Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), who faces an unexpectedly competitive reelection battle, claims to have more than 1,000 endorsements — a group that includes current and former elected officials, conservative activists, farmers and business people.
But until adding 76 names this week, Fischer’s total fell well short of 1,000.
And perhaps more important, some of the folks on her list might not be people whose blessing is worth advertising.
Take Michael Hannum, a conservative activist from Douglas County, whom the Fischer campaign describes as a “pro-life warrior for Fischer.” In 2016, Hannum pleaded guilty to voting illegally in both Kansas and Nebraska in the 2012 election. He paid a fine of $5,500 as punishment. Ironically, Hannum, who claimed the double vote was a mistake due to travel between homes in the two states, got caught up in a Kansas state law that empowered then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) to prosecute alleged election fraud. Kobach, a right-wing demagogue, has unsuccessfully claimed that mass voter fraud hurt former President Donald Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections. Meanwhile, Hannum is not the first Republican to be caught for a crime the right pretends is perpetrated by the left en masse.
Jack Poulsen is another not-so-wholesome name on the endorsement page. Poulsen, who is listed among the endorsements as a Wheeler County commissioner even though the county commission website no longer has his name, pleaded guilty to federal bank fraud charges in May. The Department of Justice accused Poulsen of using his position as president of a regional bank to direct illegal loans to a relative that cost the bank $800,000 in losses. Poulsen’s actions contributed to the 2020 collapse of the bank he led, which had been in existence for over 60 years. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in August.
In addition, Fischer touts the endorsements of five former Republican elected officials or candidates who have been credibly accused of physical or sexual misconduct.
Former State Sen. Bill Kintner (R) was fined in 2016 for using his government computer to have cybersex on Skype. He resigned in 2017 after retweeting a conservative commentator’s post implying a group of Women’s March participants were too ugly to be sexually assaulted.
State Sen. Bill Halloran (R) was formally reprimanded in April for violating the state legislature’s workplace harassment policy. Halloran had inserted Democratic senators’ names into his reading of a graphic rape scene from a novel during a March committee hearing about allegedly inappropriate books in school libraries. He repeated the names of two male Democratic state senators once, but used the name of state Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh four times, claiming he wanted to draw their attention to the inappropriateness of the text for children.
Former state Sen. Mike Groene (R) resigned in February 2022 amid accusations that he had taken inappropriate photos of a female staffer, such as zoomed-in parts of her body, and circulated them with graphic commentary by email.
Charles Herbster, a former gubernatorial candidate, was accused of groping young women, including state Sen. Julie Slama (R), at political events in April 2022. The alleged behavior drew condemnation from then-Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) and all 13 women in the Nebraska state Senate.
Former Lt. Gov. Lavon Heidemann (R) resigned his position in 2014 after his sister obtained a restraining order against him for allegedly physically assaulting her.
Finally, Fischer has been a critic of the Chinese telecommunications infrastructure maker Huawei, arguing that use of its materials in U.S. infrastructure has exposed the United States to Chinese surveillance, especially in rural areas that are home to U.S. military and national security facilities. The United States’ Federal Communications Commission banned the sale of equipment from Huawei and other Chinese companies in 2022, citing similar concerns, but Fischer wants to go further, requiring telecommunications companies to rip out Huawei hardware in existing infrastructure like cell towers.
But Fischer also highlights an endorsement from former U.S. Rep. Lee Terry (R). Terry, who left Congress after losing reelection in 2014, worked as a lobbyist for Huawei in 2021 at a time when the company was hoping to avoid the kinds of restrictions that the FCC imposed in 2022.
The Fischer campaign declined to comment on any of the controversial people whose endorsements are included on her campaign website.
When HuffPost presented the campaign with evidence that the number of duplicate names and deceased people on Fischer’s endorsements list pushed the total number of endorsers well below 1,000, the campaign presented an alternate list of more than 1,000 names that it said excluded duplicates and promised there would soon be 76 additional endorsements.
In fact, the new list that the Fischer campaign provided to HuffPost still had more than 100 duplicate names or deceased people, bringing the total number of endorsers, including 26 organizations, down to about 930. However, the addition of 76 more names, which occurred after HuffPost’s inquiry, brings her total to more than 1,000.
Nebraska is a solid Republican state that Trump carried by 19 percentage points in 2020.
In a presidential election year, Fischer, a two-term conservative, would ordinarily cruise to reelection; she is still the heavy favorite.
But independent Dan Osborn, a union industrial mechanic-turned-steamfitter running as an anti-corruption populist, is making a serious go of it. His internal polls have shown him within striking distance and Republicans feel that the race is too close to comfort. Senate Republicans’ official campaign arm, and two deep-pocketed GOP super PACs, are all now spending on Fischer’s behalf in a cycle where they’d sooner be investing in races to oust vulnerable incumbent Democrats.
