Where’s Ben?

Today marks the first of a series of university forums hosted for Nebraska’s Senate race. Tonight, three out of the four candidates will join University of Nebraska students in Lincoln for a meet and greet where students and the public are encouraged to learn more about the men they will be voting for on November 4^th. Following the meet and greet, senatorial candidates Dave Domina, Jim Jenkins, and Todd Watson will hold a forum to answer questions and speak candidly on their stances and why you should vote for them as Nebraska’s next senator.

Unfortunately, one candidate is missing. This candidate has been missing from many forums in the past including Hastings and Kearney and will continue to be missing at forums in the future at venues such as Weslyn University, UNK, the League of Women Voters, McCook, as well as possible others who not chosen a date yet. This MIA candidate is the Republican contender, Ben Sasse, and while I have my own theories, I want to know why he avoids facing the electorate population who will vote for him this coming November 4^th.

It is the epitome of arrogance to refuse forums and debates in the month leading up to the election. Ben Sasse believe that all he needs is that “R” beside his name to slide securely into the Senate. Easy, breezy, no questions asked, no stances challenged. Is this really the kind of person we want representing our state? A person who won’t even come out to meet and speak with the people he pledges to represent?

Nebraskans must reject this duck and hide campaign strategy. If Ben Sasse is the right candidate for the job, then he should be confident to join the other candidates on the stage and present why he should be your next Nebraska Senator. It seems to me that if you are vying for a job which demands for you to be comfortable in the spotlight and willing to speak in front of the millions of people who you serve, that you would happily face the people who will hopefully be sending you to Washington.

Ben Sasse does not believe that Nebraskans will ever demand for him to step from behind the media machine which scripts his responses and prepares his debate defense. He dislikes speaking off the cuff and will do anything to avoid a candid informal question/answer session. Why is this? Surely, if you truly believe that you have what it takes to be a United States Senator you wouldn’t mind fielding a few questions from students in their 20’s.

I want to hear what a candidate really has to say. I want to hear the unscripted answers. I want the truth. Is that so much to ask from the leaders of our country?

Stick to the script. Tell people what they want to hear. Duck and hide. This has become the status quo of our politicians’ campaign strategies and it is no different here in Nebraska if we let someone who won’t even speak to us, the voters, win this election.

Nebraskans should be outraged that one of their candidates refuses to answer questions candidly and unscripted in venues across our state, to defend his stances, and to prove that he truly is the right person for the job. If you let Ben Sasse win this election without a challenge, without even a demand to speak to the people, then the wool has been pulled over your eyes, Nebraska.

Debunking 3 Myths about the Independent Candidate

This campaign has opened my eyes to the many and varied opinions that voters across Nebraska think about when they are deciding on their votes. Since I am working on an Independent candidate’s campaign, I have been exposed to the hesitation that many voters show when faced with the alternative option of voting for an independent candidate.

Here are three opinions that regularly surface in comments and conversation on independent candidates, so I thought I’d start some discussion on why these three widely held opinions are “myths” that should be reconsidered before you throw out the decision to vote for independent candidates, whether they are running in Nebraska, Kansas, or elsewhere.

1. Independent candidates have strong positions on every major issue. Their decision to come to a consensus with people who don’t hold their same positions doesn’t make them “pushovers”.

I am starting to grow weary of this particular comment and conversation point, usually made by people who have shown themselves to be champions of the highly partisan political system we find our country encumbered with today. I have heard people call independent candidates “pushovers”, “wishy-washy”, and “weak”, just to name a few of the labels I’ve recently heard. One gentlemen went so far as to say, “I believe that so called independents and moderates stand for nothing. They have no principles and no values and so are able to compromise on everything. If you don’t have a fundamental position on how to fix things, then you are the problem.”

