Sen. Ben Sasse has said he wants to find a third-party candidate. | Getty Ben Sasse under fire The Nebraska senator has become the most prominent elected Republican to embrace the “#NeverTrump” movement.

Sen. Ben Sasse’s outspoken rejection of Donald Trump is roiling Nebraska Republican politics, and the discord is threatening to boil over at the state’s GOP convention Saturday.

A prominent Nebraska political operative — who is the nephew of senior GOP Sen. Deb Fischer — is behind a move to publicly rebuke the anti-Trump movement. Sam Fischer has issued a proposed resolution — set for a vote at the convention — declaring that the state party will refuse to support any Republican officeholder who opposes the GOP presidential nominee or agitates for a third-party candidate.


Though the measure doesn’t name Sasse, the junior senator is clearly the target. He has become the most prominent elected Republican to embrace the “#NeverTrump” movement and call for a conservative candidate to join the field. He recently reiterated his support for a February Facebook post in which he shredded Trump as ill-suited to be president and said he’d refuse to support him as the nominee.

“If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, my expectation is that I will look for some third candidate — a conservative option, a Constitutionalist,” he wrote at the time.

But Trump has since vanquished his remaining primary rivals and become the party’s presumptive nominee. Earlier this week, running effectively unopposed, Trump carried Nebraska 61 to 18 percent over Ted Cruz, whose name still appeared on the ballot.

Three well-placed Nebraska sources with knowledge of Sam Fischer’s effort say he’d never propose the measure without the tacit approval of his aunt. The state’s politics is too close-knit, and the Fischers have been longtime political allies.

But Sen. Fischer’s chief of staff Joe Hack insisted the senator “has not been involved in any resolutions,” noting that she’ll be speaking at the convention and joining Gov. Pete Ricketts in backing a slate of delegates to the national convention. “That is the extent of her involvement,” Hack said.

Asked whether she was aware of her nephew’s measure, Hack replied, “Like I said, she has not been involved in anything else.” Would she support it? “She hasn’t seen anything, so no way to know how she’ll vote on whatever is presented. Like I said, she hasn’t been involved. End of story. Nothing else to add.”

Reached via text message, Sam Fischer — who advised one of Sasse’s GOP primary opponents during his successful 2014 Senate bid — described his proposal as “not a censure” and insisted his aunt “has nothing to do with this.”

“I did this on my own,” he said, adding that he presented it to the state convention’s Resolutions Committee, which gave it unanimous approval. “I am not actively campaigning for votes. Senator Sasse is upside down. Please correct your information.”

State party chairman Dan Welch added that he’s “quite certain that Senator Fischer has nothing to do with the resolution.”

But the three local sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, argued that Sen. Fischer has a tight grip on Nebraska politics and would be well aware of her nephew’s effort. Though she might not be driving the effort, she could easily stop it if she disagreed, they said.