Nebraska First

12/31/2025

What is 44%? According to a recent survey conducted for Forward Nebraska, that’s the number of current Nebraska residents who plan to leave the state within the next two years. Who are they? Nebraskans ages 18 to 59 from across the state—people in school, employed, or actively looking for work.

That’s our current and future workforce! They are our consumers, entrepreneurs, and taxpayers. We can’t afford to lose them, yet the state has no real plan to keep them. If we cannot attract high-paying jobs, fix our broken tax system, and expand opportunities, people will start leaving. Soon.

Are 44% of 18 to 59-year-old Nebraskans going to leave? No. But many have already started looking for opportunities elsewhere, and the mere fact that they are even thinking about leaving should be a warning.

Governor Pillen keeps saying we don’t need to attract out-of-state businesses or pursue foreign markets for our commodities, and that we can grow from within. It’s as if he’s put a wall around the state and hung a “closed” sign. That’s lunacy.
Nebraska is losing opportunities, businesses, jobs, taxable income, and people to other states. Those are facts. Unless we change course and adopt a pro-growth approach, things will only get worse.

12/25/2025

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”— Psalm 33:12

At Christmas, we remember that faith built our nation, that hard work sustains it, and that freedom keeps it shining brightly.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas!

10/21/2025

As you might expect after President Trump's comments last week, I have received hundreds of messages from friends in the beef industry. While I understand the desire to lower beef prices for consumers, we must not do so at the expense of the American cattle industry.

I have shared my concerns—and those I've received from across the country—with President Trump and members of his administration. By working together, I am confident we can find a solution that benefits both consumers and producers. I remain committed to supporting the American cattle industry now and in the future.

10/21/2025

Falls City, NE – Charles W. Herbster has expressed his support for two election-focused constitutional amendment petitions. Today, Advocates for All Nebraskans announced the launch of signature-gathering efforts for these amendments: one to re-establish a Winner-Take-All system for Presidential Elections and another to implement Hand Count Ballots for all elections in Nebraska. If successful, these amendments would appear on the November 3, 2026, General Election Ballot.

“I have always supported Nebraska returning to the same Winner-Take-All system currently used by 48 other states in our Republic,” said Charles W. Herbster. “This is something we should have passed prior to the 2024 election. Governor Pillen and his team led people to believe he would get it done. They failed. Now, it’s up to the people.”

“Hand counting our ballots is a straightforward solution to concerns about machine counting and election integrity. The majority of democracies around the world—including our neighbors in Canada and across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom—manual count ballots by hand.”

For 124 years, Nebraska awarded all Electoral College votes to the statewide popular vote winner. In 1991, led by Democrat Governor Ben Nelson, Nebraska changed the law to split three of its five votes by Congressional District. This shift has resulted in increased outside influence and money entering Nebraska, particularly in the Second Congressional District. These outside interests not only seek to sway the presidential election but also impact down-ballot races.

“Splitting our Electoral College votes dilutes the will of Nebraskans and invites out-of-state liberal donors into our local elections. I strongly encourage Nebraskans to sign both petitions. Let the voters decide in November of 2026,” added Herbster.

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09/11/2025

NEVER FORGET

09/05/2025

Congratulations to the Cherry County Board of Adjustments for standing up to the green new deal special interests.

Wind farm controversy latest - After almost three hours of discussion, the Cherry County Board of Adjustment voted three to two in favor of upholding the Cherry County zoning administrator’s investigation findings that the conditional use permit for proposed wind farm BSH Kilgore expired, and the company has not met multiple conditions tied to the project.

08/22/2025

Over the last few years, I have had dozens of people reach out to me asking how they can fight back against the Green New Deal special interests littering our landscape with wind turbines and massive solar panel farms. We have worked with many local elected officials, grassroots groups, and citizens to fight back against the well-funded wind/solar energy lobby. We have had many successes and a few disappointments along the way.

The Green New Deal lobby is powerful, and here in Nebraska, they have spent a lot of money supporting politicians—from the Governor's mansion to our county boards—who have supported their projects over the interests of local landowners. Thankfully, we now have a President who does not cave to the special interests. I wouldn't either!

I knew this action was coming, and it is finally here! Secretary Brooke Rollins announced yesterday that taxpayer funds will not be used to support building wind or solar farms on productive farmland. This action reverses the policies previously established under the Obama and Biden Administrations.

Nebraskans may be surprised, but foreign energy companies own more land in our state than any other foreign-owned interests. We cannot allow millions of acres of farm and ranchland to be destroyed by the ugly, ineffective, and liberal agenda-driven projects. Our farmland is precious. Protecting the land and the beautiful Nebraska landscape is vital to our future.

Thank you, President Donald J. Trump and Secretary Rollins, for protecting the world's breadbasket!

07/16/2025

Until our elected leaders recognize how unfair and unreasonable our valuation based property tax system is to Nebraska home and landowners, nothing will ever change. The Revenue Committee refused to even consider the valuation component.

This must change or we must change the people in leadership to Save Nebraska!

"Property taxes effectively require homeowners to pay rent to the government," said Governor Ron DeSantis.

Governor DeSantis gets IT! He understands the issue facing Florida home and landowners is created when the system is based on increasing and taxing the value of property in the years after purchase. He understands that property owners are not, in most cases, making more money from the property or seeing monetary gains; yet, the government is forcing them to pay more based on those unrealized gains.

This is the same problem we have here in Nebraska, only it’s much worse. According to WalletHub, Nebraskans pay the 9th-highest property taxes in the country. Florida, under Governor DeSantis, ranks 28th on the WalletHub list. Our problem here is much worse than Florida’s, and yet almost every Nebraska politician denies that we have a valuation problem, while Florida works to address the issue.

