Now, Ricketts is seeking a favor in return: On Tuesday, the multi-millionaire and GOP megadonor announced he intends to seek his successor’s appointment to become the state’s next U.S. senator to replace outgoing Republican Ben Sasse, who announced earlier this year he was leaving to become the next president of the University of Florida.
In a statement Tuesday, Ricketts—who was term-limited out of his seat earlier this year—formally announced his intention to make the jump to Congress more than one decade after his first failed Senate bid in 2006.
“This decision is the result of many hours of prayer and family discussions,” Ricketts said. “For me, it came down to a single question: How can I best serve the people of Nebraska and advance our conservative values? In Congress, we’re in a fight for the future of our nation, and it’s a fight we have to win. We must cut taxes, strengthen public safety and our national security, and protect our most sacred freedoms.”
“Over the last eight years, we’ve shown the world the real impact conservative leadership can have,” he added. “I want to continue delivering results for our state, fighting to reduce taxes, grow our economy, defend our liberties, and run government more like a business. I’ll never stop working to get the job done, and that’s why I’m asking for Governor-elect Pillen’s consideration.”
Pillen has not yet commented on whether Ricketts—one of the Pillen campaign’s biggest donors in a race in which he defeated a Trump-backed opponent by just three points—will in fact be his nominee for the post once Sasse officially leaves office on January 8. It was also open to speculation early on whether Ricketts was the default pick to replace Sasse, with some noting the rightward tilt the state Republican party had taken in recent years.
“Whoever is appointing Sasse’s replacement will have to choose whether to pick someone loyal to—or who is, in fact—Ricketts while that window is open, or to pick someone more broadly acceptable to where the party has gone in recent years,” Geoff Lorenz, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, told Newsweek earlier this year. “There are good reasons for both strategies.”
But to many Nebraskans, the deal already seems done.
Even before the January endorsement, Pillen was considered to be Ricketts’ choice to replace him in office, a claim echoed by other GOP candidates in the field after the announcement. In his final months as governor, Ricketts increasingly sought to nationalize his message, raising further questions about his political future.
Others sought to push him into it. Shortly after Sasse’s resignation, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham flew to Nebraska to prop up Ricketts as his potential replacement, saying he hoped Ricketts could take his brand of leadership to Washington.
“Think about it,” said Graham at the time.
But others called it a natural evolution of Ricketts’ longstanding role in Republican politics: as a monetary kingmaker whose family wealth has allowed him and his associates to succeed in politics. As former Nebraska State Senator Adam Morfeld wrote on Twitter after Ricketts’ announcement: “No one else need apply.”
“Gov. Ricketts bought this U.S. Senate seat,” Nebraska Democratic Party chairwoman Jane Kleeb said in a statement. “He tried to win against Sen. Ben Nelson with his parents’ money in 2006, and the voters rejected him two-to-one. Now, in the state’s most obvious pay-to-play case, Ricketts will be able to call himself a senator.”
“Congratulations to Senator Governor Pete Ricketts!” Ari Kohen, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln tweeted. “You’re finally getting the Senate seat your parents tried to buy for you back in 2006!”
Ricketts’ campaign office denied any connection between his bid for the Senate and his support for Pillen, saying his endorsement came because he believed Pillen was the best candidate for the job.
“I have never discussed a Senate appointment with Governor-elect Pillen,” Ricketts told Newsweek in a statement. “I endorsed him to be Nebraska’s next governor because I believed—and still believe—that he was the best, most conservative candidate for the job. I supported Jim with no expectation of anything but principled, conservative leadership and good governance.
“I know he’ll conduct a thorough and fair-minded process for appointing our next U.S. senator. I believe my record of delivering historic tax relief, leading Nebraska through difficult challenges, and fighting for our conservative values makes me a strong candidate. Having earned the support of Nebraska voters by wide margins in two successive statewide elections, I know I can continue to represent their values and interests.”
Update 12/7/22, 9:35 a.m. ET: This story was updated with a statement from Ricketts.
