Debra Lynelle Fischer (; born March 1, 1951) is an American politician and former educator serving as the

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States senator The United States Senate consists of 100 members, two from each of the 50 U.S. state, states. This list includes all senators serving in the 119th United States Congress. Party affiliation Independent Senators Angus King of Maine and Berni ...

from

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

, a seat she has held since 2013. A member of the Republican Party, Fischer is the third woman to represent Nebraska in the U.S. Senate (after Eva Bowring and Hazel Abel) and the first to be reelected. From 1990 to 2004, Fischer served on the Valentine Rural High School Board of Education. In 2004, she was elected to the

Nebraska Legislature The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislative branch, legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska, Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators ...

, representing the 43rd district for two terms. Fischer ran for the U.S. Senate in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and was initially seen as a long-shot candidate, but pulled off an unexpected victory against state attorney general Jon Bruning in the Republican primary; in the general election, she defeated former Democratic U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey. In 2015, she became Nebraska's senior U.S. senator after Mike Johanns retired. Fischer opposes abortion without exception, rejects the

scientific consensus on climate change There is a nearly unanimous scientific consensus that the Earth has been consistently warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution, that the rate of recent warming is largely unprecedented, and that this warming is mainly the result o ...

, and supports repealing the

Affordable Care Act The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by Presid ...

. She condemned

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

supporters for storming the U.S. Capitol in 2021 and voted to certify the results of the 2020 election.

Early life, education, and career

Fischer was born Debra Lynelle Strobel on March 1, 1951, in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

. She is the daughter of Florence M. (née Bock) and Gerold Carl Strobel. Her father was the State Engineer/Director of the Nebraska Department of Roads under Governors Kay Orr and Ben Nelson and her mother was an elementary school teacher with Lincoln Public Schools. In 1972, Strobel married Bruce Fischer, a man from

Valentine, Nebraska Valentine is a city in and the county seat of Cherry County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 2,737 at the 2010 census. It is the hometown of former vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz. History Valentine was founded in 1882. The ...

, she met at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She and her husband raised three sons on the Fischer family cattle ranch south of Valentine. In 1987, she returned to the university and completed her B.S. degree in education.

School board (1990–2004)

In 1990, Fischer was elected to the Valentine Rural High School Board of Education, serving until 2004. Governor Mike Johanns appointed Fischer as a Commissioner to the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Post-Secondary Education from 2000 to 2004.

Nebraska Legislature (2005–2013)

Elections

In 2004, Fischer ran for the Nebraska Legislature from the 43rd legislative district in the state's Sandhills region. In the nonpartisan primary, she came in second in a field of seven, receiving 2,226 votes (25.1%); front-runner Kevin T. Cooksley received 2,264 votes (25.5%). In the general election, she defeated Cooksley with 8,178 votes to his 8,050, a margin of 50.4%–49.6%. In 2008, she won reelection unopposed. Nebraska's term-limits law precluded her running for reelection in 2012. Tenure Fischer's district was geographically the largest in the

, comprising 12 counties and part of a 13th. During her tenure in the legislature, she did a weekly radio show on seven stations covering her district, and wrote a weekly column printed in several newspapers. In 2007, Fischer helped lead a filibuster against a bill to create a statewide smoking ban for indoor workplaces and public places. Commonly known as the Nebraska Clean Indoor Air Act, the bill passed and was signed into law in 2008. In 2009, Fischer was one of 14 co-sponsors of L.B. 675, which required abortion providers to display ultrasound images of the fetus at least one hour before performing abortions, in a position where the abortion seeker could easily view them. A spokesman for the

National Right to Life Committee The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) is the oldest and largest national anti-abortion organization in the United States with affiliates in all 50 states and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide. Since the 1980s, NRLC has influenc ...

said the law was stronger than those of other states, which required only that the client be asked whether she wanted to see an ultrasound image. The measure passed by a 40–5 vote, and was signed into law by Governor Dave Heineman. Fischer chaired the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee and helped pass the BUILD Nebraska Act through the Unicameral. This bill prioritized a quarter cent of the state sales tax for infrastructure projects.

U.S. Senate (2013–present)

Elections

2012

;Primary In January 2012, after incumbent Senator Ben Nelson announced his retirement, Fischer announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. The Republican primary campaign was expected to be a battle between Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Treasurer Don Stenberg; Fischer and three less well-known candidates were also on the ballot. During the campaign, environmentalists and others criticized Fischer because her family's ranch near Valentine grazed cattle on federal land, leasing it for about $110,000 per year less than the market rate on private land. Opponents of federal grazing leases argued that she should relinquish her family's permit if she wanted to remain "morally consistent" with her message of less government. Fischer argued that the poor quality of federal lands and the restrictions that come with federal leases make it inappropriate to compare them to private leases. During the campaign, Fischer was outspent by Bruning, who raised $3.6 million, and Stenberg, who spent $865,000. Fischer's campaign raised only $440,000. But Bruning and Stenberg spent much of their resources attacking one another; Fischer benefited from the damage that each did to the other's reputation. She was also aided by $725,000 in TV ads that the Club for Growth bought attacking Bruning. Shortly before the election, she was endorsed by Nebraska U.S. Representative

Jeff Fortenberry Jeffrey Lane Fortenberry (born December 27, 1960) is an American politician. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 2005 to 2022, representing as a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. In Octo ...

and by 2008 vice-presidential nominee

Sarah Palin Sarah Louise Palin (; Heath; born February 11, 1964) is an American politician, commentator, and author who served as the ninth governor of Alaska from 2006 until her resignation in 2009. She was the 2008 Republican vice presidential nomi ...

