August Newsletter

Meet The Team The from Keith-Lincoln County Affiliate – Rachael Nelson

Rachael Nelson is the new Vice-Chairperson, we wanted to get to know her better and she was gracious enough to answer our questions.

Libertarian Party of Nebraska: Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how you became a Libertarian?
Rachael Nelson: I was born in Colorado Springs, CO and spent my summers with my grandparents in Hays, Kansas which gave me the unique chance to experience the small town life, mixed with the pros and cons of growing up in the big city. When I was 10 my mother married a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force. We were stationed at McChord Air Base, in August 2001.

I was raised in a very Republican household, while watching my stepdad spend two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I spent the next 20 years in Washington state. I graduated high school, where I met my husband, went to a community college, got married, worked retail, got my business license for wedding planning.

Nothing out of the normal young adult life. In 2014, everything changed, I had a son. I started to notice more of the world around me. I started to see that the country I loved and had seen my stepfather and a couple of my very best friends serve and fight for was not what I wanted my son to know as the United States.

I started to search for answers and as anyone knows, once you start to open up to the truth you can’t go back. During my hunt, my husband mentioned the Libertarian Party, he had been a member for years. After the mess that was 2020, I found a hero in Jo Jorgenson. I started to read everything I could on the party and to my surprise, the party aligned with what I had come to find I believed. Living in Washington state, showed me exactly what could happen when one party goes completely unchecked and has been in control for far too long.

In May of this year,2021, my husband and I packed our two boys, sold our home in Washington and drove to North Platte, where I officially registered as a Libertarian for the first time.

LPNE: What motivated you to take on this project in Lincoln and Keith counties?
RN: After watching the unrest, the beginning of an economic fall and the utter degradation of one of the most beautiful and diverse places in the Country, I could not allow that to spread. I had to try to find a way to help spread the word of personal freedom and never sit back and watch it happen again. So, when the party reached out to me, shortly after I registered, I took it as a sign and jumped head first into the affiliate and the state party.

LPNE: What Libertarian issues do you want to focus on in working with your community and municipalities?
RN: At this point, more so than we have seen in a long time, the only focus and only real issue is protecting personal freedoms. After 2020 and with how 2021 has begun, we must focus on our rights and personal freedoms.

Nothing is as evident and as glaring as the current world climate and the choices being robbed from us. We are in the middle of a time where your employer has MORE right, then you do, to decide what literally is injected into your body, backed by the government, our elected representatives who are supposed to work for us. I think as a party and myself personally, the only message and word we need to be yelling from every corner, is the right to our lives and bodies and those of our children.

LPNE: What is your plan for both counties in your affiliate (Keith and Lincoln)?
RN: I would love to meet in both counties! I am excited to learn and see all the beauty these counties have to offer, but right now the majority of our group lives around North Platte. So as of now we have been meeting at PAL’s Brewing Company. Once we get a wider range of members from all over the area, we would love to meet in different areas. Email or Facebook us your favorite places to meet and hang out!

LPNE: Do you think rural Nebraskans can embrace a Libertarian ideas, and how would do you approach them about these ideas?
RN: I think rural Nebraskans are smart and completely capable of being in control of their lands and lives. As such, reaching out to the farmers and the hard working, hands-on residents in the area and telling them their personal freedoms and the decisions for their lands and life are theirs. My prediction: they will be willing to hear more. The land in Nebraska is of value and of major importance to the families here and across the country. The stewards of the land should be in control and able to do what they do best. With unclear executive orders, like President Biden’s 30×30 “conservation” plan, we have to act and I think rural Nebraskans need less government control and more freedoms to choose what’s best for us. The party just has to be heard!