Profile: Senate Candidate Dennis Macek

May 3, 2018, 6:45 a.m. ·

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A Lincoln man says his platform is the solution for the Republican Party and the country. We report on Dennis Macek, as we continue our Campaign Connection 2018 profiles of Nebraska’s U.S. Senate candidates.


A combination of love and anger led Dennis Frank Macek to run for U.S. Senate.


Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dennis Macek (Photo by Mike Tobias, NET News)


Other Resources

Macek for Senate web site

Macek for Senate Facebook

KETV "Chronicle" interview with Macek


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Larry Marvin (D)

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Frank Svoboda (D)

Deb Fischer (R)

Jack Heidel (R)

Jeffrey Stein (R)

Todd Watson (R)

(Note: Since Libertarian candidate Jim Schultz is uncontested we are not including him in our primary profiles, but plan to include him in our general election coverage.)


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Campaign Connection 2018 is the home for NET News coverage of the 2018 elections.

“I love everything I see. I love the trees. I love the environment. I love the people. I love the farms and it's being almost systematically wasted by global climate change,” he said. “There's also the matter of fear. I'm apprehensive about the future because of global climate change and because of our government's financial health being debilitated by the moment as we speak. There's also a matter of an undercurrent of anger. I'm angry about all that's happening be it politically, financially, environmentally, internationally, whatever way you can think of, I'm kind of angry about that and sometimes outright furious.”

Macek is a 77-year-old Milwaukee native with a wide-ranging academic and career path: a bachelor’s degree from Marquette, master’s from the University of Arizona and some doctoral work in English education from the University of Texas. He’s been a college teacher and government worker, but for most of his adult life he lived in central and west Texas, working as an air conditioning technician and published writer.

Macek moved to Lincoln for his wife’s job about five years ago, and soon entered the 2014 Senate race, running as an independent but failing to get enough signatures to be on the general election ballot.

This time he’s running as a Republican, the party he first registered with in 1962, saying that’s his natural political home. “I belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. I'm a conservative, that is proactive, pragmatic Republican. I belong to that same party. I'm conservative because I want to save.”

A 12-point platform, in order of importance, is the foundation of Macek’s campaign: Health and education, “the general welfare”; defense, including intelligence, counter-terrorism and the military; arresting global climate change; agriculture, including emergency and “climate adaptation” funds; rebuilding infrastructure; scientific research and innovation; running the federal government; arts; adjustments for displaced workers; relieving college student debt; paying on the national debt; and servicing the national debt.

“My platform is to foster and fight for advancing these national priorities,” Macek said, adding that the federal budget passed earlier this year was missing “reality” and “a realistic proportionate view of America's needs, America's role in the world and our financial health.”

Macek said this list defines his priorities for federal budgeting, and because it looks like it could come from either major party, he said this could help unite a divided country. “I'm a good cure for divisions. Vote for my platform. Alright, that'll cure a lot of divisions in a hurry.

“I want people to join with me in fostering and fighting for realistic proportionate government spending,” he added. “That's what I want the Republican Party to do.”

Macek said that was missing from the recently passed $1.3 trillion federal budget. He sees some good things in the Republican tax plan passed last year and “probably would have voted for it,” but wishes it had been thoroughly debated.

Macek gives fellow Republican Donald Trump positive points for his dealings with North Korea, but in general a “D minus” grade as president and calls the White House “barely functional.”

Macek called trade tariffs proposed by the White House “a bad decision” that will hurt Nebraska’s economy. “I'm not a free trade Republican, by any means. Nor for that matter, I bet, would Paul Ryan be a free trade Republican. I believe in bilateralism. I think our president does, too, but bilateralism that can be expanded.”

Macek says his personal views on abortion and same sex marriage are “irrelevant” because these are “not governmental issues,” and he has no problem with legalization of marijuana.

He would support a return to an assault weapons ban more extensive than what was in place a couple decades ago. “First place, I'm all for the Second Amendment. Second place, no one's got any business owning a bazooka, owning a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a howitzer for the front porch or any kind of military-grade assault weapons.”

Macek says there’s no need for a southern border wall, that the DACA program that gives rights and protections to individuals brought illegally to the U.S. as children should be restored and that the U.S. “does not have an infinite capacity for immigration.”

“I'm inclined to come up with a reasonable limit per annum and sometimes, it's going to have to vary from year to year to year, but we need limits on immigration,” Macek said. “And we should give preference to, if we can, people who enhance our society and our economy. But we also should allow people who don't stand much of a chance from where they come, such as a Central America, and they need to get a new start so we have to have room for the unskilled and the uneducated who want to come here and who want to contribute.”

Macek said he’s running a mostly digital campaign, with web and social media presence in addition to some campaign appearances, and it’s mostly self-financed. He hopes that will be enough get voters interested in his platform and pitch as a “proactive pragmatic conservative.”

“I'm trying to save the environment, our country's environment and for that matter, the world's environment because of global climate change. I'm trying to save our country's financial health. And I'm trying to save our role in the world in a realistic manner. So that's about the size of it.”