Charles Herbster, who lost to Gov. Jim Pillen in 2022, says Pillen’s ‘shortcomings make it hard to say no,’ will decide closer to new year
By Juan Salinas II | Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — The Republican primary race for Nebraska governor is already heating up, and it might soon get serious.
Trump donor and multi-state agribusinessman Charles Herbster has made more pointed statements about Gov. Jim Pillen in recent weeks on social media.
Herbster’s posts have shifted in tone from talking about national politics and President Donald Trump, with some references to state politics, to more direct criticism of Pillen as he continues mulling a 2026 rematch bid for governor.
Starting this month, Herbster has criticized Pillen for not listening to the business community, for not selling the state aggressively enough to business leaders elsewhere and for resisting voter-approved medical cannabis, the legalization of which Herbster now says should be respected.
“Our governor should be the state’s leading salesman,” Herbster wrote one post. “To say we should not focus on attracting new businesses is beyond reckless — it is not leadership.”
In another social media post, Herbster said, “Governor Jim Pillen has done everything he can to delay and dismantle the voter-enacted medical cannabis statutes.”
Herbster also has started reviving his 2022 campaign staple of saying he wants to “Make Nebraska Great Again” and sounds more and more like someone running for governor.
Asked this week whether his statements should be read as telegraphing a 2026 bid, he told the Examiner, “Governor Pillen’s shortcomings make it hard to say no.” Herbster said his decision on whether to run would come closer to the new year.
“We are not on a path to success,” Herbster said. “Our governor seems stubbornly convinced he alone has all the answers and continues to double down on failure. He can tout some social-issue wins — which I wholeheartedly support — but Nebraskans are worried about the economy.”
If Herbster gets in, 2026 would be a rematch between the two candidates who received the most votes in the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary. That race included former State Sen. Brett Lindstrom of Omaha, who is now running for the open seat in Nebraska’s Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District. Lindstrom finished third in that 2022 GOP primary.
Pillen cruised to general election victory against then-Democratic State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue.
That 2022 contest was one of the most expensive gubernatorial races in Nebraska history, with $29 million flowing into it. Herbster largely self-funded his campaign, while Pillen raised large sums and also benefitted from outside help by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts.
Herbster during that 2022 primary earned the endorsement of President Donald Trump, while Pillen was backed by Ricketts. Pillen appointed Ricketts to the U.S. Senate shortly after becoming governor. Ricketts, R-Neb., won a special election in November to serve out the final two years of former GOP U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse’s term. Ricketts is currently in a heated race against former Omaha labor leader Dan Osborn, a registered nonpartisan.
Herbster spent weeks of that campaign denying the allegations of eight women who alleged in a 2022 Nebraska Examiner article that Herbster had groped them. All eight accounts were corroborated either by witnesses or people the women told what happened immediately afterward. But the reasons for his loss were more complex than the national political narrative.
Several GOP operatives have expected Pillen to draw at least one primary challenger, partly because of national and local polling numbers that indicate he could be vulnerable. Among the criticisms they and others have said he is likely to face are about increased state spending, the effectiveness of state investments in property tax relief and his tax and budget proposals.
But Pillen is an incumbent, and Nebraska rarely changes horses midstream. The last incumbent Republican to lose the Governor’s Mansion was Gov. Kay Orr, who lost to Democrat Ben Nelson in 1990. Pillen had more than $3 million in cash on hand last year, state campaign finance reports show. Many expect him to raise more than $10 million.
The governor announced his reelection bid in May. His campaign video focused on controversies familiar to those who followed his 2022 campaign, including support for tougher immigration enforcement and other culture-war issues. Pillen, in his end of session speech to state lawmakers, touted the passage of bills that limit high school and college sports participation to students’ sex at birth, banning lab-grown meat and lowering income tax rates.
Herbster said Nebraskans are with Pillen on some of those issues, but he said more needs to be done about core issues that have long been central for statewide campaigns — particularly job creation and reducing property taxes.
People, Herbster said, are “worried about property taxes.” He said “they’re worried about making ends meet.”
Pillen’s campaign declined to comment Friday on Herbster’s potential bid.
Pillen, whose family owns a major hog operation based in Columbus, has prioritized property tax relief, including investing $1 billion into a state effort to fund more of special education costs and a baseline amount of state aid to K-12 schools.
The governor said last week that he wants to address property taxes again soon. But state lawmakers face a larger projected deficit this upcoming session than the one senators just filled this spring.
Nebraska Democrats have hinted at an announcement of a gubernatorial candidate as early as this week. Some Democratic political observers have speculated that a state senator might run. Others have made noise about a possible third-party or nonpartisan candidate.
Republicans outnumber Democrats in Nebraska by roughly 2-to-1, with about 22% registered either nonpartisan or with a third party. The GOP primary for governor is May 12. The general election is Nov. 3.