Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb responded Thursday to the announcement by former Democratic Rep. Brad Ashford that he will not run as a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate.
“Our party will have a strong candidate on our ballot line or that voters can write-in,” said NDP Chair Jane Kleeb. “We stood up to Janicek who sexually harassed a staff member and intend to have a candidate that Democrats, Independents and Republicans can be proud to vote for in order to defeat Ben Sasse. Our party is determined to win two electoral votes for Joe Biden and send the first women — Kate Bolz and Kara Eastman — to represent our state from their congressional districts. We don’t put our head in the sand like Ben Sasse and Don Bacon do when it comes to inappropriate behavior of a candidate — we take destructive behavior head on and continue to work hard to end the one-party rule in our state.”
Background: The NDP withdrew all party resources and support of Senate candidate Chris Janicek after it was revealed he sexually harassed a female campaign staff member. The NDP asked Janicelk to decline the nomination so that his name could be replaced on the November ballot with Alisha Shelton, a mental health therapist with strong grassroots support. State law precludes candidates who ran in the primary election from running as a write-in candidate. The party is committed, if Chris does not decline the nomination by the Sec. of State’s deadline of Sept. 1, 2020, to submitting a name for the write-in option on the ballot. If Chris does decline the nomination, the party will submit Alisha Shelton’s name to appear on the ballot.
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