DRAIN THE SWAMP

In 2010, the Supreme Court made what I believe is the worst Supreme Court ruling of all time. In Citizens United v. FEC (2010), the court ruled that corporations and other outside groups can raise and spend an unlimited amount of money in our elections – nearly $4.5 billion in the 2024 election alone. This has allowed money to flood our elections and politics, giving wealthy donors, corporations, and other special interest groups infinitely more power over everyday people like you and me.

I won’t sugarcoat it – overturning Citizens United is a monumental task that will require either an amendment to our Constitution or a new U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but I believe this is a fight worth taking on. I will be a leading voice in the movement to pass a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United.

Our representatives are privy to insider information that the people are not – they attend nonpublic hearings and learn privileged information about the direction of government long before we the public do. With this insider information they are able to make incredibly profitable trades. Politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Markwayne Mullin have made MILLIONS in a single day trading on our dime.  

To truly restore public trust we need an outright ban on individual stock trading by Members of Congress and the executive branch, and if you break the law, you go to jail.

My opponent, Pete Ricketts – who made $10 million in the stock market in just one month last year – has introduced legislation to ban stock trading with extremely weak penalties. It allows members of Congress to keep the stocks they already have and still sell their stocks as long as they “give some notice.” Penalties are only assessed on the profits of the trade rather than the entire value of the stock. There are plenty of stronger proposals in Congress than what Ricketts is proposing, including the HONEST Act (S.1498), which would ban both buying AND selling of stocks, require members to fully divest all individual stock holdings by the start of their next term, and cover a broader range of assets. I’ll support it and push for even stronger legislation.

Under current law, 501(c)(4) non-profit groups do not have to disclose their donors to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). This has allowed massive corporations and billionaires to flood our elections with billions of dollars that we do not know the origin of. In 2024, nearly $2 billion of dark money was pumped into our elections.

The DISCLOSE Act (S.512) would make it so that 501(c)(4) groups must disclose expenditures over $10,000 to the FEC. I’ll support it. Additionally, I am committed to closing dark money loopholes that allow powerful people to anonymously spend unlimited money in our elections.

Too many of our politicians from both parties are bought and paid for by the corporations that bankroll their campaigns. How can our elected officials be trusted to lower prescription drug costs if they are funded by Big Pharma? How can we trust them to do what’s best for our country and our troops if they are taking money from defense contractors? The list goes on and on. My opponent has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from the very corporations that are screwing us over every day. 

If I can’t relate the money I receive back to working people, I don’t want it. That’s why I have pledged not to accept any corporate PAC money to fund this campaign. Mine is a campaign powered by small-dollar donations from real people and I want to keep it that way so that you know when I am in the U.S. Senate, I’ll work for you.

After a member of Congress leaves their elected position, they often become lobbyists and use their remaining political influence and political connections to benefit their employers, which are often corporations. This process in our politics is called the “revolving door.” This creates a system where a group of elites not only makes up our government, but runs our government as well.

There are currently mandatory “cool-off” periods which bar former members of Congress from becoming lobbyists for a certain period of time after leaving elected office. For the House it's a year. For the Senate, it’s two years. I’ll support closing the revolving door entirely, but at the very least I support doubling, tripling, or even quadrupling the cool-off periods.

I do have concerns about term limits being done in a way that empowers lobbyists to take advantage of more newly elected lawmakers, but ultimately I think this is the best way to rid our political system of career politicians.

I support term limits for both houses of government: two terms in the Senate and six terms in the House.

I also support calls for enacting 18-year term limits for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gerrymandering is a stain on our elections, and both parties are guilty of it.

Here's how it works: after every census, state lawmakers redraw the lines of legislative and congressional districts. Though it may seem preposterous, legislators essentially draw their own districts. If a politician knows a certain neighborhood is overwhelmingly Republican or overwhelmingly Democratic, they can draw the line to include or exclude those voters to ensure their own reelection. The result is districts that look like broken puzzle pieces, designed to guarantee outcomes before a single vote is cast. Politicians pick their voters instead of voters picking their politicians.

Voters don't like cheating. Regardless if it’s a traditionally red or blue states, when voters have been given the chance to fix this at the ballot box, they have taken it.

I support requiring every state to establish truly independent redistricting commissions made up of ordinary citizens, not politicians or lobbyists. Maps should require approval from Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike so no single party can railroad the process. The entire process should be open to the public, with hearings, public comment, and full transparency on the data being used to draw the lines.

Politicians should never be allowed to draw their own maps. Period.

The same monopoly repair scam John Deere runs on farmers is happening inside our military, except the bill goes to taxpayers. Defense contractors lock our service members out of repairing their own equipment, then charge a fortune to do it themselves. The Trump administration and bipartisan majorities in both chambers of Congress supported ending this. Defense contractor lobbyists killed it in a backroom deal anyway. I will fight to pass bipartisan legislation requiring contractors to give our troops the tools and information they need to fix their own equipment, and stop the contractor stranglehold on our military.

Americans are tired of watching leaders who have clearly lost their mental faculties hold on to power for decades. Very often these politicians show concerning signs of failing health for years before anything changes. Freezing on camera. Rambling incoherently in interviews. Being managed and propped up by staff who are effectively running the show while an elected official holds the title. Both Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of this, and voters in both parties have had enough.

This is not about any one person. Not all individuals age the same and plenty of people serve effectively well into their later years. But when the stakes are this high, we cannot rely on politicians to police themselves or their colleagues. They won't do it.

The numbers are clear: more than 8 in 10 Americans support age limits for Congress, including majorities of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. This is one of the least controversial ideas in American politics. The only people who seem to oppose it are the ones it would affect.

I support a serious national conversation about setting reasonable maximum age limits for members of Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Supreme Court. I acknowledge this would require a constitutional amendment, which is a high bar. But the Constitution already sets minimum age requirements for these offices. The Founders understood that age matters. They just couldn't have imagined people serving into their 80s and 90s in the modern era. It is time to finish what they started.

Politicians should not be allowed to cling to power long after they are capable of wielding it responsibly. The people they serve deserve better.

Rich and powerful elites have manipulated society with impunity for far too long. There is no greater example of this than the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Administrations from both major parties failed to fully investigate Epstein and the monsters in his orbit. The victims were let down. The powerful were protected. That has to end.

My opponent voted AGAINST releasing the Epstein files. When asked what he thought about them, he replied that investigating one of the most notorious sex traffickers in history was a low priority.

Nebraska deserves a Senator who fights for victims, not one who protects the rich and powerful people who hurt them. Exposing child predators should never be a low priority, and a real leader wouldn't need a pressure campaign to do the right thing.

We need a full release of the Epstein files. Redact the names of victims. Protect the survivors. If someone hurt and traumatized children, that is one of the worst crimes a human being can commit. The predators and enablers of those crimes must be held accountable and be punished to the fullest extent of the law.