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Four candidates are in the race for Nebraska’s top seat in the Nov. 3 general election. The gubernatorial race winner will face several pressing issues between the short time they take office and when the Legislature convenes in January.
Primarily, Nebraska’s next governor will inherit a budget shortfall. As state revenue lags, 2023 tax cuts go into effect and federal support drops, state officials and legislators have been sharply cutting state budgets to make up the difference.
Changes to federal food assistance and Medicaid have affected food and healthcare access for many in Nebraska following the passage of the 2025 Republican tax and spending bill. Nebraska was the first state to implement Medicaid work requirements for most able-bodied adults, requiring proof of employment, education or training to be enrolled.
The war with Iran has also ratcheted up prices, notability hitting farm and ranch pocketbooks with higher diesel and fertilizer prices. It’s dealt a blow to Nebraska’s agricultural economy, which has already struggled in the last year. Trade disputes have shut down some of Nebraska’s biggest markets, causing 2025’s record crop yields to sit in storage instead of being sold to the state’s regular buyers.
Nebraska consistently ranks high among states with the highest property tax rates, which residents point to as another affordability and economic development issue. Attempts at property tax relief have been made for years without substantial changes. As the Nebraska Legislature attempts to stay within its budget, some state senators have pledged not to raise taxes, shooting down various efforts to plug the gap.
Trust in government is also a hot topic for Nebraska voters, who have expressed disappointment following changes to and slow rollout of voter-approved ballot measures on paid sick leave, minimum wage increases and medical marijuana. Additionally, Nebraska’s 2026 petition efforts have been hit with fraud allegations following the discovery of an effort by circulators to fake signatures.
Republican Gov. Jim Pillen seeking another term
Pork producer Jim Pillen is seeking a second term as Nebraska’s governor. Pillen has made property tax relief, agriculture and business growth, and conservative values his main priorities for the office.
“We're not short-term thinkers, so when we made the commitment [to run], there wasn’t a shadow of a doubt – we're in it for eight years, because it takes time to really have impact,” he said in a September interview with Nebraska Public Media News.
He often cites his philosophy of “running government like a business” when it comes to tax and spending cuts.
“We have to keep making things better for our customers. If we don't, we go out of business,” Pillen said. “That's a culture that's really, really important to me – we improve our services, we improve throughput, we decrease our costs.”
In 2023, Pillen signed into law income tax reductions that will lower the state individual and business tax rates to 3.99% by 2027.
However, his methods for balancing those tax cuts with adequate state funding have drawn criticism. Nebraska is currently facing a budget deficit following several months of revenue shortfalls. Pillen has said he will not reverse tax cuts to fill the growing budget hole. Instead, he argues agency spending cuts will allow the state government to become more efficient while providing true tax cuts – not just a cost shift.
“We have to have the courage to say no. We have to have the courage to stop spending and continue to shrink government,” he said.
Pillen pointed to strides in education and health services among his biggest first-term accomplishments, highlighting a reduction to wait times for developmental disability services, increased funding for K-12 schools and investments into community colleges.
“I’m four words: kids, taxes, agriculture, values,” he said.
He said supporting Nebraska’s agriculture industry is key to further developing the state economically.
“We're the holy grail when we talk about corn, water, to be able to raise cattle, and food security – then fuel now because of our ethanol [industry] growing,” Pillen said.
Pillen has also closely aligned himself with President Donald Trump, which earned him a spot on the prestigious Council of Governors.
Pillen supported federal immigration crackdowns by converting a work ethic camp in McCook into a detention center, which has been referred to as the “Cornhusker Clink.”
He said his relationships with Trump and other federal officials have allowed Nebraska to secure record amounts of federal funding.
“In three and a half years, we've increased funding to the state of Nebraska $3.5 billion,” he said. “Relationships matter, because if you don't show up, you have no chance to be at the table.”
Pillen’s desire to draw more federal funding has put him in the crosshairs of State Auditor Mike Foley. The governor used the justification of wanting to capture more federal funds when he defended his administration’s $2.5 million no-bid emergency contract to a business owner Pillen knew.
