Osborn for Senate
Today, Independent U.S. Senate Candidate Dan Osborn released the following statement in response to the lawsuit filed yesterday by Nebraska and other states to halt the Trump administration’s rescheduling of marijuana:
“Pete Ricketts’ handpicked Attorney General is going after the Trump Administration to try and deprive Nebraskan’s of a potential economic boon for our state. In the meantime, the Ricketts family broke ground being the first MLB team to sell hemp-derived drinks at Wrigley Field. This ‘good enough for me but not for thee’-type attitude is exactly why Nebraska farmers have found it harder and harder to make ends meet under almost a decade of Ricketts rule.
“This is the kind of out-of-touch political nonsense that makes people hate politics. Pete Ricketts and his cronies are once again wasting taxpayer dollars to override the will of the voters and kill an industry that could create jobs, support farmers, and help patients across our state – and Nebraskans are sick of it,” Osborn said.
A brief history of Pete Ricketts’ staunch opposition to medical marijuana:
- On April 20, 2026 Senators Pete Ricketts and Ted Budd collaborated with a cannabis prohibition group to file legislation that aims to discourage federal marijuana reform by showcasing what they say is a “strain on health care costs.”
- In December 2025, Ricketts signed on to a letter with 22 other Senators addressing President Trump and opposing his order to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule III Drug. Inside this letter is a claim that marijuana use would mean “we cannot re-industrialize America,” and an argument that marijuana use will lead to more school shootings.
- Pete Ricketts partnered with anti-marijuana advocates on $500,000 worth of ads opposing the medical marijuana ballot initiative passed by 71% of Nebraska voters in 2022.
- As Governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts infamously claimed that “marijuana will kill your kids.”
