OMAHA, Neb. — Former Omaha State Sen. Brett Lindstrom, who broadened his political brand during a 2022 bid for governor, is out of the Republican primary race for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House. 

The former lawmaker, in an interview Thursday with the Nebraska Examiner, said he chose to pause his campaign, not because he couldn’t win the GOP nomination, but because he no longer wants to deal with the divisiveness of modern politics. 

Lindstrom said the space for people and politicians to try to be reasonable has “evaporated” as “everyone’s gone to their corners.” He said the current environment for politicians doesn’t produce a “good outcome for the people that they serve.”

“I don’t feel like I fit in this political environment,” Lindstrom said. 

The Omaha financial advisor was one of the Republican lawmakers in the officially nonpartisan Legislature to survive what pundits called the “blue wave” of 2018. He finished third in the 2022 Republican primary for governor. In the statehouse, Lindstrom was known for pushing bills that reduced state income taxes, including on Social Security income. He also voted to repeal the death penalty in 2015, which was reinstated through a ballot measure in 2016. 

The 2026 House race had been Lindstrom’s fifth bid for elected office. He campaigned on a “pragmatic” approach to governance. On Thursday, he said he was closing the book on seeking office but said he would still try to play a role in the background of local politics. 

“I think there’s another path where I can go to help cultivate another generation of people that want to serve for the right reasons,” Lindstrom said. 

Some donors who sought another GOP horse in the governor’s race had floated Lindstrom’s name as a possible challenger to incumbent Gov. Jim Pillen, who reported raising $10 million. Lindstrom called rumors about him joining that race “wishful thinking.” 

He said he was approached about a possible gubernatorial bid last year but declined, and that people continued to gauge his interest throughout his campaign. He said he wasn’t stepping away from one campaign to join another.

While some voters he has spoken with might want to see a “rebuilding of things” in terms of generational change in Nebraska leadership, he said, there’s not “enough appetite” within the local donor class to fund what it would take. 

Pillen, who has announced he is running for reelection, is still waiting to learn whether multistate agribusinessman Charles Herbster will join him in a potential 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary rematch without Lindstrom. 

In the House race, Lindstrom had lagged recently in fundraising behind the primary’s other GOP candidate, Omaha City Councilman Brinker Harding. The latest reports are due this weekend. 

But Lindstrom was still competitive in the House primary, based on internal polling from Oct. 27 to Oct. 29 that his campaign shared with the Examiner from Trump-affiliated pollster Adam Gellar’s firm, National Research Inc., and other polling the Examiner saw. The internal polling of 400 likely GOP primary voters in NE-02 showed Lindstrom and Harding essentially tied. It indicated that Lindstrom was ahead by one percentage point, well within the poll’s 4.9% margin of error.

The polling also indicated some potential vulnerabilities for Harding that Lindstrom’s campaign had said it was prepared to emphasize, including support for the streetcar and the recurring issue of property taxes.

Lindstrom exiting the NE-02 race largely leaves the spotlight of the 2026 House primary to the six local Democrats running in the state’s most politically divided and diverse district, encompassing all of urban Douglas and rural Saunders Counties, as well as a slice of suburban western Sarpy County. 

Nebraska Democrats weighed in briefly on Lindstrom’s departure, with state party Chair Jane Kleeb saying, “Democrats are focused on the future, embracing a strong, diverse primary field in a blue-dot district that voted for [Kamala] Harris and just flipped Omaha’s mayor’s seat.”

Nebraska Republican Party Chair Mary Jane Truemper said Friday in a statement that state and local Republicans are focused on “working toward the shared goal of winning CD2 and providing strong representation in Washington.”

The 2nd District is used to the national spotlight, but some national pundits see a blue hue this year in the slightly right-leaning swing district after five-term GOP U.S. Rep. Don Bacon announced he would retire from Congress after his current term. Since then, the seat has become, in the eyes of national political experts, a potential Democratic pickup — if not a likely one — in this year’s midterms, as Republicans lost the incumbent advantage. 

“I think about the political environment into November,” Lindstrom said. “I don’t think it’s where I need to be.”

Nevertheless, Lindstrom says the race is not a “lost cause” for Republicans. He points to the makeup of the district. Redistricting after the 2020 census replaced purpling parts of suburban Sarpy County with deep-red rural Saunders.

Lindstrom’s team leaned into name ID groundwork and conservative connections laid in 2022. He focused significant time and attention on Saunders.

Harding, the Republican still in the race, is trying to build his brand among some GOP voters who may not know his city-level work. But he assembled a campaign team with many of Bacon’s key election staff. He has been a fixture at local events. And he has posted a number of videos of himself reacting to national and local political developments on social media.  

Harding, in a campaign statement, said Lindstrom had brought “thoughtfulness and integrity to this race, and our party is better for it.” 

“As a unified Republican team, we are now in the strongest possible position to win NE-02 and retain the House,” Harding said. 

Lindstrom talked about how brutal this fall’s general election could be. He has said he doesn’t want to “sell” his soul to get into office.

More than one in 10 members of Congress indicate they do not intend to return after the 2026 midterms, according to NPR. One House Republican from Texas described the current environment in Congress as “toxic.”  

“I don’t want to have to be a part of either a litmus test or a process in which I have to defend things that I don’t believe in,” Lindstrom said. 

Nebraska’s primary election is May 12. The general election is Nov. 3.

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