First of all I can tell you that Jim Jenkins, the independent candidate in Nebraska, has some of the strongest principles and values that I have ever seen in a person. Ask anyone who personally knows him. To people who hold the particular view that compromising makes an independent candidate ineffective: Imagine your husband or wife, your boyfriend or girlfriend, who refused to compromise on anything. You would probably get divorced or break up. Imagine a friendship without a little give and take from either person. You wouldn’t have very many friends. What about children forced to follow a strict set of rules by overbearing parents? I can assure you that they are sneaking out. What do you think Monday morning meetings are about at work? So everyone can be on the same page.

Every successful project, agenda, or relationship is a result of open communication and the ability to come to a consensus that everyone can live with.  This is how things go in our personal and business lives, why shouldn’t it also work for our political system?

Agreeing to work together, despite our different opinions about what is best for our country should not equate to “a lack of principles”. In fact, I believe it is just the opposite. The candidate who is truly willing to work with the other side and come to a consensus through thoughtful and logical debate– that is where true courage is found. It takes more guts to do this than a candidate who votes along the same party lines because he is too scared to do anything else.

Jim Jenkins will tell you exactly how he stands on most major issues and his ideas on how to fix those issues. Quite the contrary to having no “fundamental position on how to fix things”, he is humble enough to realize that he does not have all the right answers, nor does any party, but that the “two heads are better than one” mentality should apply to the biggest issues that we face in this country. Jim Jenkins is running as an independent because he is educated and thoughtful about every issue, but even more importantly, he boldly believes that it is certainly not “his way or the highway”.

2. Being Independent does not necessarily mean you want to create a third party. In fact, the party system is exactly where these candidates find fault.

As an independent candidate, Jim is not recommending that we create another party. The reason he is running is because of his disagreement with the party system. We know he’s not the only one who disagrees with the system. 81% of Nebraska Republicans and 68% of Nebraska Democrats disapprove of the U.S. Senate. If this statistic is accurate, who are these voters now supporting?

Regardless of your current or previous party affiliation, we must work together as responsible citizens of the United States to re-build a political system in serious need of rehabilitation. It’s like expecting your sink to stop leaking without going underneath to replace the pipes. You might be able to slap a little putty on it, but it will start to leak again after a while. We need to first fix the political system that currently caters to partisan politics and self-interested officials before we can expect solutions.

But how do we do that? Instead of aligning yourself with a party, educate yourself on the candidate. Instead of Republicans and Democrats, let’s choose People to represent us. I realize that this will take more effort on the part of the voters. You will be required to research each of the candidates, instead of following the party you’ve always followed like a herd of sheep. Sheep can’t fix a system, but the citizens of America can.

The notion that people must run under a party label to be considered a viable candidate is a mentality that American voters should seriously reconsider. As Congress becomes more partisan, voters become more centrist. People are starting to understand that it won’t matter which party they side with if each party is more concerned with keeping in power than passing legislation that progresses our nation.

3. Independents are not Democrats or Republicans in disguise.

People are so skeptical and distrustful of the system that they believe there is no possible way someone might actually be trying to run as a true independent and not for one of the parties.

I ask these skeptics this: Why would someone who wants to run for office turn down millions of dollars and thousands of supporting party members, just to run in disguise? Not only do independent candidates not have the donor and volunteer support that party candidates do, they are forced to go out and collect thousands of signatures just to get on the ballot and are kept from running in primary elections.

Believe me, after working on the hodge-podge endeavor known as an independent campaign, the costs of running as an independent candidate far outweigh any benefits you might get for trying to disguise a “secret party agenda”.

Jim is so adamant about his Nebraska platform (running for the people, not the party) that he has even refused to caucus with either party. If there was a time to come forward with a secret party agenda, caucusing with that party would be the time. Even well-known and respected politicians like Independent Maine Senator Angus King caucused with the Democratic Party.

Finally, running as an Independent means that the candidate has the majority voter mentality working against him. Time and time again people have shared their concerns that if they vote for Jim, their vote will not really count. If they vote for Jim, this will take a vote away from the election that truly matters.

We have such a deeply entrenched system of party politics, even the centrist voters are scared to break away. Don’t let our corrupt system strangle the liberties you have as an American voter. Think twice about the responsibility you have to the future of this nation, and be the vote that makes a change.

