As a torrent of political ads flooded Nebraska’s airwaves in the month leading up to Election Day, a new political action committee joined the fray, with a familiar pocketbook behind it.

With about $4 million in contributions from Marlene Ricketts, Common Sense Nebraska sent money to two University of Nebraska regents, who sponsored ads opposing a ballot measure that would’ve expanded abortion access. At least one ad featured a slate of Husker athletes.

Marlene and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, her son, had already spent millions supporting a competing ballot measure, hoping to keep the state’s stricter 12-week abortion ban in place. 

The 2024 election – and especially the abortion fight – made it clear: Sen. Ricketts may have jumped from the Nebraska governor’s office to the nation’s capital, but he and his family are still making their mark on their home state’s politics.

The family, even in incomplete records, spent far more than in any previous election. Their $8.8 million in publicly available campaign contributions this cycle accounted for more than 9% of all political giving in Nebraska, though some contributions made in the final days aren’t yet reported. 

It was far from the first election cycle that the family spent big in Nebraska, and not the first time they bankrolled a ballot measure. But it was the first time they did so with Pete Ricketts in federal office.

This recent spending jump means the Ricketts family has now spent a total of at least $18.6 million on Nebraska political campaigns and causes in the dozen years when Pete Ricketts was running for governor, serving as governor and serving in the U.S. Senate.

"The numbers startle,” said the former governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, noting the family was free to donate. “At this level of giving … they may not own Nebraska politics but they seem to have a long-term lease."

Meanwhile, filings show that Ricketts’ successor, Gov. Jim Pillen, spread around comparatively little of his own money. However, Pillen confirmed to the Flatwater Free Press this week that he’s tied to two PACs that spent nearly $700,000 supporting and opposing candidates for the Nebraska Legislature. 

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Joe Ricketts, family patriarch and co-founder of what became TD Ameritrade, has long been active in Nebraska politics. But the family’s political spending increased dramatically when Pete Ricketts ran for governor in 2014, a previous Flatwater Free Press analysis of Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission records found.

The family blew by their own record for in-state spending in the 2023-24 cycle, and upped their federal spending as well.

The vast majority of the family’s money this cycle came from Marlene Ricketts, Joe’s wife, and went to the abortion ballot measure and Common Sense Nebraska. 

Sen. Ricketts himself spent at least $2.2 million, with half going to the ballot measure. That’s  less than he spent in the 2022 election cycle, when he gave heavily to Pillen’s campaign to succeed him. Shortly after taking office, Pillen appointed Ricketts to fill a vacated U.S. Senate seat.

But Sen. Ricketts still gave thousands to candidates for offices ranging from the State Board of Education to the Mayor of Fremont. He sent at least roughly $298,000 to 18 candidates for the Nebraska Legislature. He funded a PAC that spent at least $182,000 supporting Sen. Rob Dover, a Ricketts appointee, and opposing Republican challenger Jeanne Reigle. 

The PAC spent another $48,000 opposing Dave Wordekemper, a union-backed Republican candidate for Legislature who beat another Republican, Roxie Kracl, for a seat previously held by a Democrat.

This cycle marked the most money Sen. Ricketts has given directly to legislative candidates, though in previous years he and his parents gave large sums to the Nebraska Republican Party, which sent money to candidates. The Ricketts family no longer gives to the state party.

Ricketts continues to lend support both financially, and also with fundraising events, door-knocking and endorsements, said Jessica Flanagain, his longtime political adviser.

“He really believes and often says conservative leadership matters, and it matters in people’s lives and it matters in how the state moves forward,” she said. “And he’s in a position where that can be more than just words.”

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Gov. Pillen’s giving looks very different from Ricketts’ in public filings. But the current governor is still influencing Nebraska political races – especially races for the state’s legislative branch – via two PACs pooling money from deep-pocketed donors.

Pillen confirmed Wednesday that he’s “very engaged” in the PACs, though neither show any direct contributions from the governor.

One of these groups, Nebraska United, reported spending at least $472,000 opposing political candidates running against Republicans for the Legislature.

The other group, We Are Nebraska, reported spending at least $190,000 as of late October supporting Republicans. 

