Election denier wins GOP primary to be top elections official

LINCOLN — Nebraska’s Republican primary for secretary of state saw a significant upset Tuesday, as Omaha businessman Scott Petersen beat incumbent Bob Evnen late Tuesday.

As of 11:55 p.m., Petersen led Evnen statewide by more than 16,000 votes, or 55% to Evnen’s 45%. Early results showed a tight race, but Petersen gradually increased his lead as the night progressed.

Throughout his campaign, Petersen largely criticized Evnen’s handling of the state’s elections systems, particularly in vote counting. He has questioned whether the ballot-counting machines the state uses can access the internet and be hacked, has argued that voting by mail should be restricted to only special circumstances and promised to conduct full hand counts of races.

“People having confidence in election systems is a big deal,” Petersen told the Examiner on Tuesday. “And I didn’t think Secretary Evnen was doing enough to give them confidence, so that’s why we ran.”

Most voting experts have found hand counting less reliable, costlier and more time-consuming than counting by machine. The Texas Tribune and VoteBeat reported that a hand count of ballots in a rural central Texas county during the 2024 Republican primary took nearly 24 hours and involved 200 people.

Evnen spent much of the run-up to the primary describing Nebraska’s elections system as the “gold standard.” He recently conducted a “transparency tour” across multiple counties advocating for the accuracy testing of Nebraska’s ballot-counting machines.

Like other election officials in conservative-led states, Evnen has faced a push from some populist parts of the GOP for additional election security measures promoted by President Donald Trump since his 2020 loss to former President Joe Biden. Theirs is a national framing questioning the electoral process that many election experts warn has undermined public trust.

Evnen overcame two primary challengers in 2022 from candidates who claimed widespread fraud cost Trump the 2020 election. But a majority of GOP primary voters that year supported his two opponents. He won because they split the votes against him.

This time, Petersen consolidated them.

Petersen secured the endorsements of at least 18 county Republican parties, and has ties to the new-look Nebraska Republican Party that helped overthrow a leadership team aligned with then-Gov. Pete Ricketts, now a U.S. senator.

Evnen had a lengthy list of endorsements from Republican elected officials in the state, including from Ricketts and Nebraska U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith from the state’s largely rural 3rd Congressional District.

In a campaign statement Wednesday morning, Evnen said, “It’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve the great state of Nebraska as your Secretary of State, and I’m proud of all the great work our team accomplished these past eight years.”

He said he looked forward to serving out the remainder of his term and that he would “work to ensure a seamless transition following the general election.”

The secretary of state’s primary race was heated. Petersen attacked Evnen and his job performance on social media. Evnen had to walk a political tightrope: defending his office’s work and acknowledging the election security concerns of some GOP primary voters.

While Evnen told KMTV that he was committed to running a positive campaign, Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., vocally backed Evnen and criticized Petersen. Bacon called Petersen, the “President of the TinFoil Hat Club” for his criticisms of Nebraska’s election integrity and voting systems.

Petersen now faces the winner of the Democratic primary, school nutrition director Sarah Slattery, in November’s general election. Slattery said she was “overwhelmed with gratitude” for her win Tuesday, and said she was prepared to face Petersen in the fall.

“No matter what, we’re going to have somebody else in office come next year,” Slattery said.

Leading up to Election Day, Slattery said she heard rumblings that Petersen was polling well against Evnen. She suspects that Evnen questioning the validity of a pair of citizen-led medical cannabis petitions hurt him in the polls, considering that the ballot initiatives passed with 71% of the vote in 2024.

Compared to Evnen, Slattery said, Petersen has been more vocal about his party affiliation, which could help or hurt him come November.

Gubernatorial, AG, statewide results

In another pair of primaries, Republican Gov. Jim Pillen and Democrat Lynne Walz, a former state senator from Fremont, easily advanced to this fall’s general election. Rick Beard won the Legal Marijuana NOW Party’s nomination over James Charvat III.

Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, a Republican, advanced unopposed, as did Democratic AG candidate Jocelyn Brasher.

State Treasurer Joey Spellerberg advanced unopposed. The Pillen appointee will face Democrat Daniel Ebers, who also faced no challenger.

Republican State Auditor Mike Foley advanced unopposed for what would be his fourth nonconsecutive term. No one else filed to run.

Separately, Republican Dennis McCann and Democrat Wendy DeBoer, a state senator, both advanced unopposed from their primaries in an Omaha-based race for a seat on the Nebraska Public Service Commission.