Chris Janicek’s Run

by Corey Osborne, Reporter

OMAHA – With election day past us, and with hot-button issues such as health care, police reform, and rebuilding the economy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, being at the forefront of voters’ minds. Democrat Senate candidate Chris Janicek has taken a stance against Republican Senate incumbent Ben Sasse.

Janicek’s campaign slogan is “Enough” when asked what he had enough of, this is what he said. 

“We’ve had enough of the corruption in politics, we’ve had enough of the politicians saying one thing and doing another, we’ve had enough of the empty promises that these politicians or candidates have made before they become politicians.” 

Janicek specifically sited grievances with Senator Sasse, and his approach to affordable health care.

Reporter Corey Osborne interviewing Chris Janicek.

“Our current sitting Senator promised to fix (health care) in 2014, and he openly admits that he failed to fix it and here we are again six years later.”

Janicek elaborated on why this issue is not just integral to his campaign, it’s personal to him. 

“As a small business owner, that health care affects me and affects the people who work with me in my business. We are all on the Affordable Healthcare Act because it’s the only thing that’s attainable and affordable at this point, and the current senator (Sasse) and senate are trying to take that away with no replacement in sight.”

Although, the focus of Janicek’s campaign is on health care and policy, Janicek’s senate run has been plagued with controversy. The Democratic Party of Nebraska urging him to drop out of the race due to a texting scandal that occurred in early June of this year. 

The Nebraska Democratic Party endorsed write-in candidate Preston Love Jr. after the ‘sexually inappropriate comments’ that Janicek said about one of his staff members. Despite having no support from the Nebraska Democratic Party, he believes that he’s the best choice for Nebraskans. 

 “We have got to appeal to all the people in Nebraska to get the majority of the vote to win and represent, and we cannot do that when we split the party and we don’t welcome democrats, republicans, independents and non-partisans, because they don’t think the way we do.” According to polling data from The Economist, Chris Janicek is currently sitting at a 32 percent and Senate Incumbent Ben Sasse is at 68 percent.