Harassment allegation against senator derails antisemitism bill in Nebraska Legislature
By Fred Knapp 
, Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media
Feb. 6, 2026, 4 p.m. ·
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Legislation to combat antisemitism was derailed by charges of sexual harassment in the Legislature Friday.
It was the second round of debate on a proposal to require schools and colleges to combat anti-semitism. Friday’s discussion at one point centered on the definition of anti-semitism.
The bill incorporates a definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Association. Critics say that definition blurs the line between anti-Jewish prejudice, on the one hand, and criticism of Israel, on the other.
Sen. Megan Hunt offered an amendment to instead use a definition known as the Jerusalem Declaration, which she said avoids that problem.
“This definition that I have proposed avoids the problem of conflating anti-semitism with criticism of the State of Israel in terms of their treatment of their Palestinian neighbors,” she said.
Sen. Brian Hardin, chief sponsor of the antisemitism bill, said the definition he preferred has been adopted by 47 countries and 37 states.
“I appreciate Senator Hunt's desire to see if there's a way to improve the bill," he said. "The challenge is that the Jerusalem Declaration has never been accepted by a single body of government on the Earth."
Later in the debate, Hunt walked across the floor of the legislative chamber and talked to Hardin by one of the columns supporting the balcony. Back on the microphone, Hunt said she had asked him if he could support her amendment.
“He said, ‘No, I'm not going to support it. It's a non starter. You're a non starter.’ And he looked me in the eyes, and he goes, ‘You are really, really wet.’ And I said, ‘Excuse me?’ And he said, ‘When you bring the thunder, you got to get ready to get really wet.’ And I would like to ask him if he'd like to come to the floor, if he's in the habit of saying things like that to women,” Hunt said.
Hardin had left the floor by that point. But Hunt’s colleagues reacted immediately. Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh said senators could still advance Hardin’s bill, but only if he got someone else to sponsor it.
“We can move this forward, but we are not moving forward a bill about protections against discrimination, with the person who introduced it sexually harassing our colleague while she is trying to have a work conversation with him in front of the pages on the floor of this Legislature,” she said.
The legislative pages, who do jobs like bringing papers or coffee to senators at their desks, sit near where Hunt and Hardin’s conversation took place.
Sen. Margo Juarez praised the way Hunt said she had reacted to Hardin.
“She probably handled it far more professional than I would have ever handled it, because if that had been said to me, everybody in this place would have heard my response, because I would have been so mad,” Juarez said.
And Sen. George Dungan called on male senators to speak up about what he said is a longstanding history of sexism, misogyny, and sexual harassment in the Capitol.
“The words that were said were not just inappropriate, but completely awful, and we have had an overtone this session of dealing with workplace harassment,” he said.
Last month, senators were on the verge of debating whether or not to expel then Sen. Dan McKeon, who was accused of groping a staff. McKeon resigned just before that debate was going to take place.
For his part, Hardin remained off the legislative floor while Hunt and her colleagues were criticizing him. But in a brief interview in the hallway outside the chamber, Hardin denied saying Hunt was “wet.”
“I did not say that at all. I said that ‘You call down the thunder regarding the context of the bill, and when it rains it pours.’ And she says, ‘You're saying that I'm going to get wet.’ I said, ‘When it rains it pours.’ And she twisted that into something else, because that's her M.O."
M.O. is short for modus operandi, Latin for describing someone’s habitual way of doing things.
As the end of morning debate approached, Speaker John Arch pulled the antisemitism bill off the agenda. Arch later said that at Hardin’s request, he would not schedule the bill for further debate this year.
Hardin said he requested the bill be dropped because around the country, opponents are asking that such legislation include definitions of sex and gender. He said that risked reopening debate on language the Legislature has already approved.
“Basically… we would be re-legislating again what has already been set and so the Jewish bill becomes a trans bill,” he said.
Hunt said she had not been trying to derail the bill.
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