A dated timeline of the Ricketts family’s Nebraska political giving, with a link on every row and a label on what I have checked and what I have not.
Posted 2026-09-30 · ~6 minute read — Angel AL The O.G. Mixer, Omaha NE
What I read, and what I could not
The Flatwater Free Press series “Ricketts’ Riches” (Sara Gentzler and Alex Richards, September 19, 2024, with a family-spending follow-up on December 22, 2024) is the backbone of this post. I loaded twelve sources into a research notebook to help me keep them straight, and I asked it questions. What came back is a set of summaries. A summary is a lead, not a source.
So every row below carries one of three labels. Checked means it is already on this site with its own source. Reported, not yet checked means the coverage says it and I have not yet opened the filing or the article myself. Needs a source means I have a claim and no document.
Numbers that do not add up yet
My notes say the family put about $9.8 million into Nebraska campaigns and causes over a decade. This site already prints “at least $18.6 million” over Pete Ricketts’ career, from the December 2024 follow-up. Those are two totals over two windows of time, and I have not confirmed how Flatwater counts each one. Do not add them together, and do not swap one for the other.
Three other dollar figures near the 2022 governor’s race also stay separate: Pete’s own $100,000 to Jim Pillen (Nebraska’s filing), a family total to Pillen in my notes that I have not checked at NADC, and a $1,275,000 figure I looked for in the state’s records and did not find.
The timeline, with links
2004Pete Ricketts joins the board of Gambling with the Good Life. That is his own written account, given in 2024. I still need a record from 2004 itself. [Flatwater, 2024-09-19]Reported, not yet checked
2006He spends $12 million of his own money on a U.S. Senate run and loses to Ben Nelson by nearly 28 points. [Flatwater, 2024-09-19]Checked
2014He wins the Republican primary for Governor by about one point, then the general election, 57.15% to 39.23%. [Wikipedia]Checked
2015The Legislature overrides his vetoes on three bills: repealing the death penalty, raising the gas tax, and letting DACA recipients get driver’s licenses. My notes give the bill numbers as LB 268, LB 610 and LB 623. The roll calls are on the Legislature’s site, nebraskalegislature.gov. Reported, not yet checked
2015 – 2016My notes say he put $200,000 of his own money into the petition drive that put the death penalty repeal on the 2016 ballot, and that voters kept the death penalty with 61.2%. Reported, not yet checked
2016The coverage in my notes says he financed conservative primary challengers, and that three sitting Republican state senators who had voted against him lost. Reported, not yet checked
Jan 21, 2022He gives $100,000 to Jim Pillen’s campaign for Governor, in Nebraska’s own campaign finance records. [NADC record]Checked
2022 primaryThe family spends $3 million or more on ads against Pillen’s two closest rivals, Charles Herbster and Brett Lindstrom. [Nebraska Examiner, 2023-02-06]Checked
2022University of Nebraska Board of Regents race. My notes say $160,000 went through two PACs, including the Nebraska Future Action Fund, against former state senator Matt Williams, and $20,000 went directly to his opponent, Kathy Wilmot, who won with 54%. Reported, not yet checked
Jul 2022A faction critical of the family takes over the state Republican Party. My notes say family donations to the party then stopped, after the family had supplied 45% of the state committee’s budget. Reported, not yet checked
2022 cycleFlatwater puts the family’s in-state giving at $5.4 million that cycle. My notes add that this was over 7% of all recorded political giving in Nebraska. [Flatwater, 2024-12-22]Reported, not yet checked
Jan 12, 2023Governor Pillen appoints him to the U.S. Senate. [CNN]Checked
2024My notes say the family gave $1.7 million in Nebraska through June, with over half going to a 2024 ballot measure on abortion. Reported, not yet checked
Nov 5, 2024Voters keep him in the Senate seat for the first time, 62.58% to 37.42%. [Nebraska Examiner]Checked
Dec 22, 2024Flatwater’s follow-up reports the family has spent at least $18.6 million on Nebraska political campaigns and causes over Pete’s career. [Flatwater, 2024-12-22]Checked
Open the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission’s search, at nadc.nebraska.gov.
Search the committee names in the timeline, such as “Nebraska Future Action Fund,” and read who gave and who received.
Search the donor’s own name for each cycle. Add up only what the filing shows, and write down the filing period.
For federal giving, use the FEC’s free data at api.open.fec.gov.
Send me the page and line where you found it. If it checks out, the row moves to Checked with your read date.
What I am not printing yet
Not confirmed
The coverage also quotes a political scientist, a former governor and a former U.S. senator describing what the spending meant. Those are their opinions. I will print them once I have read them in the original article, with the date and the outlet.
My notes compare the family with other wealthy donors in Illinois, Florida and North Dakota, using percentages of self-funding. States count giving differently, so I will not print those percentages until I have read how each one was computed.
My notes also say the family has given more than $100 million to federal races since 2005, and give national rankings for Pete’s parents. Those are for the FEC and OpenSecrets to confirm.
The same question, the other direction
This site’s rule is to run the same query on both sides. Pete’s sister, Laura Ricketts, is a documented Democratic donor, and she gave $10,000 to Susanne Shore’s campaign. That is on Shore’s filing. My next homework is to run this same “who funded challengers and ballot measures” search on the biggest Democratic-aligned donors in the same cycles, and to print it next to this one.
What I need from you
My notebook has twelve sources and I cannot tell which one backs which claim. If you have the list, send it. For each “not yet checked” row, the fix is one link and one page number. I will keep this post current, and every change gets a date.