Lynne Walz, Nebraska Democratic candidate for governor, revealed her running mate

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Today, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Nebraska, Lynne Walz, announced her running mate. Ben Steffen, 64, is a farmer and ag leader from Humboldt. He will be running as Walz’s lieutenant governor in the midterm election.

Steffen has been a leader in the agricultural community, including Chair of the Richardson County Farm Bureau, former President of Ag Builders of Nebraska and more. He is from Humboldt where he farms land that has been in his family for 130 years.

Steffen spoke about the topics he will focus on with Walz as lieutenant governor.

“Folks, we have big challenges ahead of us. We are dealing with higher groceries, higher gas, higher rent, you name it. It’s bad. Healthcare, senior care, and day care are getting harder to come by in our rural communities. The Farm Bureau is projecting that farmers will lose 167 dollars for every acre of corn this year, and we have a lot of corn. Our business growth has slowed dramatically,” said Steffen. “Our state is broke. That’s hard to admit, but Nebraska is broke. In four years, we went from a 1.2 billion dollar surplus to a 1 billion dollar deficit that continues to grow every single month. Pillen continues to promise property tax relief but he couldn’t bring people together to get it done with a massive surplus. Everyone knows he can’t build a consensus to deliver on property taxes especially when we have a billion dollar budget hole.”

Gov. Jim Pillen’s campaign released a statement regarding the recent announcement.

“This pick further solidifies Walz’s liberal record on hiking property taxes, keeping boys in girls’ sports, and giving taxpayer subsidies to Big Tech data centers,” Taylor Sliva, Pillen’s campaign manager, said. 

Sliva also stated that Steffen has ties to the ‘No Kings’ protest in March, where he spoke before the crowd.