But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. How we check

Brett Lindstrom

Other · Governor, Nebraska
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How this mark works

We track key votes on sending U.S. weapons and money to the government of Israel. A check means every tracked vote they cast came down against sending more, on the side of peace and de-escalation. A question mark means a mixed record: they sided with sending up to half of the time. An X means they voted to send more weapons and money in over half of their tracked votes, even as the way those weapons and dollars were being used became more and more obvious. At exactly half, money this election cycle from a lobbying group we track, or an endorsement from a group that backs sending weapons, makes it an X. Only votes actually cast are counted. Where a candidate has no recorded votes on these bills, the mark comes instead from a reviewed reading of their public record (money from the lobbying groups we track, endorsements, and their own words since January 26, 2024). There an X also covers fully backing the conduct of the war by the government of Israel without significant reservations, and a question mark also covers speaking about Israel without saying clearly where they stand on U.S. weapons and funding. A dash means No Position Found: we found nothing in their own words about Israel, Gaza or the war.

See a dash? Ask the candidate where they stand, then send us their answer and we'll review it and update the mark. Or volunteer to help review candidates.

No recorded votes on the bills we track. We have not finished reviewing this candidate's public record yet.

Lindstrom, a former state senator from Omaha and the America First Party's nominee, campaigns on the state budget and property taxes. Nothing located has him taking a position on U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or on U.S. aid to Palestinians.

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Deep Dive

Brett Lindstrom is the America First Party's nominee for governor of Nebraska, with Mike Picard, a Navy veteran, as his running mate. He represented District 18 in Omaha in the Legislature from 2015 to 2023, has worked in wealth management for more than twenty years, and in 2022 finished third in the Republican primary for governor, behind Jim Pillen. He set out this year to run as an independent, but fell short of the signatures he needed after the Secretary of State's office found that circulators hired by several campaigns had turned in fraudulent signatures; he has said he knew nothing of the fraud. On September 1 he filed as the nominee of the America First Party, one of two new parties the Nebraska Supreme Court had just cleared to become official. He faces Governor Pillen, the Republican, Lynne Walz, the Democrat, and Rick Beard of the Legal Marijuana NOW Party on November 3.

His campaign is about the state budget and taxes. In a September interview with Nebraska Public Media he said the answer to the state's budget shortfall should include keeping spending stable and building the state's cash reserve, and he proposed moving farmland gradually toward a valuation based on the income it can produce. His platform, which he calls the Nebraska Doctrine, adds plans on property tax reform, energy and the power grid, an I-80 corridor for industry, workforce housing, broadband, and recruiting young families and veterans to the state. His campaign biography describes his years in the Legislature as focused on Nebraska's economy rather than national fights.

On the question this site asks, the record is empty rather than thin. The words Israel, Gaza and Palestinian appear nowhere on his campaign site or in his platform. He has not completed Ballotpedia's candidate survey, and iVoterGuide's profile for this race records no answer from him to any of its 34 questions, one of which asks about the relationship with Israel. He and a candidate for the Omaha Public Power District board opened this fall's candidate forums run by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Omaha, an agency of the city's Jewish Federation, with B'nai B'rith's Henry Monsky Lodge; the published account does not report what he said. The council's 2026 Jewish Voters' Guide lists him among the governor candidates it asked for written answers, and no answers of his are posted. A governor casts no federal votes on any of this. An empty record carries no implication either way.

His Facebook, X and Instagram accounts could not be read here. The addresses are on his research page.

You are better placed to change this than we are. Ask Lindstrom directly, or at a candidate forum, and send us the reply: it goes on this page in his own words, which is worth more than anything we could write about him.

Research log

The notes behind this card: what we looked at, what we found, and where each item came from.

Every page named below was opened and read on 2026-10-05 unless the entry says otherwise. His campaign site and his platform site are single-page applications: the text a browser shows is carried in each site's own script file, and both script files were read in full. Bands: Position (2024-01-26 onward), Reaction window (2023-10-07 to 2024-01-25), Earlier record (before 2023-10-07), Undated. Lindstrom has never held federal office, so none of the congressional votes this site tracks is his, and a campaign for state office is not covered by the federal funding records this site tracks.

U.S. military aid and weapons to the government of Israel

  • Nothing located, at any date. No statement by him about arms transfers, Foreign Military Financing, security assistance or any federal bill on those subjects appears on his campaign site, in his platform, in his Ballotpedia profile, in iVoterGuide's profile or in the news coverage of his campaign that was read.
  • [Position, read 2026-10-05] The nearest thing in his platform is an economic plank that names no country. The Nebraska Doctrine, under its I-80 Strategic Energy & Defense Corridor plan, says: "Nebraska's central location and infrastructure can support defense-adjacent manufacturing, logistics, communications, and resilience-related investments." It is about recruiting industry to the state.

