“And just remember, I’m running. I’m running, okay? Even if you have to pretend, say, Trump.”
Those were among President Donald Trump’s final words to a packed venue of nearly 6,000 supporters Monday, Oct. 5, in Grand Island, Nebraska—a state won thrice by the president and controlled by Republicans for nearly 30 years.
The rally in the state’s ruby red third congressional district was one stop in the first leg of Trump’s 32-day campaign blitz ahead of the midterm election. It followed visits to Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama and preceded a return to the Lone Star state and a trip to Tennessee.
It was the president’s first visit to Nebraska since he reclaimed the White House. He last stumped in the state in 2022 for Charles Herbster, a longtime ally running for governor at the time. Herbster lost the primary to now-incumbent Gov. Jim Pillen, who found himself leveraging Monday’s rally to support his reelection bid.
But more than the governor’s mansion, Trump’s Grand Island stop was intended to bolster support for the state’s former Republican governor turned US Senator, Pete Ricketts, as he runs for his first full term in Washington. The rally also headlined Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers and NE-03 home turf Rep. Adrian Smith—both of whom are seeking another term this fall.
Each candidate present handily secured their current term in office. Pillen was elected by a 23-point margin, Ricketts by nearly 30 points in his 2024 special election, Hilgers took the AG’s office by 39 points, and Smith was reelected to his tenth consecutive term in office by over 60 points.
And Trump secured more individual votes from Nebraskans in 2024 than either of his previous wins in the state—defeating Democrat nominee Kamala Harris by 20 points.
Monday’s rally, however, did not project confidence for Nebraska Republicans. While the applause lines did their job, their subtext was panicked over the Nov. 3 midterm election.
‘Do me one favor. Please.’
Nebraska has long been a Republican stronghold. But midterm elections are almost always a referendum on the president and his party.
Democrats have not elected a candidate for statewide office in 20 years—since the reelection of US Sen. Ben Nelson in 2006. State Dems enjoyed a trifecta from 1992 to 1998, but lost it the next year, and haven’t broken Republican control of state government in 28 years.
It’s a losing streak that challengers think they can break in 2026, due partly to a rising anti-incumbency bias, downstream federal pressures, and Trump’s name being absent from the ticket.
Trump acknowledged the GOP’s unease during his recent stop in Oklahoma, saying “we’re worried about Michigan. We’re worried about Texas. We’re worried about a few states.”
But after state Republicans primed the audience in Grand Island, the president took the stage and outright pleaded with Nebraskans to “pretend” he’s on the ballot this fall.
“I’m going to ask you to pretend that I’m running,” Trump said. “When I’m on the ballot, people show up and you always win. When I’m not on the ballot, 45% fewer people show up. So I’m asking you to do me one favor. Please. We got to go and win this.”
The president then suggested, if Republicans lose “a couple of little elections” to Democrats this fall, voters “will have a 1929-style economic depression.”
A recent Associated Press-NORC poll found only 17% of US adults approve of Trump’s handling of the cost of living. Overall, just 26% approve of his handling of the economy—a record-low.
Trump addressed these headwinds indirectly, promising voters that gas prices would come “tumbling down” after the election, repeating his pledge to send $5,000 checks to voters if Republicans maintain control of Congress, and signing an executive order on stage to ease limits on the tax-free use of red-dyed diesel.
“Should I sign it or not?” Trump teased the crowd with the EO in hand. “Pete and Jim, this should absolutely assure your election, I guarantee you.”
Over the last year, diesel prices have skyrocketed in Nebraska to an average of $6.02 per gallon, compared to $3.34 in Oct. 2025, according to AAA. The figure hit its peak less than two weeks prior, recording $6.23 per a gallon on Sept. 22.
Trump’s signature will likely provide little relief at the pump, according to reactions from farmers, truckers, and economists. Stakeholders in Nebraska have called the move “small in scale.”
The policy theater in a state saturated with farmers and truckers was unlikely a coincidence. A Pew Research Center poll released just days after Trump’s Nebraska visit found that 74% of US adults were “very concerned” about fuel prices, up from 43% in January.
Soaring gas prices have largely been driven by the US-Israel war in Iran, which has proven unpopular among voters. To Nebraskans, Trump projected strength and a light at the end of the tunnel.
“We’re kicking Iran’s ass,” he assured the crowd. “And it will end very soon … We are saving this country from a problem. And the Middle East, and Israel, and everybody. We’re saving the world from what could be one of the worst tragedies ever.”
Trump spoke in Grand Island for about 90 minutes, peppering attendees with familiar affirmations and themes about border security, transgender moral panic, and musings on Fox News hosts like Will Cain and Jessica Tarlov.
Beyond crowd-pleasers, Trump’s appearance in Nebraska served to refresh his endorsements and shoot adrenaline into the so-called MAGA base, aiming to shore up support for state Republicans, as the national GOP faces poor odds of keeping both chambers in Congress after Nov. 3.
But speaking before their party’s leader, Nebraska’s top Republicans appeared to be grappling with the same nervous contagion.
‘We have to stay on the team’
“Over the last four years as your Attorney General, I’ve seen exactly what our friends on the other side of the aisle do when they get power,” said Mike Hilgers, who was first to address the crowd Monday.
Hilgers, who faces a challenge this fall in Democrat Jocelyn Brasher, went on to list as a series successful multi-state lawsuits he engaged the AG’s office with against the Biden administration, like halting the expansion of Title IX discrimination protections to gender identity and sexual orientation and the Nebraska-led Supreme Court case that blocked the cancellation of up to $400 billion in student debt.
