By AARON SANDERFORD
Nebraska Examiner
OMAHA — Nebraska gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster is getting the Nebraska visit he sought for months from former President Donald Trump late in a tightening GOP race.
Trump’s team announced Tuesday that Trump would appear at an April 29 rally at I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska, less than two weeks before the May 10 primary election.
The invitation to the Trump rally lists Herbster as Trump’s special guest speaker.
Herbster had been the clear favorite in the Republican governor’s primary for months since securing Trump’s endorsement in October. Polling in recent months shows a tightening three-way race between Herbster, University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen and State Sen. Brett Lindstrom.
Gov. Pete Ricketts has backed Pillen, and Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert has endorsed Lindstrom. Former State Sen. Theresa Thibodeau is also among those running.
This will be Trump’s first political rally in Nebraska since Oct. 27, 2020, when the president said he had rallied more than 29,000 people on the private side of Eppley Airfield in Omaha.
Trump won Nebraska’s statewide vote in 2020, but he lost an Electoral College vote to President Joe Biden in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District.