Deb Fischer - 2012 U.S. Senate Election

2012 U.S. Senate Election

Primary

In January 2012, Fischer officially announced she would run for the U.S. Senate. In the Republican primary, she defeated State Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Treasurer Don Stenberg. Her win was considered a major upset, especially considering that she was dramatically outspent; she only spent $100,000 on her campaign while Bruning and Stenberg both spent well over $1 million. However, she was helped by a last-minute endorsement from Sarah Palin.

During the primary campaign, Fischer was criticized by environmentalists and others because her family's ranch near Valentine grazes cattle on federal land, leasing it for about $110,000 per year less than the market rate on private land. Opponents of federal grazing leases argue that she should relinquish her family's permit if she wants to remain "morally consistent" with her message of less government. Fischer argues that the poor quality of federal lands, plus the restrictions that come with federal leases, make it inappropriate to compare them to private leases.

General election

Fischer defeated former Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey in the general election, taking 58 percent of the vote to Kerrey's 42 percent. While she narrowly lost the state's two largest counties, Douglas and Lancaster--home to Omaha and Lincoln, respectively--she swamped Kerrey in the rest of the state, carrying some counties by as much as 3-to-1.

Fischer will be the first woman to represent Nebraska in the Senate since 1954. She will also be the first woman elected to the Senate from Nebraska in her own right; the state's two previous female Senators, Eva Bowring and Hazel Abel, served as caretakers. She will also be the first Senator since Carl Curtis (who retired in 1979) who did not live in Omaha or Lincoln at the time of their election.