Right now, all Nebraska property owners are paying rent to our government entities, and our "landlords" have been increasing our rent every few years for the past several decades. These increases have been massive for many property owners. For some, too much.

Our valuation-based property tax system is broken, and until we have elected officials willing to stand up for taxpayers, our state is headed for big trouble. We are not near a crisis; we are in one, and now is the time for real leadership to save Nebraska.

04/21/2025

Tomorrow afternoon, with LB 89 (the Stand with Women Act) the Nebraska Legislature can protect opportunities for women in athletics and keep girls and women safe in restrooms and locker rooms. For well over 63% of Nebraskans, this is common sense legislation.

It is a scientific fact that men have a distinct physical advantage over women when it comes to athletics. This advantage comes through genetics at birth.

Allowing boys to compete as girls in girls athletic events is completely unfair to the girls in those events. It would take opportunities away from girls and hurt their ability to earn scholarships and sponsorships in the future. These opportunities are so important to women that, in 1972, Congress enacted Title IX to assure women had equal access to opportunity in sports.

If the Nebraska Legislature fails to protect women and girls on the field of competition, and in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms, our state representatives are telling women we don't care.

I strongly encourage everyone to contact their State Senators and respectfully ask them to vote FOR LB 89. Protect opportunities for women and girls. We Stand with Women!

Contact your State Senator: https://nebraskalegislature.gov/senators/senator_find.php

01/23/2025

It’s a “SOFT” NO. This is what we heard from several of our Nebraska Legislators today during debate for a rule change intended to hold them accountable for their votes – or lack of voting.

Today, the Legislature did manage to pass a rule change that will, at least, begin to hold state senators who use Present-Not Voting (PNV) as a tool to avoid accountability to their constituents. This rule change ONLY applies to the Final Reading round. On Final Reading for both cloture and final passage, any PNV vote will now be appropriately counted and recorded as a NO vote.

What about Rounds One and Two? Why, if our senators recognize being Present-Not Voting on the final round is a NO, would they allow it during the first two rounds where most bills are killed? This shows an intentional effort to deceive constituents. This is wrong and must stop!

The most prevalent argument made against this small rule change today is the use of Present-Not Voting as a “SOFT NO.” That’s right, multiple senators, including at least one Republican, spoke on the floor that they needed Present-Not Voting left in the rules because they use it as a “SOFT NO.”

If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, it is…a duck! If PNV is a “SOFT NO”, and PNV is equivalent to a NO vote and can be used to kill legislation…it is a NO vote!

In the end, the rule change passed today doesn’t amount to much. On the final vote on any legislation that makes it to the final round, each state senator will be recorded with a YES, NO, or notice of conflict of interest. It still does not address the problem of bills being killed in rounds one and two by senators not willing to take a position on the issue. We must fix this!

Thank you to Senator Kathleen Kauth and the 30 other senators who acknowledge we have a problem and at least took a baby step toward correcting it. The exercise also made those opposed admit they were afraid to be honest with their constituents.

01/22/2025

Yesterday, the Rules Committee of the Nebraska Legislature met to decide which of the two-dozen proposed rule changes they would advance to the body for consideration. There are several proposed rules changes supported by Nebraska First, but there is one that makes the most sense and would have the most meaningful impact.

Rule Change #22 is similar to a Nebraska First proposal originally shared before the 2023 session. If adopted, this proposal would change rules on achieving a two-thirds vote on 𝗔𝗟𝗟 cloture motions from two-thirds of the full body (all 49 members) to two-thirds of members present AND voting either YES or NO on the motion. Those members absent or Present-Not Voting would not count toward calculating what is needed to achieve the two-thirds threshold.

As an example. If one member were absent, and six members were Present-Not Voting on a cloture motion, it would take 28 YES (28 of 42 voting members) votes instead of the current 33 YES votes needed.

We emphasis 𝗔𝗟𝗟 cloture votes. There is some talk of amending this rule change to only cover the last round of voting. This still allows all the negatives of the current cloture rule during the critical first and second rounds of voting.

Under the current system, a Senator or multiple Senators can kill a bill by simply skipping out of work or by refusing to cast a YES or NO vote. No matter who is missing or refusing to cast a vote, two-thirds is always two-thirds of all 49 members. It would be extreme, but a group of Senators could completely shut down a session by simply not showing up or being Present-Not Voting on every piece of legislation.

This is NOT what Nebraskans expect from their elected officials. Most Nebraskans do not know this is happening in their Unicameral! During meetings and forums over the past several years, Nebraskans are in disbelief that their elected members can cast a “NO” vote by simply not voting YES OR NO.

The biggest complaint we have seen from this rule change is not knowing how many votes are needed to pass each cloture motion until after the votes have been cast. We are confident there are enough people who can do simple math in the Legislature to make this work. Would it make vote counting before invoking cloture more difficult? Yes, but that is no excuse for not doing what is right and fair to the citizens of Nebraska.

Nebraska First does not believe it is too much to ask our Senators to show up for work and cast a YES or NO vote on every cloture motion. No legislation should be killed by Senators not showing up or not voting. Nebraskans deserve better from their elected officials.

01/15/2025

Yesterday I talked about how unfair it was for women who are forced to compete against men in sports. Also yesterday, the House Committee on Health Care and Financial Services held hearings on the Importance of Protecting Female Athletics and Title IX.

If you haven't seen the testimony, I encourage you to watch the clip linked below. Riley Gaines completely took on radical Democrats who try to minimize the impact when men are allowed to compete in women’s sports on women's athletics as a whole and Title IX.

Riley Gaines is an incredible ambassador for women and fairness. I was proud to help sponsor her recent visit to La Vista. I will continue supporting her efforts. Riley will take it from here. 🎥Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXRxYEH-nbc