More policies Pillen has mentioned supporting include expanded private and parochial school vouchers to expand school choice, eliminating Nebraska’s split electoral vote and preserving public power and water access.
Pillen has criticized his main opponent, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lynne Walz, as being too liberal for Nebraska. When an internal poll by Walz’s campaign was released in May that showed Walz polling two percentage points lower than Pillen, the governor’s camp said Walz’s campaign “continues to align itself with socialist progressives who don’t understand the Nebraska values of life, agriculture, affordability, and freedom.”
Pillen’s running mate is current Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly, who had a long public service career as a prosecuting attorney before beginning the role.
Before becoming governor, Pillen served on the University of Nebraska’s Board of Regents for a decade. He was also a board member for youth mentorship organization TeamMates.
In 1993, he started Pillen Family Farms, which his children now lead. He holds a bachelor’s in animal science from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a doctorate of veterinary medicine from Kansas State. While at UNL, he played football under Coach Tom Osborne. He and his wife, Suzanne, have four children and eight grandchildren.
Lynne Walz leans into bipartisan messaging
Former state Sen. Lynne Walz said she is running as a Democrat to restore trust in government, promote bipartisan collaboration and work on longstanding issues with Nebraska’s economy.
“I do not like the atmosphere that we have been in the last few years – of division and pointing fingers at each other,” she said. “It has not gotten us too far, and I think that our budget clearly shows that we've been focusing on issues that divide us.”
The former state senator has most recently scrutinized Pillen for appointing two of his state government allies to the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board ahead of a pivotal October meeting. There, members will give an economic outlook for the state budget less than a week before Election Day.
Walz said Nebraskans expect better from public officials.
“Nebraskans deserve the truth about the state of their budget – not appointees who will project inaccurate numbers to make the governor look good before the election in November,” she said.
Walz grew up on a farm north of Fremont. After high school, she worked for an organization that serves people with developmental disabilities. She later went back to school at Midland Lutheran College, became a teacher and earned her real estate license.
She served in the Nebraska Legislature for two terms. The traditionally Republican district voted in the Democratic Walz in 2016 — the same year President Donald Trump won the election by over 30 points. She chaired the Nebraska Legislature’s Education Committee and served on the Health and Human Services and Natural Resource committees.
Walz said affordability for Nebraskans would be her first priority.
“When it comes to childcare, accessibility, healthcare, groceries, gas – some of those things we can address directly at the state level, and some of those are things that we just have to try to promote the best policy for,” Walz said.
But, she said, that can’t happen without fixing the state’s budget deficit.
“I'll tell you what I'm not going to do: I've heard from Nebraskans across the state that a 5% cut across the board is not the way to handle a budget,” she said. “We're going to bring in experts from across the spectrum – whether it's healthcare, education, business, agriculture, transportation, all areas of our state – and have those experts help us decide where we should make cuts that are most effective, most efficient, and will not hurt services.”
Walz said bringing in more revenue and economic value can help fill budget gaps. Her comments come as a wave of employees leave Pillen’s Department of Economic Development.
“That would be an immediate action that we would take – aggressively fund and restore funding to our economic development department, so they can do the job that they need to do,” Walz said. “When it comes to agriculture, we know that tariffs are hurting our farmers, and we want to do everything that we can to open up existing markets and new markets that will make farming profitable again for our farmers and ranchers.”
She said supporting Nebraska’s universities and colleges will also lend to the state’s growth. Walz said she would like to continue her legislative work promoting public school funding, educational opportunities and teacher staffing.
On property tax, Walz said the state's school-funding formula – called TEEOSA – should be reevaluated to drive more income tax dollars back into communities, but she is open to all ideas.
“We could have had property tax relief legislation passed many times while I was in the Legislature those eight years. We had plenty of property tax solutions, but no political will to get it done,” she said. “If it's intentional and responsible, makes sense and doesn't hurt services, we're going to get it passed.”
She said these goals can be accomplished by working with individual state senators and across party lines.
“It helps us make the best decisions that we can for Nebraska as a state to understand their communities and their challenges,” she said. “What they need is really important, and to be able to work across the aisle to get things done is really important as well.”
