Nebraska’s dueling abortion ballot measures have attracted nearly $25 million, with abortion rights supporters in the fundraising lead.
Protect Our Rights, the campaign behind initiative 439, has raised around $13.2 million. They want to expand abortion rights until fetal viability – usually around 24 weeks – in the constitution.
The other side of the issue has raised about $11.6 million. Protect Women and Children, the campaign behind initiative 434, wants to put Nebraska’s current 12-week ban in the constitution while allowing for future restrictions.
Those numbers are according to analysis by Ballotpedia, which pulled from campaign finance reports published by Nebraska’s Accountability and Disclosure Commission as of 8 a.m. CT on Thursday, Oct. 31.
Ryan Byrne watches ballot measures across the country as a managing editor at Ballotpedia. Generally, he said ballot measures with more money do better on election day – but Nebraska’s in a slightly different ballgame with dueling initiatives.
“So the dynamics are probably different,” Byrne said. “Competing measures are pretty unusual and pretty uncommon. So Nebraska is doing something different.”
Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and his mother, Marlene Ricketts have donated more than $5.1 million to Protect Women and Children. Members of the Peed family – who own Sandhills Global, Piedmontese Beef and the Casa Bovina restaurant in Lincoln – have given $2 million to the 12-week ballot campaign.
Both sides have been boosted by a wave of late contributions, including $1.5 million from Michael Bloomberg to Protect Our Rights in October. National nonprofits Hopewell Fund and New Venture Fund together chipped in more than $1.4 million on October 25.
Protect Women and Children also received support from the University of Nebraska Regents Rob Schafer and Jim Scheer and Tanya Storer, who is running to represent parts of Lincoln in the state legislature.
Byrne said both sides have done a lot of fundraising in the last push before the election, a crucial time for last-minute pitches to voters.
“You definitely saw a lot of investment come in those last couple weeks, which is not particularly unusual for ballot measures,” he said. “Donations will probably just keep coming right up until the end, and these last contributions are really important in the final days.”