GRAND ISLAND — The Nebraska State Fair started Aug. 22 with Gov. Jim Pillen and retiring U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., talking from the Earl May Fair Square Stage about their love of the fair.
Pillen said the fair gets “better and better each year.” Bacon called it “such a treat” to be there. Pillen said it’s important to appreciate “who we are as Nebraskans.” Bacon said he enjoys how the fair celebrates agriculture.
While the stock shows and food are the main attractions at the fair — which is older than the state itself, the state’s political parties and politicians still engage in politics there, as Republican and Democratic Party leaders view it as a great way to connect with Nebraskans.
“For many people, the fair may be their only face-to-face interaction with the party outside of campaign season,” a Nebraska GOP spokesperson said. “It’s a chance to listen, to build relationships, and to remind folks that the Republican Party is part of the Nebraska tradition, just like the fair itself.”
Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb calls the fair an excellent opportunity for Democrats to meet voters where they are — and to enjoy a beef sundae, a fair concoction of mashed potatoes, shredded beef and cheese and sour cream, topped with cherry tomatoes to resemble an ice cream sundae.
“We must be there to represent, provide valuable party and candidate information, register voters and visit with Nebraskans who want a better future for our state and country,” Kleeb said.
Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers, who had a booth of his own, said, “Nothing surpasses being able to talk face-to-face with Nebraskans and hear their thoughts” about the state.
There might be a chance for fairgoers to spot state senators such as Stan Clouse and Loren Lippincott, as well as members of the federal delegation, including 3rd District U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, walking past a combine.
Kathleen Lodl, 4-H Program Administrator and an ex-officio member of the State Fair’s Executive Board, said fairs are a chance for people to come together to share ideas, so it makes sense why political parties and candidates show up.
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The political presence is a bit different than in past fairs, as one Nebraska State Fair tradition is fading — candidate debates.
The most recent traditional State Fair debates came in 2018, when U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., debated State Sen. Jane Raybould of Lincoln, a member of the Lincoln City Council at the time, and then-Gov. Pete Ricketts debated State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha for governor.
In 2022, there were no debates at the State Fair between Pillen and former State Sen. Carol Blood for governor, as Pillen chose not to debate. Nor was there a fair debate between former State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks and 1st Congressional District U.S. Representative Mike Flood.
During his 2024 bid against Fischer, registered nonpartisan Omaha labor leader Dan Osborn pushed to debate Fischer at the fair, but she and her campaign declined. Smith and his 2024 Democratic challenger, Daniel Ebers, didn’t debate either.
Former Nebraska State Fair Executive Director Bill Ogg said he didn’t get an inquiry about a State Fair debate in 2022 — which he considered surprising.
“It’s customary to debate at the Nebraska State Fair, a tradition…” Osborn said in his campaign video last year.
Lodl said fewer candidates need to reach broad in-person audiences like those at the fair because “communication media has changed.”
“So now instead of having to go to a public debate … we see those on TV so that they can hit a wider audience of people. And so it wasn’t necessary to have a public platform,” Lodl said.
Some candidates also turn down media-sponsored debates.
Osborn attended the fair last week as an audience member for now-U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts’ federal issues forum. Ricketts faced a few hecklers and outbursts on Friday and defended his support for the tax and spending measure President Donald Trump labeled the “Big Beautiful Bill.”
At one point, an audience member yelled, “You’re a f— traitor, Pete!”
While there were occasional outbursts, most of the central Nebraska crowd supported Ricketts. The forum featured panels from Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and U.S. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming. Barraso and Ricketts talked about the benefits of preserving the tax cuts from Trump’s first term and how Republicans’ new work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps are modest.
Ricketts and other officials took no questions from the audience. Ricketts told the Examiner that despite the outbursts, the forum “went wonderfully well” and said such forums give people an opportunity to “hear directly what’s going on in Washington, D.C.”
Osborn criticized Ricketts’ defense of the bill, saying in a social media post that the “math doesn’t add up.” He said the emergency funds for rural hospitals Congress put in the tax and spending bill weren’t enough to replace the same bill’s longer-term cuts to Medicaid.
In modern politics, Osborn’s post and any Ricketts responses might be the closest voters get to a political debate at the fair, but both Ricketts and Osborn have expressed a willingness to debate during the 2026 race.
Over at the Pinnacle Bank Expo Center, fairgoers walking near the political booths showed mild interest in what the booths offered.
The state GOP booth featured cutouts of President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, tables filled with pamphlets from Republican candidates and yard signs. Fairgoers could test their knowledge of the Constitution with a small sign wheel.
Nebraska Republican Party Chair Mary Jane Truemper, who manned the GOP booth on Friday, said her public interactions were positive, adding that people seem to really like Vance.
Some fairgoers took pictures with the presidential and vice presidential cutouts. Trumper said booth volunteers saw a few people who gave them side eye as they walked by the booth.
The Democrats’ booth offered information about how to get involved with the party and a pamphlet resembling a newspaper, featuring a headline, “Democrats win big,” with a picture of Omaha Mayor John Ewing Jr., who defeated Incumbent Republican Mayor Jean Stothert this year.
Volunteers at the booth said that the people who typically visit are already Democrats. Still, they see it as an opportunity to recruit them to volunteer for the party and its candidates.
Ricketts visited the GOP booth to have small talk with Truemper, saying he had never seen a party chair at the fair booth before.
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