Her running mate is Humboldt farmer and agribusiness leader Ben Steffen. He has served in multiple local offices and on statewide boards.
Walz and her husband Chris have three children and eight grandchildren.
Rick Beard emphasizes hemp, marijuana revenues
Food and wine business owner Rick Beard is running on the Legal Marijuana NOW party’s ticket, offering a platform built around cannabis legalization. He believes that could build new state revenue sources.
Beard grew up in Omaha and attended Burke High School. He has owned and consulted for businesses in the food and wine industry in California and in Nebraska. After moving back to Omaha, Beard started a catering company and works with a nonprofit that provides education on urban food production.
In 2016, Beard and his wife began growing licensed cannabis in northern California.
“We saw the good side and the bad side of cannabis legislation in California – the struggles that counties and the state went through getting it implemented,” he said. “Unfortunately, our county was a county that revoked 750 licenses after they had given them out – and after they'd made tax revenue – and after the cannabis business had basically taken the county out of the red and into the black for the first time in 11 years.”
Beard said that experience – and helping others navigate legal cannabis regulations – led him into politics.
He said his third-party run is about more than cannabis legislation.
“I realized that so many other things could be tied to cannabis and could be tied to the money,” Beard said in a September interview with Nebraska Public Media News. “The campaign shifted gears from actually running cannabis as the forefront of it to actually getting money out of our politics – getting PAC money, getting special interests and corporate money out of our politics, because that looks like it's what's holding the whole program up.”
Nebraskans voted on two ballot measures legalizing medical marijuana in 2024, but implementation was tied up in court battles for nearly two years. In September 2026, a court ruled that state officials would be required to move forward with regulatory actions.
But Nebraska’s Medical Cannabis Commission decided this week that it won’t hold an important hearing for updated regulations until October, meaning Pillen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers, who have opposed medical cannabis, won’t consider proposed procedures until after the November election.
Beard said revenue from cannabis could boost economic development in Nebraska and provide a solution to the state’s budget woes. He claims sales of cannabis and taxation of the product could produce $300 million-$400 million in new state revenue.
He said the program should be run by the state to keep tax revenue in Nebraska.
“That way we don't have to license out-of-state entities. We can operate it in state and avoid bad players, cartel, and corporations from out of state taking profits that belong to Nebraska,” he said.
Beard also said growing hemp could complement Nebraska’s existing crop infrastructure – both with direct sales and value-added products.
“We also want to promote an industrial hemp industry, which is completely different from medical cannabis,” he said. “We're talking about building supplies, animal feed, bedding for animals, textiles – construction products such as hempcrete, hemp blocks, hemp flooring, hemp roofing.
And, he said, that doesn’t mean replacing corn.
“[Hemp is] something that could complement [corn] as a rotational crop, and provide an entirely new industry for rural Nebraska manufacturing jobs – new green energy jobs, farming, processing, all kinds of stuff,” he said.
But that comes as a looming federal ban on hemp products is set to take effect in December.
Marijuana usage has surpassed alcohol usage – especially among younger people – which Beard said could, in part, contribute to Nebraska’s “brain drain” problem.
“I think that cannabis policy and the potential for arrest or persecution because of cannabis use is a huge reason why young people leave this state for opportunity in other states,” Beard said. “I think that's something that we really need to address, along with better-paying jobs and maybe some incentives for young people to be in school here – maybe some housing incentives to help incentivize young people to stay.”
As a third-party candidate, Beard says his independence from traditional party funding hints at how he would lead Nebraska.
“I'm going to work for Nebraskans and not for corporate donations or PAC donations or requirements of large corporations that funded me,” he said.
Beard’s running mate is Keenya “Ruby” Barnes, a civic and community engagement organizer and Resident Commissioner for the Omaha Housing Authority.
Lindstrom running under new Nebraska party ticket
Former state senator and finance professional Brett Lindstrom is running as a member of Nebraska’s newly formed America First party. His goals include stabilizing the state’s budget and economy while promoting a collaborative approach to government, even when people personally disagree.
