one: the outside forces *are* the Ricketts machine.
We've documented elsewhere on this site what Nebraskans actually need to live: affordable housing, food, childcare, transportation. We know the gap between what workers earn and what they need to survive.
This page explains why that gap exists: because outside money shapes politicians' priorities, and those priorities aren't workers.
Ricketts' record proves it. Campaign talk about "local values" and "keeping Nebraska first" means nothing when your actual record is capping wages and cutting taxes for the wealthy.
The Senate race is a fork in the road. Dan Osborn, the nonpartisan candidate, is actually a Nebraska native—someone who's built his life here, not someone running on inherited wealth. He's built his campaign on a different premise: work for working people, not the money machine.
Ricketts is running on the same machine that's always worked: outside money, elite gatekeeping, and promises that never match the record.
The question for Nebraskans is simple: which story do you believe—the campaign talk about "local values," or the actual record of what Ricketts did when he had power?
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