Nebraska governor takes jabs at 'libtards,' champions conservative wins in campaign call

In a telephone town hall Tuesday night, Gov. Jim Pillen championed his conservative legislative priorities; reiterated his views on topics ranging from the state budget deficit, abortion, education, federal changes on nutrition standards and data centers; and took shots at his political opponents. During the one-hour call, the governor fielded questions submitted to his team from callers across Nebraska.

The governor promoted the call-in town hall on his campaign social media accounts. And through the call he reiterated the importance of voting in the 2026 midterm elections. Pillen is up for reelection this year, and though he hasn’t officially announced an intention to run, agribusinessman Charles Herbster could reignite a competitive challenge for Pillen’s campaign, similar to what occurred in the 2022 primary.

Without specifying which opponent he was talking about, Pillen said in the primary he’ll go “up against somebody that already started lying.”

The governor urged callers to participate in his campaign and to talk to friends and family members about his campaign ahead of the “reelections in May.” The May primary is widely considered the competitive race for governor, since the Republican Party has traditionally elected to keep its primary race closed to voters who aren’t registered with their party.

Ahead of taking questions, Pillen discussed his meetings with Nebraskans as he continues this week visiting towns across Nebraska following his State of the State speech. The governor said that people he’s talked to have reminded him that the state is “so conservative and so straight” that “I don’t think we can curl our hair anymore.”

Pillen also spent several instances during the telephone town hall taking jabs at people who criticize him, repeatedly using the term “libtard,” which is often seen as a disparaging description of someone who has left-leaning political views.

“Nebraskans are about faith, family and hard work. We’re about the American dream. I will tell you that if you sit and listen to the 10 keyboard warriors that are the libtards, if you listen to that, you would think the sky is falling down,” Pillen said.

Later in the call, Pillen used the term again when talking about how serving as Nebraska’s governor is an “incredible privilege.”

“I love the people in Nebraska, and you know, I don’t really give a damn what those libtards and these people want to criticize. Quite honestly, the more they criticize me and our team and my family… We’re doing great work. I’m only your governor by the strength of prayers.”

And in a third instance of using the term, Pillen mentioned demonstrators who had gathered at one of his in-person talks who voiced their opposition to the governor.

“We had some demonstrators in one of our places today that wear the red things – whatever. The libtards have lost their brains.”

The governor pushed back against talk surrounding the state’s estimated $471.5 million budget shortfall. The deficit ballooned late last year after the state’s economic forecasting board lowered projected revenues for the coming fiscal years.

State senators have acknowledged that balancing the budget this session is their top priority – even after spending considerable time last session making significant budget cuts. The governor introduced his budget plan last week, which focused much of the budget reductions impacting the Department of Health and Human Services, which could see a $22 million reduction for the current fiscal year and $130.4 million in the next, if state senators approve Pillen’s budget proposals.

“We got to get everybody to understand that – even though the press tries to say that we’re broke and we have a $400-some million hole – quite honestly, we have a budget prepared that fills it, and we’ll end up in the biennium being $600 million over, and we can have some property tax relief.”

The governor went on to paint a rosy picture of Nebraska’s economy, similar to his talking points in his State of the State speech. He pointed to the state having the highest credit rating ever in Nebraska history.

“Quite simply, we’ve got bushel baskets and bushel baskets of money,” Pillen said. “And when these people try to make it like we’re broke, it’s just crazy. It’s unacceptable.”

Pillen said he can provide more property tax relief if his team has more years to spend on the property tax issues.

“That’s why re-election is so critical,” Pillen said.

He told callers to reevaluate their state senators and examine if they’re spending time working on providing property tax relief. Pillen said he will narrow in his focus on broadening the sales tax base this session in order to provide more property tax relief but may need more years to deliver more substantial property tax change.

“We have to get that fixed. A really, really critical piece for tax policy [is a] broad-based sales tax, so that we can fund education to drop our property taxes to 40%. It’s a really, really important piece. We’ll get a small piece of it this year, but we need more time,” Pillen said.

The governor also celebrated his recent collaboration with the federal government. He pointed to Nebraska being the first state to initiate a federal school scholarship tax credit created in President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Big, or H.R. 1.

Pillen also pointed to his blossoming relationship with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Mehmet Oz, the administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Oz joined Pillen in a video news conference in December to discuss Nebraska being the first state to implement Medicaid work requirements.

The governor also discussed his priority in expanding Nebraska’s power capacity and “winning the battle” on producing more energy.

“We cannot let our foreign adversaries win,” Pillen said. “That’s a gigantic, gigantic piece for Nebraska. We are in the lead because we are public power. It’s really, really important that we win the power game. We win electricity. We extend our coal plants. We need to have nuclear power.”

Pillen pointed to several growing business demands, including data centers and aviation fuel plants that will need to lean on more energy sources in order to grow. Nebraska has already seen a boom in electric power usage, which has led to increasing electric bills for many Nebraskans.

The governor also hinted at taking another look at abortion legislation. Though it remains to be seen whether he’ll pitch a proposal in this legislative session, Pillen said he would like to see a stricter abortion law passed in Nebraska. In 2023, lawmakers narrowly voted to whittle down the window in which women can receive an abortion.

Currently, women cannot receive an abortion in Nebraska if they are more than 12 weeks pregnant, with exceptions for rape, incest or to save the mother’s life. But in his call Tuesday evening, he said Nebraska needs to pass a so-called “heartbeat” bill, legislation that restricts abortions once a separate heartbeat is detected in a woman’s pregnancy, which can be as early as six weeks.

“When I’m talking to people running for election – if you aren’t pro-life, if you don’t want to go after a heartbeat [bill], I’m not supporting you,” Pillen said. “That’s where we have to go.”

Pillen is expected to ramp up his campaign and his conservative talking points as May approaches. The primary election is May 12, and the general election will be Nov. 3.