Nebraska will host a David versus Goliath battle for its open Senate seat this November.
Over the last month, Democrat Scott Kleeb began preparing for the election against political giant, Republican Mike Johanns.
Kleeb is an archetype of the new-wave, reactionary Democrats; he supports keeping Roe v. Wade, calls for a government run health care plan and labels climate change “the moral test of our lifetime,” on his campaign’s Web site.
Considering Kleeb’s positions, it’s hard to understand how the Nebraska Democratic Party expects to win in this notoriously red state, whose only congressional Democrat has a strong Republican voting record.
Lucky for them, that Kleeb, like David, is also a shepherd boy.
Well, not a shepherd boy, but he has worked as a Ranch hand and just recently worked at Morgan Ranch in Burwell, Nebraska.
Nebraskans may not know where Burwell is.
Nebraskans also may not know that Kleeb wrote his Yale doctoral dissertation on ranching in the American West.
We may not even know that Kleeb ran for the House of Representatives in 2006.
But if Nebraskans know anything, we know beef, and if Scott Kleeb raises it, he has chance to connect with voters.
Besides beef, Nebraskans know Kleeb’s competition, Johanns, a Republican Goliath in this state.
Johanns has served as the mayor of Lincoln and as the state’s governor. He even had the opportunity to experience beef’s many fine intricacies as the Secretary of Agriculture under the Bush administration.
If you’ve read First Samuel, you will know that Kleeb may need more than just a sling-shot to defeat Johanns.
Let’s assume that he hasn’t inherited Bush’s divine destiny. So Kleeb needs money, lot’s of money.
When the most recent campaign finance reports show that, as of April 23, Kleeb has $240,000 compared to Johanns’s $1.3 million, Kleeb has work to do.
He needs the cash to build name recognition in Omaha and to buy air time so that he can prove he is centrist enough for Nebraska.
With these tasks ahead of him, he may want to throw in a prayer between campaign stops.