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Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, a Republican, wrote in U.S. Sen. John McCain for president.

“I wanted to be very proud of my vote,” said Stothert, who kicked off her re-election campaign Monday.

She noted that McCain was vetted when he was the Republican nominee for president in 2008.

She said she shares his philosophical ideals, he is a leader in the Senate and he is a “true gentleman.”

Stothert said she didn’t consider the McCain write-in to be wasting her vote.

“Wasting a vote would be (picking) someone I don’t feel confidence in,” she said.

Stothert said she’ll support Donald Trump as president-elect.

And she said she’s a Republican. “I believe in their philosophy and ideals, not based on the candidate of the moment.”

Stothert has said she didn’t favor Trump in the Republican primary.

She originally said she planned to vote for the Republican nominee. But she withdrew that statement after a tape surfaced of him using crude language to describe grabbing women and kissing them without their permission.