Taking On Billionaire Politics, One Voter at a Time

You put such a scare into the establishment that they had to spend eight figures trying to tank your campaign down the stretch, which is something that no one would have anticipated. Everyone thinks the Republicans are going to have to spend zero dollars holding a Senate seat in Ruby Red, Nebraska. And then I want to say they had to spend $13 million to bring your numbers down when polls showed you tying or beating the incumbent. And they spent that money on ads saying you were drum roll, please. A secret Democrat. I think that that, you know, is like the most effective attack you could level in a place like Nebraska. Yep. Yeah, they did. And, you know, they're at it again. My opponent Ricketts Pete Ricketts is already spent $90,000 on radio ad buys. And I know he's got TV points reserved and it's the same message, though. They'll spend another $50 million trying to paint me out to be somebody I'm not. The facts are I've been a registered both my wife and I actually have been registered independents from the time I can vote. I've never understood why I have to accept a set of values and reject another set to be a part of a party. But I think really the the secret sauce going out, you know, we did 200 town halls and I learned a lot from the people of Nebraska. We're hopefully we'll do another 250. We're just going to go out and meet people where they are, where they live, where they work, where they pray and celebrate and really learn from them and continually learning from them. And it's really just about how I'm able to, I suppose, mess with them. Right. And to understand them and they can understand me. And I and I like to call it paycheck populism. You know, they I was doing an exit interview and they said, you ran this really strong economic populist campaign. And I go, I go, I did. I don't I don't really know what that means. Well, what part of the economy? It's this this huge, broad entity. And specifically what part of it? I don't know. But what I do know is I was able to relate to people based off of our paychecks. I get a paycheck every every week. I know how much comes in and I know how much goes out and I know how much policy influences my paycheck. And it's becoming increasingly difficult to live off my same paycheck that it was four or five years ago. And that's because, you know, inflation, health care, I mean, you name it, the subject, there's a there's a good chance you could relate it back to your paycheck and how policy influences that. And tariffs now, I mean, everything is going up so quickly. I'm feeling the squeeze. And most of the people that I talk to on a daily basis are also feeling that same squeeze. And they know because I tell everybody and I'll tell it, I'll tell your audience, too, that's something I'm sure you already know, that less than two percent of our elected officials in both the House and Senate come from the working class or the wage earning class or blue car, however you want to say it. And it's been that way in our country from the very beginning. So you're right that the folks who are who are in D.C. were always something of like the economic elite. But it's much more extreme now than it used to be. Even I think like a majority of members of Congress are millionaires, which was not the case even, I think, in like, let's say, the 90s. It's just gotten much, much more egregious. You know, I think that your campaign of the mechanic versus the millionaire is going to be very resonant. And when you talk about feeling the pinch or the squeeze, it's going to be tough for Pete Ricketts to say that he feels the squeeze because, you know, he's from like a billionaire family and is, you know, like well beyond those concerns. And I'm not someone who's like going to take some of the task for what family they're born into. But it certainly makes it much, much harder for him to relate to the average Nebraskan. That's so true. You know, I like to say Ricketts doesn't care if the local public pool closes down because he's got 10 of them. Right. You know, and that's something that I like to use because I grew up in the local public pool. That was my summers as a kid. And, you know, so I think it's something a lot of people can relate to. And, you know, there's a lot of public pools around Nebraska that weren't open this summer. And, you know, it's not, I suppose, first world problems there, but, you know, it just really goes to show who this guy is. He was born with the silver spoon. So how could he possibly know coming from the background that he came from? And I'm not blaming him for being, I mean, we're all born in our lot in life, right? But the problem, inherent problem is the money that he spends in the state and the way he approaches policy based off of his life experiences. And, you know, he ran my state like when he was governor, he ran it like a mob boss. He would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars against Republicans in primaries if they weren't in lockstep with him. And, you know, if you weren't in lockstep with him and you wouldn't do his bidding, you didn't work in the state any longer. So that's how he ran it. That's who he is. He's a master spinster. He's a master liar. And, you know, he's at it again. But I think, you know, Wisconsin showed people that we are no longer going to be bought as citizens. You can't buy elections anymore. And, well, we'll see what happens. But, you know, I'm going to go out and fight like hell and try to get our message out there to the people of Nebraska.