The former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, however, did not acknowledge his more controversial litigation efforts, like joining a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration from reclassifying marijuana, interfering with the implementation of the state’s medical cannabis program, and suing the cities of Lincoln and Omaha to prevent them from raising their citywide minimum wage.
“Here’s what I ask of you today,” Hilgers said in closing. “In November, I’m asking you to vote with me. Vote for the Republican Party.”
Rep. Adrian Smith, who faces a challenge this fall in Democrat Becky Stille and Independent Mark Cohen, mainly leaned on the landmark tax and spending package of Trump’s second term: the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act—which is projected to add over $4 trillion to the federal deficit through 2034.
In asking rally-goers to support Republicans this fall, the senior member of Nebraska’s congressional delegation said the essence of this midterm election was “defeating socialism.”
“Did anyone ever think we’d have to do that again?” Smith said. “We must stand together with the president and support the Republican ticket.”
Governor Jim Pillen, who faces Democrat Lynne Walz on the ballot this fall, took the stage and defended a key weakness of his first term. When Pillen took office in 2023, state coffers rested near a $2 billion surplus, but have since tumbled with recurring shortfalls to a projected deficit of $846 million for 2027-2029.
Cuts to Nebraska’s personal and corporate income tax rates in 2023, made at Pillen’s request, have been a major contributor to the state’s downturn in revenue. Pillen took credit for the legislation during the rally.
“The left side is trying to bring it back, to tax us more,” Pillen said. “We do not have a budget crisis … We have a spending problem.”
Pillen otherwise positioned himself as the pro-Second Amendment, tough-on-border, anti-trans option this fall, leading to maybe the biggest applause line of the night: “Boys are boys and girls are girls.”
The governor then invoked his legacy as a 70s-era Husker football player and asked the crowd for esprit de corps—loyalty.
“No matter how much we might be upset with something … I always thought that Coach [Tom] Osborne should have passed a little more. But we all stayed on the team. We have to stay on the team of Republicans, no matter what the circumstances are,” Pillen asked of voters.
Pillen ended by naming President Trump an admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska—an honorary title in the triple landlocked state.
The rally’s primary intended beneficiary, US Sen. Pete Ricketts, who faces a fiercer than expected challenge in Independent Dan Osborn, minced no words in framing the stakes for midterm voters.
“Folks,” he opened. “Democrats in Washington have lost their minds.”
The multimillionaire lambasted the current opposition party for refusing to side with the GOP on contentious subjects, like funding for ICE, recent Defense Department appropriations, and overhauling the nation’s election system through the SAVE Act.
“Why are the Democrats doing all these things that are so crazy?” Ricketts asked. “Here’s the answer: Democrat Socialists.”
While Nebraska has two DSA city chapters in Lincoln and Omaha, there are no candidates for federal office this year with a known connection to the burgeoning leftist political organization.
However, Ricketts told the crowd that DSA recruited his opponent. On the campaign trail, Osborn maintains he was recruited by railroad workers dissatisfied with the voting record of his 2024 opponent, US Sen. Deb Fischer.
Trump would later take the stage and call Osborn a “radical left lunatic” and “fake Independent.” Ricketts would chime in to add: “We must stop him.”
“I’m going to ask you, as you walk out here today, make a commitment to get out and vote 10 times,” Ricketts joked. “Not the Democrat way 10 times … Get 9 other people [to vote], we will make a difference in this election and we will keep Nebraska red.”
‘Its gonna be a bloodbath’
Monday’s crowd had much to consider.
By the end of the three-hour event, attendees were warned about leftist lunatics, a mounting socialist threat, and narrowly averted nuclear tragedies. They were asked to feign Trump’s presence on the midterm ballot, multiply their vote 10x, and begged not to waver from the Republican party.
Offering the driving force of the president’s directive: “You must vote Republican, all right?”
But the event, stripped of its pomp, circumstance, and talking points, reveals a state-party ticket on edge for the midterms. It’s a tension unique to this year and this slate of candidates, all of whom have banked their prospects on Trump’s electoral goodwill.
As his party’s leader, Trump’s midterm rally tour acknowledges his effect—for better or worse—on the GOP’s viability down the ballot. His stop in Nebraska, and other traditionally red states, signals a lower than average confidence in electorates often taken for granted.
Trump’s approval rating is underwater by 17 points in the Cornhusker state, according to the latest Economist/YouGov projections.
Reacting to the rally on The Dan Parsons Show, John Hansen, the president of the Nebraska Farmer Union for nearly four decades, likened the president’s remarks to “reassuring the sheep.”
“It was all about reassuring the MAGA base … [Trump] came to Nebraska to shore up election turnout,” Hansen said. “As a former livestock producer, I know what the system is. You reassure the sheep right before you shear the sheep.”
While venue capacity turned away supporters from the Grand Island event center, about 200 counterprotesters demonstrated outside the venue on State Fair Boulevard.
One protester, Jake from Lincoln, paraded through the crowd. He solicited blaring horns and expletives from passing cars as he raised a large hand-made puppet of the President, featuring a long Pinocchio-like nose. From it hung a banner reading: “LIES LIES LIES.”
He, like many protesters interviewed, said the Nebraska rally was an act of desperation from Trump and state Republicans.
“It just shows you how much trouble they’re in, how worried they are,” he said. “Its gonna be a bloodbath, hopefully.”
