Nebraska US Senate 2026
Election day is November 3, 2026. A statewide contest in Nebraska.
Who is favoured in Nebraska US Senate?
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What the Nebraska US Senate election decides
The Senate confirms federal judges and cabinet officers, ratifies treaties, and can stop legislation the House passes. With a six-year term and a hundred-member chamber, a single seat is a larger share of the institution than any House district, which is why Senate races draw national money into state contests.
Each state sends two senators regardless of population, so this seat carries the same weight as California's or Wyoming's. Nebraska voters fill it alongside all 3 of the state's House seats and the governorship, and a Senate term runs six years, spanning two future Congresses and, in this case, the next presidential election.
How Nebraska votes
Nebraska is a strongly Republican farm and rail state that allocates electoral votes by congressional district, which keeps the Omaha-based district nationally relevant. Its unicameral, officially nonpartisan legislature is unique in the country. That backdrop is the ground any Nebraska campaign fights on, and it is what the Electorate HQ simulation reads first when it weighs a ticket's platform against this contest.
About this race
The 2026 United States Senate election in Nebraska will be held on November 3, 2026, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of Nebraska. Republican incumbent Pete Ricketts is seeking his first full term following a special election in 2024. Former union leader Dan Osborn, who ran in the 2024 regular election, is again running as an independent.
Primary elections were held on May 12, 2026. Ricketts won the Republican nomination with 81.5% of the vote. Although state Democrats endorsed Osborn, pastor William Forbes entered the Democratic primary amid accusations of being a spoiler candidate. In response, retired pharmacy technician Cindy Burbank launched a primary candidacy supported by the party and defeated Forbes with 89.2% of the vote before dropping out of the general election in July to support Osborn.
Republicans have not lost a Senate election in Nebraska since 2006. The last independent to win a Senate election in Nebraska was progressive George Norris in 1936. This election will be the first in which a state did not have a Democratic candidate in back-to-back US Senate election cycles.
Latest coverage of the Nebraska US Senate race
Nebraska Democrats will vote to fill vacancy for US Senate race after its candidate dropped outElection 2026: Nebraska Senate race tangled in ballot dramaNebraska Democrats vote not to fill vacancy for Senate raceArguing that Nebraska Democrats must have a Senate candidate, primary loser says he’s willingNebraska U.S. Senate Election 2026: Latest PollsThe rest of the Nebraska ballot
Every Nebraska House district, the counties inside each one, and an address lookup that resolves your exact districts are on the Nebraska state page.
Other 2026 races in Nebraska
Analysis covering Nebraska
Nebraska's 3rd district contains 79 counties. Forty-four states contain fewer.
A portrait of the most county-dense district in the country, and what a 79-county constituency does to the arithmetic of campaigning.
One seat covers 34 square kilometres. One seat covers 1,713,379.
New York's 12th and Alaska's at-large seat each elect one member of the House. On the ground, one is fifty thousand times the size of the other.