Jim Jenkins for Senate signs and jingles

If you’ve ever seen one of the old Burma Shave ads, take a look at the video Mary Ridder put together that mimics the rhymes and jingles of those classic vintage ads. Instead of buying Burma Shave Cream though, we want you to vote Jim Jenkins for U.S. Senate! Check out the video below for Jim Jenkins for Senate signs and jingles.

http://youtu.be/me8dhmcIFYs

Jim Jenkins: The Bridge Builder

The political parties are not working together which is why their approval rating is at an all time low. Elect Jim Jenkins as your next representative for Nebraska and see him work to build bridges between these warring tribes, and more importantly serve the people, not the party. *Artist: Jubal Faircloth

**My Peace Corps friend and group mate Jubal Faircloth is a very talented comics artist. He is still serving in Senegal, West Africa and has agreed to become the campaign cartoon artist. Thanks Jubal! If you want to see more of his talent you can check out his website at http://www.thefifthcircle.com.

The Problem is Us

Hey, everyone! Not sure if you heard the news, but Jim Jenkins was recently endorsed by The New York Times! The most influential and widely read newspaper in the United States has decided that this rancher and businessman from Nebraska has a message for all Americans– Serve the people, not the party.

Wait a second, you might be saying, Wasn’t it the… Yes, alright you caught me. It wasn’t The New York Times that endorsed Dad, but the York News -Times, one of the twelve daily newspapers we have here in the state of Nebraska. While it would have been awesome to be endorsed by The New York Times, I am just as excited to have the York News-Times endorse us, and I want to thank them for having the courage to stand up to the party system and to back a candidate “who will vote for the people, not the party.” I also want to congratulate them on a very well written article. Sometimes candidates and media get caught up in the unintelligible political jargon that can turn off any voter, but this article simply outlines why Jim Jenkins should be a candidate who all Nebraskans can and should get behind. If you haven’t read the article, you can find it here.

My favorite point that the York News-Times makes is this: “… Jim has a problem. The problem is us. After decades of being funneled into two separate pools of voters, Republican or Democrat, we have been conditioned to believe these are our only two options. This is exactly what the two major parties want, evident by their very restrictive primary process, which nearly eliminates prospects for independent candidates to gain a seat at the election table.”

While I have been working on the campaign over the last couple of months, I have seen so much hope and so many sensible good people in Nebraska. I have seen a population of people who are fed up with the system and willing to try something new. On the other hand, I have also become greatly frustrated because people expect change, demand it even, but they are not willing to go out and make the change happen. Citizens of America have the right to vote because it is also our right to have a say in how our country is run and who is running it. What I have found most remarkable is the fact that all of us are willing to complain about the system and how it is ruining our lives and our country, but many have not even registered to vote. If people are so disgusted with the political system, then why is there such an apparent state of voter apathy?

To quote Gandhi, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” All it takes is your participation. It requires you to vote, and perhaps this is asking a little bit more, but it requires you to educate yourself on the candidate you are voting on. Until our country changes our apathetic view towards voting we will continue to struggle under a stagnant Congress and we will slowly watch our country go down the drain. By then it will be too late.

Luckily, it’s up to you. It’s not too late today. If you are a Nebraskan, you have the ability to be part of an exciting and innovative change in our country. As Nebraskans, we could be part of a movement that strays away from the party-paid-for seat and votes for the man who sits in it instead. We could be a state that leads a revolutionary reform of how politics are done in this country and save our future from the destructive path it’s currently on. In order to do this though, you have to vote Jim Jenkins.

Thoughts on the Senatorial Debate

Although I was not able to attend the Senatorial debate hosted by KETV in North Platte this last Sunday, I did sit down to watch it later. For those of you who didn’t catch it, here are a couple of things I feel are worth mentioning on the debate.

