LINCOLN — As Nebraska’s fledgling Nebraska Working People Party and America First Party navigate dueling lawsuits, new data indicates where supporters gathered signatures in pursuit of the November ballot.
According to data from the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office, each party well surpassed the minimum number of signatures needed to move on to the next step of formation, which is filing governing documents. Under state law, signature verification can cease after officials validate at least 110% of the signatures needed — 6,728 signatures in this case.
Supporters needed at least 2,262 signatures in Nebraska’s 1st Congressional District, 2,200 in the 2nd District and 2,266 in the 3rd District. The threshold is based on 1% of the number of votes cast for governor in 2022.
Across the congressional districts, just two counties are split. Parts of Polk County are in the 1st and 3rd districts, while Sarpy is in the 1st and 2nd districts. Election officials did not have exact counts of gathered signatures per district because of the split counties. Still, both proposed parties surpassed 110% of the signature requirement in each district, even excluding Polk and Sarpy.
In the end, supporters for the two parties got conditional approval to move ahead with formation, pending legal action, after each gathered valid signatures from just 0.7% of all registered voters this year. Not all voters turned out in 2022, and there are more voters now than four years ago.
Local election officials validated signatures across 87 counties for the Nebraska Working People Party and 63 counties for the America First Party.
Of the 89 counties with signatures validated, the Nebraska Working People Party had slightly more signatures than the other proposed party in 65 counties, while the America First Party had slightly more in 18 counties. Six counties had the same number of signatures for each party.
The four counties with no signatures validated were Blaine, Dundy, Grant and Rock.
A breakdown of the official signature results from the Secretary of State’s Office:
Nebraska Working People Party
The Nebraska Working People Party is led by Robin Richards of Ralston. She is a Democrat who ran as a write-in candidate for Legislative District 12 this spring. She was the runner-up for the same district in 2022.
Richards filed petition language June 25 and turned in signatures July 14. The Secretary of State’s Office said organizers estimated they turned in 8,000-12,000 signatures.
Petitions said the party’s purpose is to give voters an organization “dedicated to advancing the interests of working families, middle-class Nebraskans, rural communities, small businesses, farmers, ranchers and individuals seeking practical solutions to improve economic opportunity, strengthen communities and promote responsive and accountable government.”
The party had a broader canvassing approach than the America First Party, with the most voters per capita in Lincoln County (3.7% of 23,061 registered voters as of July 1). North Platte is the county seat. The county accounted for about 9.5% of all valid signatures.
About 60% of the party’s valid signatures came from the state’s most populous counties: Douglas (28.5%), Lancaster (21.7%) and Sarpy (9.5%). An additional 12% of signatures came from the fourth and fifth most populous counties, Hall (7.5%) and Buffalo (5%) in central Nebraska.
Petitioners had greater success in rural parts of Nebraska, including the Panhandle and Sandhills, which tend to be more conservative.
The Nebraska Democratic Party, alongside the national Working Families Party, is suing to stop official formation of the Nebraska Working People Party.
America First Party
The America First Party is led by John Cartier of Lincoln. He is a registered nonpartisan who had been registered with the Nebraska Democratic Party for about a decade before briefly joining the Legal Marijuana NOW party in the 2024 election cycle, according to voter data from the Lancaster County Election Commission. He returned to the Democratic Party by spring 2025 and ran for a seat on the Lincoln Public Schools Board of Education. He switched to nonpartisan sometime between May 2025 and May 2026.
He is also the attorney general for the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska and serves as treasurer for Legal Marijuana NOW’s U.S. Senate nominee Mike Marvin.
Cartier filed petition language July 1 and turned in signatures July 15. The Secretary of State’s Office said organizers estimated they turned in more than 15,500 signatures.
Petitions said the party’s purpose is to give voters an organization “committed to putting Americans and Nebraskans ahead of all others by cracking down on out-of-control government spending and wasteful foreign aid, getting tough on illegal immigrants, standing up against abortion and rigidly defending the Second Amendment.”
The party had a narrower canvassing approach than the Nebraska Working People Party. The most voters per capita came in Hall County (3.5% of 32,792 registered voters as of July 1). Grand Island is the county seat, and the county accounted for about 13% of all valid signatures.
About 69% of the party’s signatures came from the state’s most populous counties: Douglas (30%), Lancaster (29.5%) and Sarpy (9.3%). Another 18% of signatures came from the fourth and fifth most populous counties, Hall (13%) and Buffalo (5.5%) in central Nebraska.
Petitioners had greater success in urban parts of Nebraska, including the metropolitan area around Omaha and the state’s capital of Lincoln, which tend to be more liberal.
The Nebraska Republican Party is suing to stop the official formation of the America First Party.
Pending legal fights
Lancaster County District Judge Darla Ideus has been assigned the dueling lawsuits from Nebraska’s largest political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, seeking to block the new parties. Each contends the new parties seek to mislead voters and damage existing candidates.
If the parties do move ahead, voters could register and party candidates could still join the November ballot. It’s unclear what races, if any, party leaders would target.
Ideus has temporarily blocked Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen from certifying any governing documents for either new party, if or when leaders turn them in.
About 49.3% of Nebraska voters were registered Republicans as of Aug. 1 compared to 26.1% Democrats. An additional 1.4% of voters are Libertarians, and 0.8% are affiliated with the Legal Marijuana NOW party. About 22.4% of voters are not registered with any political party.
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