“I believe that we need to get people involved and get in the game,” Pillen said when asked about the PACs Wednesday, after other sources told the Flatwater Free Press that the governor was deeply involved in both. “So we’ve been working very, very hard across the state of Nebraska to say, ‘Look, it’s time to step up instead of complaining and yelling and screaming at each other, let’s step up and make a difference. ... So, we’re making sure that we can have an impact on getting like-minded people elected, recruiting and getting great people to stand up and serve.”

Pillen, the founder of Pillen Family Farms, one of the country’s largest pork producers, has spent far less of his own money on campaign contributions than the Ricketts family.

In the four years Pillen has been running for or serving as governor, he and his family have given about $1.2 million in public filings. Almost all went to his own gubernatorial campaign, though Pillen did give $100,000 supporting an unsuccessful effort to preserve legislation that would have funded private school scholarships. 

And, according to one former state senator, Pillen has previously criticized Pete Ricketts for Ricketts’ financial involvement in that state senator’s reelection race.

Former Sen. Jerry Johnson, a Republican and now mayor of Wahoo, was ousted during Ricketts’ 2016 bid to rid the Legislature of senators he deemed insufficiently conservative. Ricketts gave $13,000 to support his Republican challenger.

Johnson told the Flatwater Free Press that Pillen, during a visit to Wahoo with the Nebraska National Guard, told him that he believes what Ricketts did in Johnson’s race was “unethical.”

“He said it to me as ‘What he’s done to you,’ but I think it’s broader than that,” Johnson said. 

Neither Flanagain nor Pillen’s team responded to questions about Johnson’s account.

Pillen did endorse in at least two Republican-on-Republican legislative races this year, landing on the opposite side from Ricketts – and the losing side – each time. Pillen endorsed Reigle, not Dover. And he endorsed Mike Albrecht, who lost to Glen Meyer. 

Neither of the Pillen-associated PACs’ filings show any spending in those races, as they appeared to steer clear of races where two Republicans were running against one another.

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When Pillen appointed Ricketts to the U.S. Senate in 2023, Ricketts instantly became one of its wealthiest members. His family’s spending at the federal level increased as he served in his new position and ran for re-election.

In the 2021-22 cycle, then-Gov. Ricketts spent about $886,000 at the federal level, according to a Flatwater Free Press analysis of Federal Election Commission records. But in 2023-24, he gave more than $3.2 million in support of a slate of Republican candidates and groups as of mid-October, including Nebraska U.S. Reps. Don Bacon and Mike Flood, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the Republican National Committee.

His Senate campaign committee and joint fundraising committee together spent another $4.1 million.

His parents Joe and Marlene, known Republican mega donors, also spent more at the federal level than ever before. As of late October, they had already given a combined $28.9 million in this election cycle alone, making them the country’s 36th biggest donors, according to The Washington Post. 

More than $9 million of Marlene’s money went to ESAFund, which spent at least $2.6 million on ads to support Sen. Deb Fischer against a surprisingly competitive challenge from nonpartisan candidate Dan Osborn.

As governor, Ricketts appeared to use his money to support legislative candidates who backed his agenda. Whether he can use his money to gain influence in the U.S. Senate remains to be seen.

There’s more money in federal races, experts said, and unlike in Nebraska there are limits on individual contributions.

“At the state level, I think the money does talk,” said Matthew Foster, professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs. “At the federal level, it kind of washes out.”

Gaining influence in the Senate, said former Nebraska Sens. Kerrey and Chuck Hagel, is about building relationships, understanding the rules and earning your colleagues’ respect. 

“I think he is a genuine human being who cares about Nebraska,” Kerrey, a Democrat, said of Ricketts. “He’s conservative to right-wing on his conclusions. I think if people like him – which I think that they will – I think he’s using that wealth to advance causes that many of them are going to agree with.”

Kerrey was surprised by the Ricketts family’s continued spending back home. He couldn’t think of any similar examples of such spending by a U.S. senator or his family.

“It’s consistent, it’s continual, it’s relentless,” Kerrey said. “It’s like a flood, it doesn’t stop. And they have impact.”

Hagel, a Republican, said Ricketts’ spending on the abortion ballot measure merely signaled continued involvement in an issue he cared about while governor.