First of all, it merits recognition to point out how difficult it must be to get up on stage in front of everyone in the auditorium and everyone watching on live television and give an articulate and poised answer to questions which are far from black and white. For that I want to congratulate and thank all of the candidates for their participation and candor. It’s easy for the audience members to criticize every fine point the candidate makes, but we must remember that we’re not the ones sweating up there on the stage.

I was impressed by the delivery of most answers by all of the candidates, and will particularly give credit to Dave Domina for being an incredibly articulate and well-spoken candidate. Sound delivery of your message is just one of the essential components of being a good political candidate, and Dad is certainly learning how to be one of those through trial and error and going up against candidates who are polished and poised.

While Dad might not be the most “polished” of the candidates when it comes to delivery, I would urge people to look past the stage presence of the candidates and at their actual messages. When it comes to the message, I believe that Dad speaks most soundly to the majority of voters in America and in Nebraska. Dad says in his closing statement, “We have to decide as a nation if we are going to incentivize partisanship. If we are going to incentivize it through big money… and by electing the most partisan candidates.”

I would also like to draw attention to how much better Dad has gotten at giving articulate, sound responses to debate questions over the course of this campaign. His answers show that while he runs primarily on the platform of a bridge-builder, his campaign and values are made up of well-researched and thoughtfully constructed stances on each and every issue.

Something else that was brought up and is worth mentioning is that Dad was reprimanded by the moderator for using Ben Sasse’s name when he emphasized the difference between the Republican candidate’s campaign and his own. Domina also criticized Sasse, but did it by tactfully leaving out his name.

We criticize our politicians for not being straightforward, but then we also criticize them for calling out the other candidates. I would caution viewers to make a distinction between debate and personal attack. I see no reason why candidates running for the same Senate spot should not be able to stress to voters how one’s own particular campaign is different from another candidates. Certainly, the focus of the answer should be to educate voters on one’s own stance on a position, and discrepancies in another candidate’s campaign should be valid as supplemental material.

This is a debate, not a candy land game, and I think that all candidates have the right to highlight their differences, particularly when some candidates are intent on glossing over certain aspects of their own campaigns. While Dad might well indeed have delivered less hostile criticism, his points were on key and cannot be qualified as personal attacks.

In the end this is not about Ben Sasse, the man. This is about a revolution against the political system that has caused our Congress to become defunct. Sasse happens to represent the system we find fault with. Here in Nebraska, it is the face of the Republican Party (Sasse) who must take the heat since a huge majority of the population are Republican voters. If Dad was running in a highly Democratic state, it would be the opposite and I believe that he would take in after the Democratic candidate just as resolutely.

It is the system we mean to oppose– not the man, but unfortunately with big outside money, Washington support, and a contributors’ network built on party affiliation alone and a GOP in-state powerhouse, it is Sasse who is targeted in this election for the broken system he represents. In the debate, Sasse mentioned that he was supported by 92 out of 93 counties in Nebraska. Voters, in all honesty, do you believe this is because of who he is and what he represents as a man or as a “dad” as he likes to claim, or because of the party he represents? I beg that Nebraskans recognize this important distinction.

Call to Accountability

In the summer of 2010 as a lowly intern on Capitol Hill, I became painfully aware that our government was in some state of shambles. As interns, we were encouraged to attend assemblies where Congressmen and women had agreed to speak to the hundreds of interns who flock to our nation’s capitol every year to see first-hand the people who govern the greatest country on earth.

There I would sit, among kids my age from all over the country, eagerly listening to Senator so and so from state so and so. Through the 10 or so elected officials I went to hear speak, I don’t think I ever heard a straight forward answer to even one of our questions.

We, the future citizens and leaders of America, wanted to know so much, all of us enthusiastically waving our hands into the air to ask our most intelligently phrased questions. The intern who was chosen would jump up and with much politeness and gusto recite his or her question to the great official, trembling. 90% of the time, by the end of the answer, the other interns were left wondering what the kid had asked in the first place because the response was so vague and winding that the true answer had been gagged, bound, and hidden somewhere within the well-oiled phrasing and political garble that we have learned to associate with a politician’s speech.

