In Nebraska, a Trump-Impressed Candidate Cracks Open Divide within the G.O.P.

WAHOO, Neb. — In his run for governor of Nebraska, Charles W. Herbster is doing his greatest imitation of former President Donald J. Trump.

His 90-minute stump speech is filled with complaints about unlawful immigrants, tales boasting of his enterprise triumphs, a conspiracy concept connecting China, the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 election, and denials of the current accusations that he’s groped ladies at political occasions.

He even vows to wash up the “swamp” — however he means Lincoln, the state capital.

Like his political function mannequin — and chief backer — Mr. Herbster is proving to be a one-man political wrecking ball. In a state lengthy recognized for genteel, collaborative politics and, for the final 24 years, one-party rule, Mr. Herbster’s bid has cracked his celebration into three camps, with Trump supporters, institution conservatives and business-friendly moderates battling for energy. A serious donor for years to conservative candidates, Mr. Herbster has been deserted by longtime political allies and seen his working mate stop his ticket to run for governor herself. The allegations of groping are coming from fellow Republicans.

Behind all of the drama is a query with resonance far past Nebraska. Mr. Trump’s endorsement of Mr. Herbster, a serious donor to Mr. Trump’s political profession, isn’t simply the first-time candidate’s high credential — it’s his marketing campaign’s whole rationale. Mr. Trump’s identify is on Mr. Herbster’s garden indicators, adverts and billboards. Mr. Herbster spent Friday stumping across western Nebraska with Steven Moore, the previous Trump financial adviser who’s a minor Trumpworld superstar.

Mr. Herbster is about to seek out out if a Trump endorsement alone is sufficient to win a serious Republican major.

“This can be a proxy battle between the whole Republican institution in America in opposition to President Donald J. Trump,” Mr. Herbster, who campaigns sporting a white cowboy hat and a black vest bearing the brand of his cattle semen enterprise, mentioned in an interview Thursday. “Anyone who the institution can not management, they’re petrified of.”

Mr. Herbster, a longtime Trump ally who was with members of the Trump household in the course of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, is working in opposition to Jim Pillen, a College of Nebraska regent who’s backed by the state’s highly effective Ricketts household political machine, and Brett Lindstrom, a youthful state senator who has consolidated assist from the celebration’s remaining moderates and Democrats. Greater than 8,000 Democrats have switched events in current weeks to have some affect on a governor’s contest in an overwhelmingly Republican state. Polling within the remaining days earlier than Tuesday’s vote reveals the race is a three-way useless warmth.

If Ohio’s current Senate major is a information, the three-way race is working in Mr. Herbster’s favor. The Trump-endorsed candidate for Senate, J.D. Vance, gained in a crowded area, taking lower than one-third of the vote. (There’s precedent for this in Nebraska. Eight years in the past, Gov. Pete Ricketts gained the nomination with simply over 1 / 4 of the vote.)

However Mr. Trump’s contact is wanting much less golden in different states, notably in two-way contests for governor. In Georgia, former Senator David Perdue, Mr. Trump’s alternative, is lagging far behind Gov. Brian Kemp in polling, main Mr. Trump to distance himself from that marketing campaign. In Idaho, the previous president has backed Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin’s problem in opposition to Gov. Brad Little. Ms. McGeachin has struggled to realize traction, and Mr. Trump hasn’t talked about her since his endorsement in November.

Mr. Trump has thrown his full weight behind Mr. Herbster. On Sunday, he traveled to Nebraska for a rally and appeared on a convention name for Herbster supporters Thursday night time, the place he forged Mr. Herbster’s rivals as “Republicans in identify solely.”

“Charles was a die-hard MAGA champion,” Mr. Trump mentioned on the decision. “Whenever you vote for Charles within the major, you can provide a stinging rebuke to the RINOs and sellouts and the losers who’re so poorly representing your state.”

Like Mr. Trump within the 2016 Republican presidential major, Mr. Herbster is dealing with accusations that he has mistreated ladies and tried to make use of that truth to realize assist. . Two ladies, together with a state senator, publicly accused him of groping them at a political occasion in 2019. Mr. Herbster has denied the claims and broadcast a TV advert slamming his accuser.

“Any allegation that was despatched my method is one hundred pc completely false,” he mentioned in an interview.

He has repeatedly blamed the accusations on Mr. Ricketts, a conservative two-term incumbent who can not run once more due to time period limits. The Ricketts household has feuded with Mr. Trump. It spent tens of millions on a last-ditch effort to dam Mr. Trump from profitable the Republican presidential nomination in 2016; Trump then mentioned the household higher “watch out.”