“It doesn't mean you have to make people enemies,” Lindstrom said. “I don't think the vast majority of people – and certainly Nebraskans – don't subscribe to that.”
This is Lindstrom’s second attempt at a gubernatorial run. He faced Pillen and several other Republicans in the 2022 governor’s race. He finished third behind Pillen and runner-up agribusinessman Charles Herbster.
Lindstrom served as a state senator representing Omaha from 2015 to 2023. He chaired the Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee and the Tribal Relations Committee, and served as vice chairman of the Revenue Committee and Retirement Systems Committee.
He said the state priorities for addressing property tax relief and the budget shortfall should include keeping Legislature-directed spending stable and building the state’s cash reserve emergency fund. He also proposes gradually moving agricultural property from a market-based valuation system toward one based on the income the land can produce.
“Residential, commercial, and ag will be treated the same once you have different numbers of the taxable value, and that eliminates those [tax] spikes,” he said.
He said creating an infrastructure stability fund could help offset potential losses to counties as the state changes how valuations work.
His plan would also change the state’s school-funding formula, TEEOSA, with the goal of lowering the amount local districts must raise through property tax.
Lindstrom said he disagrees with Pillen’s current approach, saying sales tax and spending cuts are simple answers that don’t fix a complicated problem.
“Everybody wants a silver bullet, but the silver bullet requires somebody to lose, right?” he said.
He said Nebraska needs to work on taxes to pull revenue into the state and grow Nebraska industry.
“Value-added ag, those trade partners that we have globally – we have several different sectors that are anchors. Financial services, logistics, national security – those are the big drivers,” he said. “Small business is the backbone of that economy, but we also have to have those different sectors driving revenues into the state to allow us to grow to a higher level and at a quicker pace.”
His other priorities include building broadband internet access across the state and helping young people start businesses by connecting them with mentors and investors.
Lindstrom originally planned to run as an independent candidate, but joined the America First party after the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office found petition circulators – hired by multiple campaigns – turned in fraudulent signatures. Lindstrom said he had no knowledge of the fraud, which caused his campaign to fall short of the number of signatures needed to get on the ballot.
“My criteria with America First was that I just want to continue to run as if I was running by petition,” he said.
Lindstrom said he left the Republican party over concerns about political polarization and party-line thinking.
“It felt more like a loyalty test versus adhering to the principles of the platforms. Lower taxes, less government – that type of thing,” he said.
Lindstrom acknowledged that running as a third-party candidate presents challenges but said he is glad to show Nebraskans that politics doesn’t have to be so divisive.
“I'm not playing that game. My chess piece is off the board,” he said. “I just decided I'm going to remove my piece and do something different, and that's what this is.”
Lindtrom’s pick for lieutenant governor is Mike Picard, Navy veteran and director of Omaha’s ENVY Volleyball Club.
Lindstrom has worked in wealth management for over 20 years. He graduated from Millard West High School and went on to earn his degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he played quarterback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Lindstrom has served on multiple nonprofit boards and as an Omaha Chamber of Commerce public policy advisor. He also enjoys coaching youth athletics.
He and his wife, Leigh, have three children.
Important election dates and reminders
Nebraska’s general election is Tuesday, Nov. 3. Most county election offices begin sending early voting ballots in September.
Voters can cast their ballots early, in person at their respective county election office starting Monday, Oct. 5. Voting in person at county election offices will end Monday, Nov. 2. All early voting ballots are due back to county election offices by the close of polls on election day. Ballots received after the polls close will not be accepted.
Polls will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Central Time on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Voters can locate their polling place online at Nebraska’s VoterCheck system. There, voters can also verify that their voter registration information is up to date and preview their ballot once those are finalized by county election offices.
There are two voting registration deadlines ahead of the general election. Friday, Oct. 16 is the final day Nebraskans can update their voter registration information or register to vote online, by mail, at the DMV, via personal agent or via deputy registrar. Friday, Oct. 23 is the final day Nebraskans can update their voter registration or register to vote in person at their respective county election offices.
Read Nebraska Public Media News’ election-related coverage on our Campaign Connection page.