Nebraska is latest battleground for mainline GOP vs. Tea Party primaries

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

last updated 8 January 2015

Voters head to the polls today for a set of hotly contested primaries in the deeply Republican state of Nebraska. As the Omaha World-Herald notes: "More than $22 million — enough to buy each registered voter in the state a steak dinner — has been poured into the GOP contests for governor and U.S. Senate."

In the Senate race, the frontrunner is now Ben Sasse, who has received the backing of many Tea Party and national conservative groups. He is a former health official under President George W. Bush, and now president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska. For most of the race his main opponent has been former state Treasurer Shane Osborn — but there is also some question as to whether the mud-slinging between the two of them might have fueled a late surge for a third candidate, bank president Sid Dinsdale.