I finally understood where politicians get their reputations as smooth talkers, beat-it-around the bush characters who never truly want you to understand their agendas. I came home to Nebraska frustrated and disillusioned by what I had seen on Capitol Hill, but also with a new fresh perspective and a more critical eye for surface level speeches.

Because of what I learned, I find it imperative to highlight Ben Sasse’s contradictory message he has thus far given to the people of Nebraska. I am not interested in negative campaigning against Sasse. I believe that negative campaigning, whether in written or ad form, is something we should strive to wipe from the culture of American campaign strategies.

I do believe that Nebraskans have the right to a clear and un-muddled perspective of the candidate who they want to represent Nebraska. While I believe that Ben Sasse is a highly intelligent and successful individual, I do not believe he is being straightforward with Nebraskans. My goal in this blog is to simply highlight some of the word choice and direct quotes from Sasse’s website and campaign video. All of them are sourced so that you can follow up yourself and then you decide.

This is not about voting for Jenkins, Domina, Watson, or Sasse, this is about holding your candidates accountable on how and why they say what they say. For once, let’s look at some straight forwards answers. This is the first question in a series of questions that I will pose over the next couple of blog posts.

Question #1: Sasse claims that he will “fix the establishment”, but I wonder how he will be able to do that with his extreme right-wing platform if partisanship is at the very root of the problem in our current Congress.

Most Nebraskans are aware that our political system has become highly dysfunctional. According to a poll from MSR Group, a marketing research company, 81% of Nebraska Republicans and 68% of Nebraska Democrats disapprove of the U.S. Senate. Politicians have become quickly sensitized to the fact that a majority of voters are tired of the gridlock caused by hyper-conservative or hyper-liberal stances in Congress.

As a result, candidates like Ben Sasse aim to spin their campaign in a more nonpartisan light. Ben Sasse states in the first sentence on his website that he “is a fifth-generation Nebraskan who fixes broken institutions.”  He also goes on to claim in his campaign video “The Outsider: Leaving the Influence Peddlers Behind”, “They’re all wrong. Both parties. Last time Republicans were in charge, we spent through the roof, then President Obama came in and blew the doors off.”

If Sasse believes that both parties are equally at fault, then why has he decided to run on a highly conservative, highly partisan platform? If you go to his issues page on his website, every single issue from immigration to healthcare to the debt aligns seamlessly with not only a clear cut party affiliated stance, but one of extreme right-wing conservatism as well. I do not see a glimpse of bridge-building or an iota of attempting to “fix the broken system” by working together between both parties. All I see is an unchangeable and unbreakable continuation of highly partisan politics that has left our current Congress stagnant.

Now if you are a voter who says, “Yep. That’s exactly what we need to do, stick to our guns and ram through our unyielding, non-negotiable legislation,” then Sasse is your candidate, and so is Domina for that matter if you are on the other side. If you are prepared to have equally polarized legislation jammed back and forth down the throats of either party in a never-ending and maddeningly non-progressing state of ineptitude, then continue to vote for partisan politicians.

I invite Mr. Sasse to be straight forward with Nebraskans and fly his partisan flag high if that’s what he truly stands for. Do not state that you are “against the establishment” if you have every intention of keeping that establishment rigidly in place. As he states quite clearly in his campaign video (sited above), “We need to show Americans, we’re the party of conservative solutions. That’s the only way we win.”

Win? Lose? Unfortunately this has become the terminology and mindset of partisan candidates today. Instead of seeking power and “a win”, why not focus on working together to move our country forward?

If it were up to Mr. Sasse we would “force Nebraska’s conservative values, decency, and common sense into that building.” (The Outsider: Leaving the Influence Peddlers Behind)

As much as I love Nebraska, our values, our decency, and our common sense, I also believe that America was built on the foundation that people wouldn’t be able to FORCE anyone to do anything, that this is a country built on freedom and liberty, two words that are antonyms to “FORCE”, which Sasse recommends we apply directly within Congress if he is elected.