“I don’t think that’s new, except that Ricketts obviously has more wealth than almost any senator does,” he said. “And then that gives him more opportunities and ability if he wants to – and his family – to spend a lot more money on races and try to influence things.”

Ricketts’ influence in Nebraska could help amass grassroots support to fend off primary challengers, Foster said. It’s also possible, he added, that Ricketts is eyeing a future beyond the Senate.

“It will be interesting to see how he sees this: As a stepping stone, or as just the end point,” he said.

In a statement, Ricketts indicated no specific political goals beyond his next election.

“I am running for reelection in 2026 to continue serving Nebraskans in the Senate where I am working to advance conservative principles, make government work better for them, and restore a foreign policy of peace through strength that keeps us safe,” he said. “Fulfilling that promise, and being a good husband and father, are my only ambitions.”

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The Ricketts family, in the decade leading up to 2023, contributed to several efforts that changed Nebraska law, including requiring voters to show photo ID and reinstating the death penalty. But the family spent far more than the total of those efforts combined on a single, hot-button issue this election: the abortion fight.

The Protect Our Rights campaign, which aimed to expand access to abortion, launched its petition drive in the fall of 2023. The ballot measure, Initiative 439, would have put a right to abortion up until “fetal viability” in the state Constitution, bringing the state closer to what was longstanding state law before senators passed a stricter 12-week ban in 2023.

Its major contributors included Planned Parenthood. Its largest individual donor: Billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who gave at least $1.5 million. 

Abortion opponents then formed Protect Women and Children. Its ballot measure, Initiative 434, fought to keep the state’s stricter ban. 

The Ricketts family were early supporters of Protect Women and Children, and the faucet stayed on. They gave at least $5.1 million to the campaign, though $1.5 million was later returned to Marlene.

Money from Common Sense Nebraska, the PAC heavily funded by Marlene Ricketts, found its way to the cause as well, as the Lincoln Journal Star first reported.

The PAC gave a $667,009 contribution to the committee for University of Nebraska Regent Rob Schafer, who was up for reelection. His committee reported advertising-related spending in that same amount on the same day, both to the media-placement arm of Republican consulting firm Axiom Strategies and as an in-kind contribution to Protect Women and Children.

Ryan Horn, a Republican strategist, said it appears that Schafer’s committee used the money  to run ads for the ballot measure campaign, likely because ad space is significantly cheaper for a candidate. 

“If it was broadcast media that they bought with this, they were able to get probably twice as much television and radio,” he said, adding that gaming rules to save money on ads was a strategy in federal politics this election, too.

Another regent up for reelection, Jim Scheer, also sponsored ads. Scheer, who ran unopposed, received $3.3 million from Common Sense Nebraska, and records show he contributed almost as much in-kind in advertising and media placement to the ballot measure campaign.

On the opposite side, records show that Protect Our Rights adopted a similar strategy. Campaign Manager Allie Berry said they first tried, unsuccessfully, to get TV stations to “close the loophole.” When that failed, two candidate committees each contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars in TV ads in-kind.

“After we saw what they did, we did the same,” Berry said in a text message.

Voters ultimately passed 434, siding with the stricter abortion ban, while 439 narrowly failed with 49% of the vote.

“The battle between 434 and 439 was a watershed moment,” said Flanagain, a partner at Axiom Strategies and the lead strategist on 434. She called it a “chance to maintain common sense restrictions.”

Measures to protect abortion access were on ballots in nine other states, and seven of those passed. Without 434, Flanagain said, the effort to expand abortion access “absolutely would’ve passed” here, too.

Berry, the campaign manager for the abortion-access measure, agreed.

“I am confident that we would’ve won if it wasn’t for the confusion,” she said. “And ultimately, the confusion campaign was fueled by money that the Ricketts family gave to Protect Women and Children” and other entities involved.

Flanagain contended that, in all three successful Ricketts-backed ballot initiatives, the senator and his family have given likeminded Nebraska voters a voice.

“As far as I can tell, without the Ricketts family we would have lost the pro-life ballot measure,” she said. “There would be no voter ID, and Ernie Chambers would have abolished the death penalty.”

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