At my campaign kickoff in October of 2025, I shared a story that a good friend of mine used to tell. It was about a sea Captain who saw pirates approaching on the horizon and calls out, “bring me my red shirt”! Following a brave battle, a crewman asked him why he needed the red shirt and he replied, “if I happened to be wounded in battle and bleeding, I didn’t want the men to be discouraged so that they would fight on”. The next day the lookout shouts from the crow’s nest, “ten enemy ship on the horizon”, to which the Captain pauses and then shouts to his first mate… “bring me my brown pants”!!!
At that event over a year ago, I shared that during my first campaign, I sometimes felt like I should be wearing brown pants. But on that day, and every day since, I’ve worn my red shirt!
I knew I was going into battle and was not unafraid, but aware of the risks and wanted to ensure that others around me knew I was prepared for injuries and not to be discouraged along the way. Yes, I’ve been wearing my red shirt ever since, and yes, there are battle scars. Some are very fresh and there are certainly more to come.
Wounds won’t close and some are bleeding heavily, but they are wounds, and none of them are mortal. All of them will scar over and the new tissue will be stronger than the old. All of them increase my resolve to stay in the battle and do great things for Nebraskans. All of them increase my despise for lies and liars. All of the wounds will make me stronger.
Recently, I was lamenting with my family, some of the lies that have been said about me by my opponent and her proxies. I mentioned casually, “you all know how I feel about lies”. Each one of them looked at each other quietly and then looked at me and said, “oh yeah, we know”. They know that lying is unacceptable in our home and always came with consequences. In my mind and my heart there are few greater offenses.
Lying should also be unacceptable by your candidates. Lying is not changing your position on an issue because you have new facts or new information. Lying is the intentional mis-framing of your, or another’s, position. And by the way, mom was right. A half-truth is still a lie.
Campaigns seem to have skipped way over the half-truth and now live in the 1% truth category. If there is a shred of truth in a statement it is framed as if it is the entire story, which is rarely the case.
Examples of the mistruths from my opponent and her Democrat backers:
LIE: Brad and the legislature killed medical marijuana
TRUTH: Proponents of recreational marijuana brought a bill that would have broadly expanded the ballot initiative passed by voters, AND added a tax on medicine! Yes I voted against that because it defied the will of the voters. My opponent is now using this vote to say I undermined the voters, but the opposite is true: voters never supported taxing medicine, they never supported recreational marijuana, and the actual measure they passed is exactly what became law.
LIE: Brad voted for a sales tax increase
TRUTH: There was NEVER a vote regarding a sales tax increase and I never supported the concept.
LIE: Brad voted to tax food!
TRUTH: I supported a bill that would have eliminated the sales tax exemption on pop and candy. If you think pop and candy are food, then you have bigger problems than grasping the truth.
LIE: Brad gave the rich a huge tax break!
TRUTH: I passed a bill that gave nearly ALL Nebraskans a tax break! If you make $18,000 or more, congratulations… my opponent says that you’re rich!!
LIE: Brad lied about term limits
TRUTH: I don’t even know where this one comes from! I supported the bill that will, on November Third, allow voters to decide whether a third term for state senators is desired, leaning into the will of the “second house”. I also stated publicly that regardless of that initiative’s outcome, I would not seek a third term. Lastly, I pledged to fight for congressional term limits at the federal level. Crazy!
Now, let’s turn that coin over and I’ll share a few truths about my opponent that are NOT half-truths.
TRUTH: She will roll back the income tax cut and property tax relief we put in place in 2023
HOW DO I KNOW: Deductive reasoning. She has not outlined a plan for anything publicly. Nothing on property taxes, nothing on how she’ll balance the budget, nothing on how to “fix” property taxes, and nothing on how to make life more affordable. She has however followed the Democrat incumbents in the Legislature like a sheep for the past four or more years, and I know that their strategy is to raise taxes to accomplish all of their hopes and dreams. If you don’t believe me, there are numerous photos of Cindy with Michaela Cavanaugh, John Cavanaugh, Megan Hunt out there in the metaverse. She also recently mentioned the income tax cut on the Dan Parsons show as something she considered to be fair game for adjusting.
TRUTH: She will advocate for biological boys to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms and be allowed into women’s sports, in violation of Title IV.
HOW DO I KNOW: She has made this a hallmark issue for her and her friends over the past four years, reminding me of it at every opportunity. Somehow, she seems to have left this topic off of her mailers, website, and palm cards during election season. Kind of makes you stop and think, doesn’t it?
TRUTH: She will seek to roll back restrictions on gender transition surgeries and treatments for kids, allowing the butchering of healthy body parts in the name of liberalism.
HOW DO I KNOW: See my response to the previous question.
TRUTH: She is willing to tax medicine in order to get what she wants.
HOW DO I KNOW?: She vocally and visibly supported a bill in 2025 that would have taxed medical cannabis, a clear effort to try to bribe conservatives into supporting a wild expansion to what voters approved in the ballot initiative. This effort effectively set back medical cannabis availability to the public by a year or two.
TRUTH: Cindy Maxwell Ostdiek is a non-partisan
HOW DO I KNOW?: Her favorite statement while campaigning is to say “I’m an Independent”. Note that I capitalized that term, which is technically improper because there IS NO INDEPENDENT REGISTRATION IN NEBRASKA! You may register as a “non-partisan,” and I presume that is what she means to say. The truth is that there is nothing independent about Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek. She follows the leaders on the left at every turn. I’ve never seen her back a conservative issue in the Capitol in the past four years. If she were truly an independent thinker, wouldn’t she sway from the Dems every once in awhile? Don’t be fooled into thinking that a non-partisan means that person will compromise or land in the middle of an issue. Beyond this, her supporters are Democrats, she’s endorsed by the Democrat Party, receives most of her contributions from far-left liberal PACs, and even uses a website donation platform designed exclusively for – and built by – Democrats.
Sidenote: You know who the only non-partisan is in the Legislature? Megan Hunt. Megan left the Democrat party because they were not liberal enough for her. Makes you wonder if that’s not the case with Cindy Maxwell-Ostdiek, doesn’t it?
I could share more, but you’re exhausted by all of this and so am I. Voters I’m talking to at their doors are clearly exhausted with this election and have for the most part, tuned things out.
I know clearly, the battle isn’t over and it won’t be over on November 3 either. The battle will continue, I will always be wearing my red shirt, and I will always do my best for Nebraskans.