NORFOLK — A Pierce County man hopes his rural background is enough to overcome a nearly 60-year trend of Republicans representing Nebraska’s Third District in Congress.
Rural Osmond native Paul Theobald is a Democrat running for the House of Representatives post that represents mostly rural parts of the state. He says he’s motivated to serve in Congress because he wants to stop the erosion of small communities.
“People are just told that’s the price of progress, that’s the way things work, that’s the way it has to be and it’s absolutely untrue,” Theobald said. “Rural community erosion is the result of policy choices, it isn’t the price of progress.”
He says the current policies supported by incumbent Adrian Smith and President Donald Trump are damaging to Nebraska ag producers.
“I sometimes think that Donald Trump woke up one morning, took a dart, threw it at a map of the United States, it hit Nebraska and he decided ‘I’m going to bring that state to its knees,’” Theobald said.
Specifically he cited recent farm bills, the federal tax plan and Medicaid cuts as federal decisions that hurt Nebraskans. Theobald says those plans can improve if politicians renounce their corporate allegiances.
“They can’t be in the pocket of MonSanto if they’re going to legislate on behalf of rural people,” Theobald said. “So that’s what I’m going to call for and we’ll see who shows up.”
Theobald is a former Wayne State College professor currently works as an education consultant while raising hogs on his farm. He would be the first Democrat elected to District Three’s seat since Lawrence Brock in 1959.
