Legislature set to debate expelling Sen. Dan McKeon
By Fred Knapp 
, Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media
Jan. 12, 2026, 11 a.m. ·
The Nebraska Legislature is headed toward debate Tuesday on expelling Sen. Dan McKeon over allegations of sexual harassment.
Tuesday’s debate will follow a public hearing Monday before the Legislature’s Executive Board. McKeon has been accused by a legislative staffer of making a sexually suggestive joke and touching her buttocks outside her clothing at a party last May.
McKeon’s lawyer, Perry Pirsch, said Monday McKeon had simply made a “bad pun” by suggesting that the staffer and her husband get a “good Hawaiian lei” on vacation and patted her on the back.
“He sincerely regrets an ill-advised pun intended for levity and a pat on the back that has become part of a dispute that has now unfortunately consumed and distracted the work of this body,” Pirsch said.
Tara Paulson, an attorney hired by the Legislature to investigate, said the incident violated the Legislature’s sexual harassment policy.
“The evidence in my investigation found, by Sen. McKeon’s own admissions, that he made a sexually oriented joke and engaged in unwelcome physical contact with (the) complainant,” Paulson said.
Pirsch noted that the resolution calling for McKeon’s expulsion calls the incident part of a “pattern of behavior” that has produced other “confidential” complaints against him.
“If those allegations are part of the basis for Sen. McKeon's expulsion tomorrow, the Legislature is effectively being asked to vote on matters (about which) Senator McKeon and I have not been provided evidence, cannot meaningfully attest and cannot rebut. This is not an adjudicative process. It's literally not much better than a witch hunt,” he said.
Pirsch said McKeon, an agribusinessman and National Guard veteran who represents all or part of seven largely-rural central Nebraska counties, is a good representative.
“The way that Senator McKeon connects with people -- perhaps not everybody in this body, but certainly the voters in District 41 that put him into office -- is his use of humor, his non-sophistication. He's not formally educated. His background is in ag, he served his country honorably, and I think in that sense, Senator McKeon is ideally representative of his district,” Pirsch said.
But Paulson questioned whether McKeon’s humor meant he was not taking the accusations against him seriously. She talked about interviewing him for her investigation.
“It was puzzling to me that Senator McKeon made a lot of jokes in our interview session, and I understand that that could be someone's unease or nervousness in that process, but I did find it troubling,” she said.
Pirsch argued expelling McKeon would deny the will of the voters and set a dangerous precedent.
“Admittedly, the easiest way in this chamber is the vote that ends the controversy with expulsion tomorrow. Expulsion promises a quick fix. It feels like certainty, but it is not certainty. It is finality without safeguards that would make the finality legitimate,” he said.
Although McKeon sat in the hearing room and observed part of the hearing, Pirsch and Paulson were the only people to testify. However senators on the Executive Board did ask several pointed questions, mostly directed to Pirsch.
Speaker John Arch asked about a press release from Pirsch’s office advising his supporters “to protect Senator McKeon, reject political correctness and cancel culture and support the will of the District 41 voters.”
“The phrase here – ‘to reject political correctness and cancel culture’ -- Do you believe that the actions of the exec board is the result of political correctness and cancel culture?” Arch asked.
“I believe absolutely that this is a political body and that the actions of the body reflect the political climate and concern of politics, yes,” replied Pirsch.
An apology McKeon sent to the staffer who complained about him also came under scrutiny.
Pirsch described it like this.
“Sen. McKeon, as a conservative Catholic Christian, forgives her for what he believes are misstatements or promoting a misunderstanding, but he has always, as he noted in his apology letter, requested that he did make mistakes and that he would like her forgiveness as well,” Pirsch said.
But Sen. Eliot Bostar noted that soon after McKeon sent that, Sen. Ben Hansen told him his apology was not accepted. McKeon then sent an email to another staffer saying he had heard his accuser was difficult to work with. The sexual harassment policy prohibits retaliating against an accuser.
“Why should we not believe that that is the work of a retaliatory statement, in light of receiving news that his letter was not received favorably?” Bostar asked.
“In fairness, Senator, the members of this body are deciding a political question, and they are free to decide it however they choose,” Pirsch said.
“That’s absolutely true,” Bostar interjected.
It would take two-thirds of the Legislature, or 33 votes, to expel McKeon. If that happens, it would be the first expulsion in the history of the Nebraska Legislature.
Tuesday’s debate will be televised on Nebraska Public Media’s World television channel and streamed online beginning at 10 CT.
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