Is Nebraska Gov a potential sleeper flip?
In Quarter 4 of 2025 Jim Pillen’s approval rating dropped to only +6, Morning Consult hasn’t released any 2026 approvals yet, but it’s safe to say this is a very bad approval rating.
He is tied with Kotek in Oregon and Stitt in Oklahoma, two well known unpopular governors and only Braun in Indiana, Reynolds in Iowa and Dunleavy in Alaska are more unpopular. So he is tied 4th for least popular governor.
His presumptive opponent, Lynne Walz is also very impressive. Despite having a nonpartisan legislature, in 2020 only 3 senators were elected to a district that voted for the opposite party in the presidential election.
Walz was one of those Senators and won her district with 59% of the vote. Trump won her district with 65% of the vote. The second largest disparity was a democrat who won a district Trump won with 57% by 1% of the vote. So this kind of over performance is not at all common.
No one talks about this race or about Walz, but it seems like she could very well be the Laura Kelly of Nebraska.