According to The Outsider: Leaving the Influence Peddlers Behind, Sasse and I agree that “this election must be about saving our country from the establishment” and “disrupting the current system”. Where we don’t agree is on which candidate has the best resume and the most honest approach to doing that job.

Sasse ends his campaign video by saying modestly, “If you think an establishment insider is going to fix that place, then I’m not your guy.”

Out of the four Senatorial candidates, who is the “establishment insider” if not Sasse? With big outside money support and endorsements from well know tea-partyers like Sarah Palin and Taylor Budowich, Executive Director of the Tea Party Express, the nation’s largest Tea Party political action committee, Sasse is definitely your guy.

Listen, then vote.

Whoo! What a week. Sorry for the late blog post, but it has been one of the craziest weeks for the Jenkins for Senate campaign team. Last week we had a booth at the state fair which we had to man every day from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, three fundraisers in a row in three different cities, alongside the visit of our new friend, supporter, and keynote speaker for the events, Linda Killian.

I would like to begin this post by thanking Linda Killian for her visit. Nebraskans know what I mean when I say it is often a struggle to persuade our East Coast and West Coast friends to make a visit all the way out to Nebraska. Often times it will take months and even years to cajole them from these areas and finally painstakingly convince them to make the trip.

“But why on earth would we want to visit Nebraska?” they might say to themselves.

While this may have been the question that Linda Killian asked herself, she decided to make her first trip ever out to Nebraska to support Dad in his campaign anyway. As I told the guests at each of our fundraisers in Kearney, Lincoln, and Omaha, Ms. Killian has led a spectacular career as a renowned journalist and political analyst. She currently writes for The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Daily Beast, and The Atlantic, just to name a few publications. She has appeared on national television as political analyst, specializing in the independent voter population across America and has written a book called The Swing Vote which explores the majority of middle of the road voters who find themselves left out of one or the other of the major political parties. Linda’s interest in the independent movement and her dedication to helping repair the broken political system our country finds itself burdened with today is the ultimate reason she decided to pack up her cowgirl boots (literally) and head to Nebraska.

Dad giving his message in Lincoln at the Cornhusker Hotel.

I was very nervous for the fundraisers because these are the first events that I have planned for the campaign. While I did a lot of trip and event planning in Senegal for the Peace Corps, I don’t mind telling you that planning an event in Senegal and the United States are worlds apart. Something I also found myself thinking about during the planning process for the events was how it really worked out for me to be organizing my Dad’s campaign events because with the Peace Corps, I was also used to having no budget. No money calls for creative measures and that’s exactly what I got to do with these fundraisers.

The Magnolia Hotel, our beautiful Omaha venue.

Armed with great venues that set the tone of the event, a couple of well-placed balloon bouquets, 8 Target picture frames, and a variety of other low cost decoration tricks, we started our fundraising tour. From the World Theatre in Kearney, to the Cornhusker in Lincoln, and finally ending at the Magnolia in Omaha we became event-prep machines. By the last event, we could set up in 30 minutes and take down in 20.

As always, I was relieved and grateful at every single event to see the first wave of guests come in. As soon as the event is actually underway, things always go much smoother. I can finally breathe a little bit and find myself enjoying meeting and talking to the people who have become such loyal supporters of Dad’s campaign.

My younger sister Haley, my mom, and I talking with Linda Killian.

With this being said, these events also highlight how frustrating it can be to put on events like this and not get the turn out that you had hoped for. I realize that everyone has their own lives and that taking an evening out of it to give a political candidate a chance in a system you are totally disillusioned with can be a bit of stretch. It’s not that I don’t understand why people don’t show up. If I weren’t a part of this campaign, I’d probably be right there with the rest of you.

But then this is the question. How do we make people care? How do we get people to come and listen to Dad’s message? Even with all of the personal emails, calls, and messages that we send out to people, even though we publicize the events through social media, radio, and newspaper, we still have a disappointingly low turnout.

