Candidates running for Buffalo County GOP

“We have an administrative problem,” said candidate Casey Schilke, referring to KPS Superintendent Jason Mundorf.

Schilke accused Mundorf of overstepping his authority.

Schilke was one of two school board candidates who spoke to a gathering of about 50 people at the Kearney Public Library. The candidate forum took place in the lead-up to Tuesday’s statewide primary elections.

“My vote just won’t go toward what he (Mundorf) wants,” Schilke said.

He said KPS must focus on strengthening the teaching force, protecting girls from competition with boys, removing inappropriate books from school libraries and accumulating too much construction debt.

“My goal is to hire the best people to teach and mentor our children,” Schilke said.

Candidate Chad Gillespie said he has five sons attending KPS so his focus will be on the schools for at least 12 years.

“If our elected officials are not tools of conservatives, then we need to elect new leaders,” Gillespie said. “I want this board to be made up of conservatives.”

The KPS primary has nine candidates. Six of them will qualify for the general elections on November 5. Aside from Schilke and Gillespie, most of the candidates running for the KPS board did not speak at the county GOP meeting. They are incumbent Steve Gaasch and candidates Jason Peck, Will Kirkland, Amy Barth, Niki Deeds, Chuck Kreis and Amanda Smallcomb.

Three seats on the school board will be open during the general election.

Three Kearney City Council candidates spoke, including incumbent Jonathan Nikkila and challengers Kurt Schmidt and Alex Straatmann. Those who did not appear at the GOP forum were Bryce Nelson, Eric Mortimore, Jamie Bernu, Shawna Meyer and Eric Davis.

Three seats are open, so six candidates will advance to the council primary.

Two legislative candidates also presented themselves.

Lana Peister is running against Stan Clouse and Nathan Leach in the District 37 race to replace Sen. John Lowe, who is retiring. Two candidates will advance to the general election in an officially nonpartisan legislative race.

Also present was Dan McKeon, a farmer from Amherst, who is running against Nadine Diane Bane of Scotia and Ethan Clark of Ord for the District 41 seat.

“God put me here to fight for you guys. I think 2024 will be very biblical,” McKeon said.

Sen. Tom Briese of Albion represented District 41 until Gov. Jim Pillen named him state treasurer.