Nebraska GOP candidates are blocking school tours of the state Capitol for campaign events

A decades-old tradition for Nebraska’s fourth graders, school tours of the state Capitol, have been disrupted by GOP candidates’ campaign events for months.

One of the highlights of the tour involves the students laying a circle, gazing up at the dome of the rotunda while their tour guide talks them through “the symbolism of the mosaics,” state Sen. Megan Hunt said. “It’s a really beautiful moment.”

Starting in January, however, those tours started getting interrupted as gubernatorial candidates Jim Pillen and Charles Herbster, along with U.S. House candidate Mike Flood, began holding combined campaign events and press conferences in the rotunda.

“Should I do this? Re-elect Megan Hunt rally and press conference in the rotunda of the Capitol? Does this seem good to do?” Hunt tweeted sarcastically in January, with a picture of members of the press in front of a campaign banner for Flood.

The same day, she said on the Senate floor that holding campaign events in the Capitol broke norms of civility and respect.

“This place is where state government work happens, not where we campaign for reelection,” Hunt said. “To me, it’s very gauche, it’s gnarly.”

Last September, Flood featured the Capitol prominently in a Nebraska Public School Advantage article, crediting his entrance to public service to his fifth grade tour of the state Capitol building.

“It was a chance to see something that every Nebraskan should be proud of. It opened my eyes to the value there is in public service,” he said.

He also had a message for Nebraska’s superintendents: “Make sure that each wave of students coming through your school system has visited the Capitol.”

State Sen. Carol Blood, herself a candidate for governor, said in an emailed statement the press conferences continue to be held and queried.

“If we represent the people, who are we to block them from enjoying their day so we can participate in pomp and circumstance?” she asked.

Hunt attempted to stop Pillen’s campaign from doing just that a few weeks ago.

At the time, the campaign had a giant backdrop and “all these giant signs,” she said, as well as media setting up. “And I noticed this group of fourth graders off to the side, not under the rotunda, but kind of sitting off to the side of a hallway, sitting in a very small circle trying to do the part of the tour that they would be doing in the rotunda.”

When she asked the campaign to move for 15 minutes to allow the children to continue with their tour, a campaign staffer became belligerent.

“They were saying, ‘this is our First Amendment right, you are just trying to silence us. You can’t kick us out of the People’s House. This is our right to do this here.’”

A tour guide, who was also trying to get the campaign to move, ended up contacting Nebraska State Patrol. Hunt said Captain Lance Rogers, who heads Capitol security according to the NSP website, did tell the campaign they weren’t allowed to have signs that large.

“For candidates that say they are all about family values, they sure don’t seem to care that those same families who are taking time off work to tour the capitol or those coming from other states might want to have the full experience,” Blood said. “It’s not the Nebraska way.”

This isn’t the first time Charles Harbster’s campaign has run afoul of family values.

The Donald Trump-endorsed businessman takes after his longtime friend more than politically. A total of eight women have accused Herbster of groping them, including State Sen. Julie Slama, who told the Nebraska Examiner Herbster reached up her skirt and touched her inappropriately, without her consent, during a 2019 event.

Herbster has vehemently denied the allegations, claiming to be “shocked and surprised” by them, KETV Omaha reported. He is suing Slama for defamation, claiming the allegations are part of a scheme to end his candidacy.