Noted Insurrectionist to Seek Purple State Governorship

Charles Herbster attended Team Trump's Insurrection Eve "war council" at Trump International Hotel, then lied about it to the media. Now he seeks executive power.

Introduction

On April 26, insurrectionist Charles W. Herbster will announce that he is running for Governor of Nebraska, a state in which the Democratic Party won electoral votes (EVs) in both the 2008 and 2020 presidential elections.

Herbster is well-known to readers of Proof as the man who first revealed the January 5 war council at Trump International Hotel, then sought to cover it up, and then lied to media and voters about his conduct after the event.

Indeed, not only did Herbster dramatically change his story about who attended the war council—and where it had been held—through edits and deletions on Facebook, he then lied for the president and his family by falsely telling Nebraska voters, and thus the entire country, that he had flown to Nebraska after the pre-insurrection strategy session. What did he actually do? He “flew to Florida with Trump’s family”, per the Omaha World-Herald.

{Note: During the Trump administration, Herbster had a plum political role as the president’s National Chairman of the Agriculture and Rural Advisory Committee.}

It’s a disturbing sign of how unserious the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been about tracking down the men and women who plotted the January 6 insurrection—as opposed to simply the pro-Trump foot soldiers from that horrible day—that Herbster would think he could still have a political career in Nebraska or anywhere after lying about his role in one of the darkest moments in American history. If the FBI had already pegged Herbster as a critical witness in the events leading up to Insurrection Day, it is near certain major media would have reported that he has been interviewed by federal law enforcement and that his electronic devices have been seized by federal investigators. To date, no such reports have issued.

While we think of Nebraska as a blood-red state—and in certain respects it is, with GOP presidential candidates winning statewide by approximately twenty points in every election this century—because the state (like Maine) apportions some of its EVs by congressional district, it has sent electors from both major political parties for each of the last two Democratic presidents: Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Given the relative closeness of most U.S. elections this century, even a single EV from Nebraska can’t be taken for granted by either party. Indeed, with Republicans in at least 45 states advancing literally hundreds of voter suppression bills, Democrats should assume that the 2024 general election may well be won by a razor-thin margin, making Nebraska’s apparently up-for-grads Omaha-area electoral vote a critical political chit—and Nebraska, by reasonable extension, a “purple state.”

Herbster’s Odds—and Connections

Politico now reports that there are real questions about “whether any institutionalist Republican—even a pro-Trump one—can beat Herbster, the wealthy rancher and friend of Trump who not only supported him but went so far as to attend the January 6 rally in Washington that preceded the riot at the Capitol.” An equally significant question, Proof would argue, is whether anyone in the national political sphere yet fully apprehends the absolute necessary of keeping insurrectionists out of power in Nebraska and every other state, whatever may happen in Nebraska’s GOP primary.

{Note: Nebraska has not elected a Democratic governor since Ben Nelson—back in the 1990s—so conventional wisdom is that the winner of the GOP primary in the state will be the next Governor of Nebraska. Nelson later served as United States senator from Nebraska from 2001 to 2013, meaning that a Democrat won statewide office in Nebraska in both 2000 and 2006.}

It’s not just that Herbster attended the rally that incited the January 6 insurrection, it’s that his political peer group comprises noted insurrectionists who were at the Trump International Hotel strategy session the night before the insurrection to (among other things) hear from insurrectionist leader Ali Alexander, who spoke to the meeting—through attendee Kim Guilfoyle, then both a presidential adviser and the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr.—by phone. Below you can see photos of Herbster with both Trump Jr. and Michael Lindell, the latter a January 5 war council attendee who not only urged Trump to declare martial law after Insurrection Day but still claims Trump will return to power this August. Another photo shows Herbster with Guilfoyle, and still another with January 5 war council attendee Eric Trump.

Team Trump Goes to Omaha, and Omaha Goes to DC

Unfortunately, it’s not just that Herbster consorts with insurrectionists, attends their secret gatherings, and lies about them thereafter. It’s that his incipient campaign for governor of Nebraska will be directly aided by one of the chief insurrectionists in the United States: January 5 war council attendee and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

According to a report in the Omaha World Herald, Herbster’s hometown newspaper, “Corey Lewandowski, who was involved in both of Trump’s campaigns, is helping Herbster’s bid.” And, as if any more evidence that the ultra-rich Herbster aims to be the second coming of Trump were needed, Herbster doesn’t just have “close ties to Donald Trump” but—like Trump—“could fund his own campaign but doesn’t want to”, meaning that he will be seeking large donations from working- and middle-class Nebraskans in the midst of a global pandemic when he could easily self-fund his ill-timed political ambitions if he chose. Below is a photo of Herbster hanging out with Lewandowski on Election Day in 2020.

Of course, Proof has already reported that Herbster didn’t just spend Election Day with Trump’s controversial 2016 campaign manager, he spent it with the president himself:

Herbster’s close relationship with the Trumps has come into even clearer focus in the last 24 hours not just because of [Omaha World-Herald report] Aaron Sanderford’s revelation but a further review of Herbster’s social media presence, which sees him declaring on Twitter on election day in November that “I am at the White House with the Trump family and a small group of dignitaries eating a beautiful dinner and getting ready to watch a victory tonight!”

Photos from that night, posted to social media by Herbster himself, include these two:

Conclusion

Incredibly, despite report after report at Proof about Herbster’s role in the planning for Insurrection Day—which went well beyond just attending the Stop the Steal/March to Save America rally on January 6—Nebraska media outlets still offer GOP voters there almost nothing on the subject of the politician’s attendance at the secretive January 5 pre-insurrection strategy session at Trump International, writing of the impending announcement of Herbster’s gubernatorial campaign only that Herbster is “likely to face criticism….for attending a rally near the White House shortly before the mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6.”

One wonders whether Herbster’s secrets and lies get a public airing before Nebraska votes for put an insurrectionist atop its government. Already, there are real questions about whether Herbster supports the same white supremacist agenda as his patron, Donald Trump. Recently, a far-right radio host (Chris Baker of KFAB Omaha) was fired for posting a racist tweet about the Derek Chauvin verdict—per KETV, “Baker wrote ‘Guilty!’ above a GIF of a group of dancing Black native men in loincloths”—and Herbster has both advertised on Baker’s show and co-sponsored events with its now-former host (pictured below with Omaha District 7 City Council member Aimee Melton, who is now Herbster’s campaign treasurer):

Coda

Nebraska isn’t the only state in danger of imminent takeover by an insurrectionist.

Proof has previously written on the arguably seditious January 5 actions of Amanda Chase, an insurrectionist who is now the leading GOP candidate for governor in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Chase just entered the news again for declaring that the guilty verdict in the Chauvin case made her “sick.” The self-described “Trump in heels” added, “I’m concerned that the decision was politically motivated more to prevent civil unrest than to serve justice. The decision made today sends a clear message to law enforcement; the justice system doesn’t have your back.”

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