Deb Fischer

Debra Lynelle Fischer (born March 1, 1951) is an American politician and former educator serving as the senior United States senator from Nebraska, a seat she has held since 2013.

A member of the Republican Party, Fischer is the third woman to represent Nebraska in the U.S. Senate (after Eva Bowring and Hazel Abel) and the first to be reelected.

Fischer was born Debra Lynelle Strobel on March 1, 1951, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

She is the daughter of Florence M. (née Bock) and Gerold Carl Strobel.

Her father was the State Engineer/Director of the Nebraska Department of Roads under Governors Kay Orr and Ben Nelson and her mother was an elementary school teacher with Lincoln Public Schools.

In 1972, Strobel married Bruce Fischer, from Valentine, Nebraska; she had met him at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

She and her husband raised three sons on the Fischer family cattle ranch south of Valentine.

In 1987, she returned to the university and completed her B.S. degree in education.

From 1990 to 2004, Fischer served on the Valentine Rural High School Board of Education.

In 1990, Fischer was elected to the Valentine Rural High School Board of Education, serving until 2004.

Governor Mike Johanns appointed Fischer as a Commissioner to the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Post-Secondary Education from 2000 to 2004.

In 2004, she was elected to the Nebraska Legislature, representing the 43rd district for two terms.

In 2004, Fischer ran for the Nebraska Legislature from the 43rd legislative district in the state's Sandhills region.

In the nonpartisan primary, she came in second in a field of seven, receiving 2226 votes (25.1%); front-runner Kevin T. Cooksley received 2264 votes (25.5%).

In the general election, she defeated Cooksley with 8178 votes to his 8050, for a margin of 50.4%–49.6%.

In 2007, Fischer helped lead a filibuster against a bill to create a statewide smoking ban for indoor workplaces and public places.

In 2008, she won re-election unopposed.

Commonly known as the Nebraska Clean Indoor Air Act, the bill eventually passed and was signed into law in 2008.

Shortly before the election, she was endorsed by Nebraska U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry and by 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who recorded robocalls endorsing her; and a super PAC financed by former Omaha businessman Joe Ricketts paid for $250,000 worth of TV ads promoting Fischer and opposing Bruning.

Fischer won the primary with 40% of the vote to Bruning's 35% and Stenberg's 18%.

In 2009, Fischer was one of fourteen co-sponsors of L.B. 675, which required abortion providers to display ultrasound images of the fetus at least one hour prior to the abortions, in a position where the abortion seeker could easily view them.

A spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee stated that the Nebraska law was stronger than those of other states, which only required that the client be asked if she wanted to see an ultrasound image.

The measure passed by a 40–5 vote, and was signed into law by Governor Dave Heineman.

Fischer served as chairwoman for the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee and helped pass the BUILD Nebraska Act through the Unicameral.

This bill prioritized a quarter cent of the state sales tax for infrastructure projects.

Fischer ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012 and was initially seen as a long-shot candidate, but pulled off an unexpected victory against state attorney general Jon Bruning in the Republican primary; in the general election, she defeated former Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey and was the only Republican to flip a Senate seat in the 2012 elections.

Nebraska's term-limits law precluded her running for re-election in 2012.

Tenure

Fischer's district was geographically the largest in the Nebraska Legislature, comprising 12 counties and part of a 13th.

During her tenure in the legislature, she did a weekly radio show on seven stations covering her district, and wrote a weekly column printed in several newspapers.

In January 2012, after incumbent Democratic Senator Ben Nelson announced his retirement, Fischer officially announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate.

The Republican primary campaign was expected to be a battle between Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Treasurer Don Stenberg; Fischer and three less well-known candidates were also on the ballot.

During the campaign, environmentalists and others criticized Fischer because her family's ranch near Valentine grazed cattle on federal land, leasing it for about $110,000 per year less than the market rate on private land.

Opponents of federal grazing leases argued that she should relinquish her family's permit if she wanted to remain "morally consistent" with her message of less government.

Fischer argued that the poor quality of federal lands and the restrictions that come with federal leases make it inappropriate to compare them to private leases.

During the campaign, Fischer was outspent by Bruning, who raised $3.6 million, and Stenberg, who spent $865,000.

Fischer's campaign raised only $440,000.

But Bruning and Stenberg spent much of their resources attacking one another; Fischer benefited from the damage that each did to the other's reputation.

She was also aided by $725,000 in TV ads the Club for Growth bought attacking Bruning.

In 2015, she became the state's senior U.S. senator after Mike Johanns retired.