There are a couple of answers that come to mind: 1. People are going to vote along their party lines and it won’t matter if they hear Dad’s message or not.  2. People are disillusioned by the entire political system and have lost hope that their vote and support will make any difference in this election. 3. People DO simply have busy lives and have not given priority to hearing a  political candidate speak.

Dad’s message resonates with a majority of the people who hear it,  whether they are Republicans, Democrats, or Independents. Once they hear the message, we are in the safe zone. The obstacle is getting people to come listen to the message in the first place.

To the people who showed up and supported Dad at these events, I cannot thank you enough. You really don’t know how much it means to the whole team who work so hard to make his message take off and resound around this state. We believe in my Dad and we are doing everything we can to make as many people in this state believe it as well.

To the people who didn’t show up because you couldn’t, didn’t want to, or won’t ever, I beg you to take a look at the system currently governing our country. Is Congress doing anything to resolve our nation’s issues? If you are someone who believes my Dad is just another wannabe politician looking for a power position in a stagnant Congress, I can tell you that you are wrong. We need more people like him there. And if you believe that your vote and your support won’t change anything, I ask you where does change begin then?

It begins with the courage to stand up and say “enough” to a broken government who has done nothing for far too long. My dad has done that. That’s the hard part. Now all you have to do is get behind him.

Listen to his message. If after you hear him you still don’t want to vote for him, that’s fair. All I’m asking you to do is listen and then decide.

 

Parades: The most glamorous part of campaigning

If you would have asked me what I expected to be doing on the campaign trail, I never would have thought to answer, “Parades”. And yet parades are where I find myself each and every weekend.

Parading: The most glamorous part of campaigning… kind of.

We usually have more than one parade every weekend which means that half the team goes east and half the team goes west. At 6:00 in the morning, we pile into the red truck or the blue truck, and sometimes even a convertible that our friends lends us, and we make the 3 or 4 hour drive to towns like West Point, Millard, Ogallala, and Imperial. Sometimes Dad lets us stop for coffee at McDonald’s, but only if we have enough time. Usually, we end up pulling into the parade line just in the nick of time. Then the campaigning begins.

Melanni Loper, Dad, and I in the “parade mobile”.

Stage 1: Transformation of the Parade Mobile

I slap on American flag and slogan magnets all over the truck or car and Dad rigs up the wooden sign stand that our friend Dallas made us to sit on the back of the truck bed cover. We wipe off all the dead bugs that have collected on the hood from our long country drive to get to the parade and we fill the candy bags.

 

Stage 2: Pre-Parade Schmoozing

When the “parade mobile” has been satisfactorily transformed, Dad goes off to talk to everyone else in the parade line and I make conversation with the people around us. Mostly I like to admire the different floats that people have probably spent hours designing and decorating and talking to them about how they did it.

At one parade we were next to a float with a baby zebra on a flatbed trailer decorated as a bathtub. In another parade, six young men wearing nothing but boots and overalls and aviators ran out from a cardboard house on top of a flatbed trailer and did a synchronized dance to Michael Jackson’s Easy as 1,2,3 song. It was great fun to follow, but a bit of a show stealer.

Stage 3: Parade Time

At every parade, there are golf carts that zoom around the side streets letting everyone know when it’s their turn to go. As soon as the All-Powerful Parade Person (you always know who this person is) gives the magic signal, we take our place in the parade line. I walk in front of the car with the giant Jenkins for Senate sign held out in front of me. Dad has a bag of candy and a bag of stickers.  He does a pretty bad job of giving kids enough candy, but he does a great job of spotting Ben Sasse and Dave Domina stickers on the kids and then sticking his dangerously close (sometimes he might even overlap a bit). Mom also has a bag of candy, but she does a much better job at giving hefty handfuls to the kids, so she is always running behind. Dad and I have to yell at her to keep up a lot.

