Your feedback ensures we stay focused on the facts that matter to you most—take our survey.

Mike Powers (Nebraska)

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
BP-Initials-UPDATED.png
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Mike Powers
Image of Mike Powers
Elections and appointments
Last election

May 14, 2024

Personal
Birthplace
Syracuse, Neb.

Mike Powers ran for election to the Nebraska State Senate to represent District 1. He did not appear on the ballot for the primary on May 14, 2024.

Biography

Mike Powers was born in Syracuse, Nebraska. He earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1984.[1]

Elections

2024

See also: Nebraska State Senate elections, 2024

General election

General election for Nebraska State Senate District 1

Robert Hallstrom defeated Dennis Schaardt in the general election for Nebraska State Senate District 1 on November 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Robert Hallstrom
Robert Hallstrom (Nonpartisan)
 
51.8
 
8,905
Image of Dennis Schaardt
Dennis Schaardt (Nonpartisan)
 
48.2
 
8,302

Total votes: 17,207
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Nebraska State Senate District 1

Dennis Schaardt and Robert Hallstrom defeated Glenda Willnerd and Bob Holman in the primary for Nebraska State Senate District 1 on May 14, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Dennis Schaardt
Dennis Schaardt (Nonpartisan)
 
45.1
 
3,258
Image of Robert Hallstrom
Robert Hallstrom (Nonpartisan)
 
33.8
 
2,439
Glenda Willnerd (Nonpartisan)
 
16.5
 
1,190
Bob Holman (Nonpartisan)
 
4.6
 
332

Total votes: 7,219
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Powers in this election.

2020

See also: Nebraska State Senate elections, 2020

General election

General election for Nebraska State Senate District 1

Incumbent Julie Slama defeated Janet Palmtag in the general election for Nebraska State Senate District 1 on November 3, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Julie Slama
Julie Slama (Nonpartisan)
 
68.1
 
12,033
Janet Palmtag (Nonpartisan)
 
31.9
 
5,627

Total votes: 17,660
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Nebraska State Senate District 1

Incumbent Julie Slama and Janet Palmtag defeated Dennis Schaardt and Mike Powers in the primary for Nebraska State Senate District 1 on May 12, 2020.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Julie Slama
Julie Slama (Nonpartisan)
 
60.5
 
6,553
Janet Palmtag (Nonpartisan)
 
20.7
 
2,244
Image of Dennis Schaardt
Dennis Schaardt (Nonpartisan)
 
18.0
 
1,954
Image of Mike Powers
Mike Powers (Nonpartisan) (Write-in) Candidate Connection
 
0.8
 
86

Total votes: 10,837
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Mike Powers did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

2020

Candidate Connection

Mike Powers completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Powers' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Mike Powers announces his write-in candidacy for District 1 in the Nebraska Legislature. This will be Powers' third attempt at the seat, having run in 2000 against a 2-term incumbent, and in 2004 in a field of six for the open seat.

Powers, 58, resides in Palmyra, Nebraska, where he was raised. As a sixth generation Otoe Countian, Powers comes by his love and craft of the land honestly, with farm heritage from both parents. A 1980 graduate of Palmyra District OR-1 High School and a 1984 graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Powers was a farmer/stockman for 15 years. At age 37, he returned to school, graduating from Southeast Community College in 2000 with an Associates Degree in Graphic Design. Concurrently, Powers apprenticed in architectural drafting where he worked for 5 years before moving to his current job drafting for manufacturing. He is father ("Poppy") to two grown children and now has two grandchildren.

Powers served sixteen years on the District OR-1 Board of Education, from 1995-2011. Powers was at various times Secretary, Vice-President, and President, and it was through involvement in the Nebraska Association of School Boards that Powers developed a deep interest in the work of the Nebraska Legislature. This dream to run for higher office, though it waxed and waned for 24 years, has not died.

"Watching the Legislature these many years, I am drawn to certain issues which relate to aspects of my life. My experiences inform my positions."
  • Property tax relief: Increase State Aid to schools and local subdivisions to decrease tax-asking at the local level; Land values' steep rise crashed the school aid formula.
  • Separation of Powers: Restore the lines being blurred between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of State Government; separate church and state.
  • Equality: Protect a woman's right to choose; end wage and employment inequalities.
"I have lived and watched the relentless depopulation of the rural landscape. Industrial agriculture, often aided by the very political leaders and organizations supposed to support farmers, hastened the demise of rural society. We euphemistically call it "efficiency" when all we really mean is that we have replaced labor with expensive inputs, and diversification with factory farming, resulting in too few farmers to be a relevant political force. Efforts encouraging farm continuity to the next generation have been too little, too late; thus, our current dilemma.

"In a state as vast and sparse as Nebraska, economic development means transportation and communication. Finish the expressway system statewide. Maintain our existing roads. Delay the south beltway until Highway 2 East and I-29 can be secured as less vulnerable. A beltway seems superfluous when the other end of that traffic corridor is prone to flooding for months at a time - twice in 8 years. Failing that, prepare U.S. 75 for heavy traffic. Develop broadband Internet statewide. More towers can't deliver high-speed data as reliably as fiber can.

"We must see the common threads between urban and rural poverty, joblessness, and scarce housing. As a workingman, I care about all those who keep the wheels turning, who are quietly and proudly doing their jobs each day. Without you our economy and society would crumble. I know what it is like to start over. Your issues will be heard."

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Ballotpedia currently provides campaign finance data for all federal- and state-level candidates from 2020 and later. We are continuously working to expand our data to include prior elections. That information will be published here as we acquire it. If you would like to help us provide this data, please consider donating to Ballotpedia.

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on April 21, 2020


Current members of the Nebraska State Senate
Leadership
Senate President:John Arch
Senators
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
John Arch (R)
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
District 19
Rob Dover (R)
District 20
District 21
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
Dan Quick (D)
District 36
District 37
District 38
District 39
District 40
District 41
District 42
District 43
District 44
District 45
District 46
District 47
District 48
District 49
Republican Party (33)
Democratic Party (14)
Nonpartisan (2)