Former state Sen. Bob Krist filed paperwork Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026, to run for Nebraska Secretary of State as the America First Party candidate. The 69-year-old Omaha resident was already looking at a race that included Republican Scott Petersen and Democrat Sarah Slattery.
Krist now needs 25 valid signatures from new party members to qualify his bid. That is a different route from the nonpartisan path he considered in June, when he said a run would have needed 4,000 valid signatures statewide by Aug. 3, including at least 750 from each of Nebraska's three congressional districts.
Krist and the America First Party
Krist said the America First Party approached him about running, and he switched to the party within the past week. He told the Nebraska Examiner after filing, "I believe very strongly that my background, my voice, needs to be heard" and, "I've never entered an election thinking I was going to lose."
His filing adds a third candidate to the Nebraska secretary of state race. Polls this summer had already asked about Krist as a potential option in the two-way race between Petersen and Slattery, and Krist said in June that he saw "a lot of truth" in those polls and was checking them "to make sure that it's viable."
June warnings from Bob Krist
Krist also said in June, "I will not be involved in a three-way race" and called it "a death sentence to begin with." That makes his Tuesday filing a sharp turn from the position he took only weeks earlier.
He said this summer that anyone wanting to jump into a two-way race as the third candidate was crazy, yet he entered a three-candidate contest after the party approached him. Krist said he still thought Nebraska needed a "voice of reason" on elections and said he had only one "fault" with Secretary of State Bob Evnen: handing over Nebraska's voter data to the federal government.
Nebraska ballot access rules
Krist's new filing changes the practical hurdle in front of him. A nonpartisan run would have meant gathering thousands of valid signatures across Nebraska, but the America First Party route requires only 25 valid signatures from new party members, a much narrower path to the ballot.
For readers following the Nebraska Secretary of State contest, the immediate question is whether Krist can turn that smaller signature requirement into a general-election spot after entering late. The filing already changes the race's shape; the remaining test is whether he can meet the party's threshold and stay on the ballot.