I always think that it is going to be hard to keep a smile on my face for the entire parade, but honestly, it’s pretty easy to smile at parades. I guess I never noticed it before, but people are in the best moods at these events. Usually they are sitting with groups of friends and family, clustered with their fold out camping chairs and seated on stairs under the local drug store or bank. Sometimes they pull their cars and pickups right up to the parade route and they have coolers of drinks and snack foods. The kids run barefoot and bathing suit clad in the streets and scream for candy. I always hope that it’s a special parade day occasion where their parents let them have semi-bad manners. Friends and neighbors yell jokes and greetings across the street to each other and the feeling of festivity is quite palpable. I always have to remember that we are probably the only ones from out of the county and that for everyone else, this is the parade of the year. This is the day that many people look forward to annually, just like how I feel about our Pioneer Picnic Parade in Callaway.

Finally, the event that we have driven hours to be at is over in a matter of minutes. It’s a matter of seconds for us to dissemble the parade mobile and hit the road back home. Usually we have another parade to get to the next day, maybe in a completely different part of the state.

                                                              ______________________

Parading is exhausting and also means that on the campaign trail there are no weekends. The most amazing thing to me, is that the candidate himself goes to as many as he can. Obviously Dad can’t be in two places at once, but every single weekend he is out there.

When I asked Dad why it was so important to be at all of these small town parades across the state (probably grumpily because I had to get up for another Saturday morning at 6:00), he said that even the small towns have 1,000 people at them which mean 2,000 eyes seeing a candidate who is willing to come all the way out to their town, their festival, and meet them. It’s the effort that counts, and when you see a candidate that shows up, hopefully you remember him.

I don’t know if he’s right, but I sure hope that some of those parade-goers remember Jim Jenkins. We might not have a customized parade bus, but we do have a political candidate who shows up at every single parade he can get to. You may have seen the Sasse bus in Western Nebraska, but did you ever see the man himself out there? I haven’t.

The Ben Sasse Parade Bus

The Jim Jenkins Pickup Truck

The parades have been a surprisingly fun way to see towns and Nebraskans across the state. Walking down the middle of Main Street with hundreds of people on each side is a pretty unique way to see a place and its people.

Proud to be Nebraskan

Three years is a long time. Not long enough to forget who you are and where you come from, but long enough to be a bit shocked on the event of returning to the “homeland”. Sometimes it’s the little things like the seemingly 500 different kinds of cereal choices in the grocery store or stepping outside to rolling hills and cornfields rather than to ocean and West African market chaos. Sometimes I think about the bigger implications, like the fact that I am once again in the racial majority and can go quite anonymously through the city streets of Kearney or Callaway or that I can speak to everyone again in my native language. Leaving for so long unveils the beauty that I took for granted when I lived here, because before it was normal to me.

One of these “beauties” for me has been the Nebraskan people themselves. Marching down the middle of the street with my big blue Jenkins for Senate sign has recently given me a front row view of Nebraskans from all over the state. When I go with Dad to meet and greets I have the opportunity to sit among people and listen to their questions and concerns. At all of these events, being back here among Nebraskans has given me a sense of comfort to know that no matter where I go in the world, these are the people I return to. These are the people who raised me and taught me the qualities of being a good and honest person, to be tough and work hard, and to be a friendly face to anyone I meet. These qualities have served me well wherever I have gone in the world, and differentiated me from my peers.  When anyone asks where I grew up, I am always proud to answer, “Nebraska”.

Every day that I work on the campaign, I wonder if we are reaching anyone. I know that even if Dad doesn’t win, even if he is rolled by either party, he showed people that he dared to try. If we can show citizens across this state and this country that there are people like my dad willing to work for a greater cause then themselves and their allegiance to party, we’ve done something. By taking a risk and running as a non-partisan, my dad has stood up to a broken system with a solution for change: collaboration, bridge-building, and team work.

Now I know those things are characteristic of Nebraskans, which makes Nebraskans the perfect candidates to vote for someone who will represent them loyally and honestly. It’s time to send someone to Washington with a real Nebraska resume, and more importantly, a true Nebraska heart.