Love makes history again as Ricketts lays foundation for second run in 2026 • Nebraska Examiner

OMAHA — Making history has become a political habit for Preston Love Jr., the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska who is running against U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, a Republican incumbent.

In 2020, Love became the state's first Black candidate for U.S. Senate endorsed by a major political party after the Nebraska Democratic Party abandoned its candidate, Chris Janicek.

That year, Love became the first black Nebraskan to win a major party's nomination for the Senate. His opponent, Ricketts, is a two-term governor who was appointed to the Senate by his successor.

U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb.

Love also led Rev. Jesse Jackson's groundbreaking presidential campaign in the mid-1980s, a campaign that is credited with expanding the number of Americans who could accept him as president.

Love has made no secret of the steep climb he faces Tuesday against Ricketts, the political face of one of the most influential donor families in conservative politics in the country.

Love compared his upstart campaign to David searching for a stone with which to defeat Goliath. He acknowledged that his campaign is at least partly aimed at increasing voter turnout in other races.

Love wants to increase voter turnout

Love, who helped lead voter turnout efforts in North Omaha, said he wants his campaign to help energize poorer voters who too often lose hope in the value of the process.

He said it could make a difference in the U.S. House race in Nebraska's 2nd District between Democratic Sen. Tony Vargas and U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and in the presidential contest.

“I didn’t really choose the race,” Love told “Picking Corn,” the Nebraska Examiner’s political podcast. “I chose the time to run. If there were others, I wouldn’t run and support them.”

His campaign raised $236,000, spent $195,000 and has a cash balance of $41,000, campaign finance records show. Ricketts has raised $5.4 million, spent $4.2 million and has $1.2 million in cash.

A separate Pete Ricketts Victory Fund raised $4.5 million and spent $4.4 million, sending much of that money to national Republicans, political committees and Ricketts' Senate campaign.

Love received support early in the campaign through a few small television ad buys from an outside group connected to local progressives. He announced on Twitter or

Preston Love Jr., Democrat

Ricketts wants to win and win again

Ricketts is campaigning like an incumbent, knowing he represents a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats 2 to 1 and where unaffiliated voters make up about a quarter of the electorate.

He is considered the overwhelming favorite to serve in the final two years of former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse's term. Ricketts' spending appears aimed at laying the groundwork for a run for a six-year term in 2026.

Ricketts has run waves of television and radio commercials focused on national issues such as U.S. competition with China, national security and the fight against bureaucratic overreach in Washington, DC

This weekend, he and other members of Nebraska's congressional delegation are storming the state to boost Republican turnout statewide and help Republicans in key elections, including Bacon.

Ricketts has spent much of the campaign telling conservatives that he would block the worst spending impulses of President Joe Biden and his potential successor, Vice President Kamala Harris.

He also promised to be a reliable voice for the tax and regulatory cuts sought by former President Donald Trump. As governor, he kept a tight grip on the state's finances.

Ricketts has a record

Ricketts has largely ignored Love and focused on what he calls the Biden administration's missteps and the need for Republican leadership of the economy.

He said he still believes, as he did when he ran for governor, that governments benefit from his private sector experience with his father's company, which became TD Ameritrade.

Ricketts pointed to customer service-focused improvements in how quickly Nebraskans can access the Supplemental Nutrition Aid Program (SNAP), which he also pushed at the federal level.

“That’s actually what we did: we used our business experience to run the government more like a business, and we improved the level of service we provided,” Ricketts told the Examiner.

Ricketts emphasized national defense and said the Senate needed a tougher immigration bill than the bipartisan border bill proposed by U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma.

That bill, which the Border Patrol union called the strongest in a generation, died after Trump intervened. Trump and some of his supporters wanted to prevent Biden from winning on this issue.

Ricketts is no stranger to controversy. He has angered advocates for people in need and people with disabilities who say he cares more about the costs than the people.

He angered some local Latinos by sending members of the Nebraska State Patrol and Nebraska National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border to help Texas with enforcement problems there.

Some in the Nebraska Republican Party have questioned Ricketts' loyalty to Trump, even though he supported the former president when it became clear that Trump would win the GOP nomination.

However, rank-and-file Republicans did not criticize Ricketts' government spending on immigration, which is normally managed by the federal government. Governor Jim Pillen has continued border operations.

Love wants change at the top

Love, a longtime civil rights activist, criticized the consequences of one-party rule on the state. He argues that more competition for people's votes and votes would better serve Nebraska.

He said people need to not just worry about which party gains more from a public stance, but find a compromise policy approach that better solves people's problems.

But Love said Trump presents unique challenges.

“Trump has become a wedge in our country,” Love said. “So we no longer have the luxury of just having departments. …And when do we take a stand? Each of us. …It is now.”

As he recounted on the Examiner podcast, Love studied economics while playing football for coach Bob Devaney at the University of Nebraska and worked for IBM for over a decade.

He owned a computer store in Atlanta, where he said he met and joined luminaries of the civil rights movement. He still takes people from Nebraska on trips there to experience the past.

He said he would protect a woman's right to make her own reproductive health decisions and that he would protect the right to vote by passing a federal law named after the late civil rights activist John Lewis.

He said economic development needs to be broader and more inclusive, helping communities where private investments sometimes leave people to fend for themselves or to the whims of nonprofits.

He speaks openly about his past struggles with addiction and says it helps illustrate the sensitivities of his rehabilitation and treatment-focused approach to drugs, which he would like to see adopted.

abortion and more

Ricketts supported Initiative 434, a constitutional amendment that would ban abortions after the first trimester with some exceptions. Love supported Initiative 439, an abortion law amendment that would add to the Nebraska Constitution a right to abortion until the fetus is viable, with the timing to be determined by a treating physician.

Both candidates stressed the need to fix Congress's failed budget process, with Ricketts and Love saying the Senate needs to return to regular appropriations and clearer committee work.

Both said they supported U.S. military aid to Israel and Ukraine, although Love stressed the importance of doing more to ensure innocent Palestinian civilians are protected.

Ricketts said it is important for the U.S. to help its allies defend themselves without setting unreasonable limits. He said Israel needs full American support against Hamas.

“Hamas started a war, and wars are terrible,” Ricketts said on the podcast. “That’s why you don’t start wars.”

They both also supported the need to place a focus on improving crop insurance in the next farm bill, which Love said has taken too long for Congress to resolve.

Ricketts lost his first Senate race in 2006 to former U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., in what was then the most expensive Senate race in Nebraska history. Nelson beat him 64-36%.

Ricketts funded this campaign largely himself and later described his decision as a mistake. He has raised more money from supporters for his successful gubernatorial bid and 2024 campaign.

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