U.S. aid to Palestinians

  • Nothing located, at any date.

Characterization of the conflict

  • Nothing located, at any date. The words Israel, Gaza, Palestinian, Hamas, Middle East and antisemitism appear nowhere on his campaign site or in his platform.

Israel-related rhetoric and lobbying

  • Nothing located, at any date.
  • [Position, read 2026-10-05] iVoterGuide's profile for this race shows "Did not answer" against all 34 of its questions, among them "Is the United States' relationship with Israel important, and if so why?" No answer on any subject means this is a fact about the guide's coverage, not a position. The same page gives him its own rating, "Leans Conservative", which is iVoterGuide's judgment and is not used on the card.

Safety and antisemitism (context, not an answer to what America sends)

  • [Position, published 2026-10-01] The Jewish Press of Omaha reported that the Jewish Community Relations Council of Omaha, with B'nai B'rith's Henry Monsky Lodge Breadbreakers, "kicked off its Candidate Forum series with Sara Kohen, candidate for OPPD Board, and Brett Lindstrom, candidate for Governor." The article gives no date for that forum and reports nothing he said there. It lists Governor Pillen as the forum speaker on October 7.
  • [Read 2026-10-05] The council's 2026 Jewish Voters' Guide says it lists all candidates it reached out to and that "The candidates featured with responses are those who submitted completed questionnaires." Under Governor it lists Rick Beard, Brett Lindstrom, Jim Pillen and Lynne Walz; only Pillen's name carries a linked response. The council describes its questionnaire as covering issues including antisemitism, civil rights and Israel. The council is listed on the Jewish Federation of Omaha's site among the Federation's agencies.

What the campaign site and own pages say

  • [Position, read 2026-10-05] His campaign site's biography says he was born in Lincoln and raised in Omaha, walked on as a quarterback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers, spent nearly two decades in wealth management, chaired the Legislature's Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee, and "sponsored and passed more than 60 bills", among them the end of the state income tax on Social Security benefits. It says he "earned a reputation for doing the work over chasing the spotlight" and that he "stepped back from the party system, registered as an independent, and entered this race with one loyalty: Nebraska." The home page calls his program "A Nebraska Doctrine rooted in opportunity, stability, and stewardship." The site's statement of July 13, 2026, on filing for governor, is about the budget, the economy and running as an independent.
  • [Position, read 2026-10-05] His platform site, the Nebraska Doctrine, sets out a governing framework and plans titled Property Tax Reform & Fiscal Stability; Energy Independence & Grid Expansion; I-80 Strategic Energy & Defense Corridor; Agriculture, Value-Added Processing & Export Growth; Broadband, AI & Digital Government; Talent Attraction & Population Growth Strategy; Workforce Housing and Community Development; a workforce and apprenticeship plan; a leadership program; and an exchange connecting entrepreneurs with mentors and capital. Its one trade plank says Nebraska "should promote exports, strengthen trade relationships, and improve infrastructure that connects products to markets" and names no country.
  • The pages carry no dates other than the July 13 statement, and are recorded on the date we read them.

The race

  • [Read 2026-10-05] His Ballotpedia page: "Brett Lindstrom (America First Party Nebraska) is running for election for Governor of Nebraska. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 3, 2026." It lists the general election field as Jim Pillen (R), the incumbent, Lynne Walz (D), Brett Lindstrom (America First Party Nebraska) and Rick Beard (Legal Marijuana Now Party). It records that he represented District 18 in the State Senate from January 7, 2015 to January 4, 2023, that he "also ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District" as a Republican and "did not appear on the ballot for the Republican primary on May 12, 2026", and that he lost the 2012 Republican primary for the same House seat. He has not completed its 2026 Candidate Connection survey, and did not complete its 2022 survey.
  • [Position, published 2026-09-21] Nebraska Public Media's guide to the four candidates says he is "running as a member of Nebraska’s newly formed America First party", that he finished third in the 2022 Republican primary behind Pillen and Charles Herbster, and that he chaired the Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee and the Tribal Relations Committee. It reports his plans for property tax relief and the budget shortfall, including stable spending, a larger cash reserve, moving agricultural land toward income-based valuation, an infrastructure stability fund and changes to the TEEOSA school-funding formula. It says he joined the America First party after the Secretary of State's office found that petition circulators hired by multiple campaigns had turned in fraudulent signatures, which left his campaign short, and that he said he had no knowledge of the fraud. It quotes him: "My criteria with America First was that I just want to continue to run as if I was running by petition," and, on leaving the Republican Party, "It felt more like a loyalty test versus adhering to the principles of the platforms. Lower taxes, less government – that type of thing". His running mate is Mike Picard, a Navy veteran.
  • [Position, published 2026-09-01] 10/11 NOW (KOLN) reported that he filed on September 1 as the America First Party's candidate, after the Nebraska Supreme Court "cleared the path for the Nebraska Working People Party and America First Party to become official parties in the state." The party also nominated Chuck Conboy for the U.S. Senate. It quotes his statement: "Nebraskans deserve another choice in this election. They should not be forced to choose between reelecting a governor who, in just three and a half years, has pushed the state to the brink of a fiscal crisis and a political party that has increasingly moved away from our state’s common-sense values."
  • [Read 2026-10-05] iVoterGuide's race page lists the same four candidates.