Mr. Ricketts, who tried speaking Mr. Trump out of endorsing Mr. Herbster final yr, is blunt about his opposition to Mr. Herbster’s bid. He considers the groping allegations disqualifying. Ought to Mr. Herbster win the Republican nomination, Mr. Ricketts won’t endorse him until he “apologizes to the ladies he’s completed this to,” he mentioned in an interview.

Mr. Herbster was dealing with criticism nicely earlier than the allegations. Some Republicans bristled at his deal with the form of divisive cultural points that don’t usually dominate the political conservation within the state. He campaigns on eliminating intercourse training in Nebraska’s public faculties, cracking down on unlawful immigration and curbing China’s affect.

In July, his working mate, the previous state senator Theresa Thibodeau, stop the ticket and later jumped into the race herself. She mentioned Mr. Herbster had little curiosity in something aside from attempting to emulate Mr. Trump.

“If you wish to lead the state, you must get your information up on insurance policies that have an effect on our state,” she mentioned on Thursday. “He had no initiative or willingness to try this.”

However Mr. Herbster’s message resonated with Trump conservatives, and shortly one in all his rivals adopted go well with. Mr. Pillen, a 66-year-old former defensive again for the College of Nebraska’s soccer crew with a grandfatherly demeanor, promised to ban vital race concept on the College of Nebraska and bar transgender ladies from taking part in ladies’s sports activities or utilizing ladies’s loos.

“Each the Pillen and the Herbster campaigns have centered on nationwide problems with which they’ve little management over and they need to have been extra centered on state points,” mentioned former Gov. Dave Heineman, a Republican who was on Mr. Herbster’s payroll after leaving workplace. He hasn’t but made an endorsement.

Mr. Pillen downplayed Mr. Trump’s affect within the race.

“Nebraskans, we prefer to determine issues out and resolve our personal issues and suppose for ourselves,” he mentioned.

Mr. Lindstrom, a 41-year-old state senator who additionally performed soccer for Nebraska, is working a marketing campaign transported from the pre-Trump period. He highlights cooperation with Democrats in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature and, whereas he mentioned he had no regrets about voting twice for Mr. Trump, mentioned he’d desire “a brand new face” in 2024.

Whereas Nebraska’s Republican primaries are usually determined by conservative rural voters who’re deeply loyal to Mr. Trump, Mr. Lindstrom, a wonky monetary adviser, is betting his marketing campaign on interesting to city professionals round Omaha — the place Mr. Trump misplaced one of many state’s Electoral School votes to President Biden.

“The type and model that’s happening within the Republican Occasion proper now has created plenty of wedges,” Mr. Lindstrom mentioned. “That isn’t actually wholesome.”

At a Wednesday fund-raiser for Mr. Lindstrom at an upscale Italian restaurant in Omaha, about half of the 2 dozen folks interviewed mentioned they voted for Mr. Biden in 2020. A handful had switched events to vote for Mr. Lindstrom within the major.

Allen Frederickson, the chief government of a well being care firm who turned a Republican to vote for Mr. Lindstrom, mentioned electing Mr. Herbster would make it laborious to recruit staff to Nebraska’s booming economic system, which has the nation’s lowest unemployment fee.

“Trumpism would affect our inner and exterior picture as a state,” he mentioned. “We want Nebraska to be an interesting state from a enterprise perspective.”

Mr. Herbster makes little effort to enchantment exterior of the Trump constituency. He begins his speeches, whether or not to Trump-hatted supporters in Wahoo or bankers within the Omaha suburbs, by providing “greetings from the forty fifth president of the USA of America, Donald J. Trump.”

Like Mr. Trump, Mr. Herbster casts doubt on the legitimacy of American elections. In Wahoo, he posited an outlandish concept concerning the former president’s loss.

“That is the reality,” he instructed supporters. “The pandemic got here from China. It was timed completely to be sure that they may rig the elections so Mark Zuckerberg might put $400 million into the toll the final 4 months of the election. As a result of whether or not you prefer it or not, they didn’t need Donald J. Trump to be president for 2 phrases, that’s precisely what occurred.”

Mr. Herbster has little use for or curiosity within the traditions of Nebraska politics. He referred to as for ending the state’s system of nonpartisan elections, eliminating the state board of training and mentioned that, on his first day in workplace, he’d demand the tourism bureau change its quirky slogan: “Nebraska. Truthfully, it’s not for everybody.”

The query Nebraska’s Republican major voters will choose Tuesday is whether or not any of that issues — or issues greater than Mr. Trump’s stamp of approval.

“It’s every thing,” mentioned former Consultant Lee Terry of Omaha, a Herbster supporter. “There’s plenty of Trump folks in Nebraska.”