‘RINO’ Senator Gets Bad News As State GOP Backs MAGA Challenger

The incumbent Senator and former Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts (R-NE) is staring down the proverbial barrel of a full-blown party revolt after being outed as a “RINO” or Republican In Name Only by former President Donald Trump in 2022. According to reports released Saturday, Nebraska’s State Central Committee of the Republican Party spurned Ricketts and instead endorsed former Air Force Lt. Col. John Glen Weaver.

According to The Nebraska Examiner, the Committee declined to make any endorsement of the other two federal races for 2024 for the seats of Sen. Deb Fischer and Rep. Mike Flood. The state GOP chairman Eric Underwood provided no comment to the outlet regarding the endorsement process within the party. He replied to reporters’ requests via text message that his team required more time to finish a press release. As of this report, no release has been posted to the party’s website or X.

The Examiner wrote that according to internal vote counts, Weaver won the most support in the party’s internal polls with 103 of 144 possible votes. He told the press that he was the only Senate candidate to seek the party’s endorsement.

“People here are passionate about saving our country,” Weaver said regarding the meeting. “It’s not like it’s a bunch of crazy people who got together in a room.”

Ricketts when questioned as to why he didn’t seek the party’s endorsement answered, “No, I’d rather not talk about that.”

Honored and humbled to be endorsed by the @NEGOP for the U.S. Senate. Eric Underwood (NEGOP Chairman) is in the photo with me. America First. @NE_Examiner @KETV @FoxNews @NEWSMAX @CNN pic.twitter.com/oOIYF8jrPi

— John Glen Weaver (@JGWeaverNE) January 28, 2024

As reported by KLKN-TV in 2022, Ricketts has alternately seen support and scorn from former President Donald Trump even dating back to his gubernatorial days in 2016. Trump notably referred to him as a “RINO” alongside former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and then-Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.

In 2016, he excoriated the Ricketts family for funding campaigns against him, writing, “I hear the Rickets [sic] family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending dollars against me.  They better be careful, they have a lot to hide. It prompted the question—what does Donald Trump think the Ricketts family is hiding?”

He was later appointed to the Advisory Committee for Trade and Negotiations in 2018, KLKN wrote, and as recently as October 2022 was said to be “terrific” as governor by Trump.

Following his endorsement by the Nebraska GOP Weaver wrote, “Here’s what I said I’d do in the U.S. Senate after being endorsed by 71% of the @NEGOP  1) close the border, send in the military, put guns on the border 2) no CRs 3) no more funding to Ukraine. 4) bring the 900 troops in Syria home that have been there for 10 years.”