Places that could not be read, so nothing is claimed from them

  • His accounts, listed by Ballotpedia and his campaign site: https://www.facebook.com/BrettLindstromNE , https://www.facebook.com/brett.lindstrom.12 , https://x.com/brettlindstrom and https://www.instagram.com/brettlindstromne/ . Not read.
  • The JCRC of Omaha's Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/JCRComaha/ . Not read.
  • The Jewish Press's October 2, 2026 print edition at https://issuu.com/jewishpress7/docs/october_2_2026 . Not read; the paper's web article of October 1 on the forums was read instead.
  • A KNEB TV video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caeGHldtqKM , titled "Lindstrom to Run for Nebraska Governor on America First Party Ticket". Not watched.

Not on the card, and why

  • His platform on property taxes, the budget, energy, the I-80 corridor, workforce housing, broadband and population growth: real positions, but not about U.S. weapons or money for the government of Israel, or about U.S. aid to Palestinians. Summarized above so the absence can be checked.
  • The platform's defense-adjacent manufacturing sentence: about recruiting industry to Nebraska; it names no country.
  • iVoterGuide's "Leans Conservative" rating and its scorecard and contribution lists: a third party's judgment and compilations, not his words.
  • The undated JCRC forum: no account of what he said there has been published.
  • His brief 2026 Republican campaign for the U.S. House: recorded above from Ballotpedia; nothing he said in it on this subject was located.
  • Jim Pillen's, Lynne Walz's and Rick Beard's records: they belong on their own cards.

Sources read for this card (address; opened or could not open; date)

  • https://ballotpedia.org/Brett_Lindstrom (opened; 2026-10-05)
  • https://votelindstrom.com/ and https://votelindstrom.com/about (opened; 2026-10-05; text read from the site's own script file)
  • https://nebraskadoctrine.com/ (opened; 2026-10-05; text read from the site's own script file)
  • https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/en/news/news-articles/meet-the-candidates-for-nebraska-governor/ (opened; 2026-10-05; published 2026-09-21)
  • https://www.1011now.com/2026/09/01/brett-lindstrom-refiles-nebraska-governor-america-first-party-candidate/ (opened; 2026-10-05; published 2026-09-01)
  • https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/3356/race/29937/election/1449 and https://ivoterguide.com/race/29937/election/1449 (opened; 2026-10-05)
  • https://www.omahajewishpress.com/news/jcrc-and-henry-monsky-lodge-breadbreakers-continue-election-year-forums/article_db6e389f-f423-4619-a340-e71b5cd96c6c.html (opened; 2026-10-05; published 2026-10-01)
  • https://www.omahajewishpress.com/news/election-year-forums/article_7371e6f5-b84a-4644-91a1-5003f9a29da4.html (opened; 2026-10-05; published 2026-04-21; the spring forums for House and Senate candidates, which do not include him)
  • https://www.jewishomaha.org/2026-jewish-voter-guide/ and https://www.jewishomaha.org/inspire-change/jcrc/ (opened; 2026-10-05)
  • https://nebraskapublicmedia.org/es/news/news-articles/brett-lindstrom-to-run-for-nebraska-governor-as-independent/ (opened; 2026-10-05; nothing on this subject)
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Lindstrom (opened; 2026-10-05; nothing on this subject)
  • This is a record of what was checked on 2026-10-05, not a claim that no statement exists anywhere.

Also in this race

  1. ✗ Jim Pillen (Republican)
  2. – Lynne Walz (Democrat)
  3. – Rick Beard (Other)

All Nebraska candidates.

But What Can You Do? tracks where 2026 candidates stand on U.S. weapons and funding for the government of Israel. Every claim on this page goes through at least two verification steps. Open Find Your Candidates for votes, funding and contact details.