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Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is one step closer to serving a full six-year term in the Senate after winning his reappointment in red-leaning Nebraska's primary.
Ricketts, who was appointed in 2023 to replace Ben Sasse, and who won a special election in 2024 to complete the final two years of Sasse's term, bested four rivals in the Republican primary on Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.
Ricketts now heads to this fall's midterm elections, where he will face off in what is expected to be a competitive Senate race against independent candidate Dan Osborn, the industrial mechanic and military veteran who scared Republican Sen. Deb Fischer into her 2024 re-election bid.
Tuesday's primaries were held with less than six months until the election midterm electionswhen Republicans intend to maintain their slim majorities in the House and Senate, and Democrats hope to ride a blue wave to escape the political desert.
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Independent candidate Dan Osborn is running for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska this year for the second consecutive time. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)
Although the Nebraska Democratic Party supports Osborn in the general election, community college instructor Cindy Burbank and pastor Bill Forbes faced off for the Democratic nomination in the primary.
Both candidates filed last-minute requests, and some Nebraska Democrats alleged that Forbes jumped into the race to get a Democrat on the fall ballot and divert votes from Osborn to help Ricketts.
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The Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska (Getty Images)
Forbes denied the claims.
Burbank says he jumped into the race to keep Forbes off the ballot in November.
Ricketts is the eldest son of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, and, along with other family members, is a co-owner of the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball.
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Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts is running this year to serve a full six-year term in the U.S. Senate. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Ricketts won election in 2014 and re-election in 2018 as governor of Nebraska. A week after ending his second term, he was appointed to the United States Senate by his successor as governor, Republican Jim Pillen.
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Top nonpartisan political hurdles rate Nebraska's Senate general election matchup as likely Republican.
The Republican Party currently controls the Senate with a 53-47 majority.