, who recorded robocalls endorsing her; and a

super PAC Independent expenditure-only political action committees, better known as super PACs, are a type of political action committee (PAC) in the United States. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are legally allowed to fundraise unlimited amounts of m ...

financed by former Omaha businessman

Joe Ricketts John Joseph Ricketts (born July 16, 1941) is an American businessman. He is the founder, former CEO and former chairman of TD Ameritrade. He has an estimated net worth of US$4.1 billion as of 2024, according to ''Forbes''. He has pursued a variety ...

paid for $250,000 worth of TV ads promoting Fischer and opposing Bruning. Fischer won the primary with 40% of the vote to Bruning's 35% and Stenberg's 18%. She took a plurality of votes in 75 of Nebraska's 93 counties. Bruning won 15 counties and Schuyler businessman Pat Flynn received a plurality in his home Colfax County. Fischer and Bruning tied in Kimball and

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin ( ; Dakota/ Lakota: ) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations people from the Great Plains of North America. The Sioux have two major linguistic divisions: the Dakota and Lakota peoples (translati ...

counties. ;General election In the general election, Fischer faced Democratic nominee Bob Kerrey, a former Nebraska governor and U.S. senator who was running for the seat he had held from 1989 to 2001. During the campaign, Kerrey ran ads accusing Fischer of unprincipled conduct in the matter of a 1995

adverse possession Adverse possession in common law, and the related civil law (legal system), civil law concept of usucaption (also ''acquisitive prescription'' or ''prescriptive acquisition''), are legal mechanisms under which a person who does not have title (p ...

suit, whereby the Fischers had attempted to obtain title to of land adjoining their property. Fischer maintained that their intent in filing the suit was to obtain a more manageable boundary for their ranch after repeated attempts to purchase the land had failed; according to an ''

Omaha World-Herald The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ...

'' analysis, the Kerrey campaign's statements about Fischer's actions in the Legislature failed to mention her support for a compromise measure that would have allowed NGPC to buy the land. A Fischer spokesman accused Kerrey of "reckless disregard for the truth" and "gutter politics" in the matter. Fischer defeated Kerrey, 455,593 votes (58%) to 332,979 (42%). She won mainly by swamping Kerrey in the state's rural areas. She won 88 of Nebraska's 93 counties. Kerrey won only Douglas, Lancaster, Saline, Thurston, and Dakota Counties.

2018

Fischer was reelected to the Senate in 2018, defeating Democratic nominee Jane Raybould by a significant margin.

2024

Fischer ran for reelection in 2024. She defeated Arron Kowalski in the Republican primary election in May. She faced independent candidate Dan Osborn, a former union leader, in the November general election. Fischer defeated Osborn by 6.7 points, after being reelected by 19 points in 2018.

Tenure

Fischer became the third female U.S. senator in Nebraska's history, and the first since 1954. She was the first elected to a full term: of the earlier woman senators, Eva Bowring was appointed in 1954 to occupy the seat vacated by Dwight Griswold's death until a special election could be held to replace him later that year; Hazel Abel won that special election to finish Griswold's term, but did not seek a full term.

Committee assignments

* Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry ** Subcommittee on Livestock, Marketing, and Agriculture Security * Committee on Armed Services ** Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities ** Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support ** Subcommittee on Strategic Forces (Ranking Member) * Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation ** Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety, and Security ** Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and Export Promotion ** Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance ** Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard ** Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security (Ranking Member) * Committee on Rules and Administration * Select Committee on Ethics

Political positions

Abortion

Fischer supports a national abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest. She supports

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', 597 U.S. 215 (2022), is a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court in which the court held ...

, the Supreme Court decision that overturned ''Roe v. Wade''.

Climate change

Fischer rejects conclusions by the international scientific community that human emissions of greenhouse gases are the primary cause of

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

in recent decades. In May 2015, a legislative aide said, "the senator acknowledges the climate is changing but believes it is due to natural cycles."

Gun access

After the 2016

Orlando nightclub shooting On , 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States before Orlando Police officers fatally shot him after a three-hour standoff. I ...

, Fischer said any legislative proposals to restrict people on the terrorist watchlist from buying guns would not stop mass shootings. She said that preventing self-radicalization was more important than restricting gun access.

Health care

Fischer supports repealing the

(Obamacare) and has voted accordingly.

LGBTQ rights

In June 2020, Fischer expressed support for the Supreme Court decision in '' Bostock v. Clayton County'' that "extended Civil Rights Act protections to gay, lesbian and transgender workers", saying, "It's important that we recognize that all Americans have equal rights under our Constitution. I'm fine with it." She voted aganist the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same sex marriages.

2020 presidential election

Before the January 6, 2021, United States Electoral College vote count, Fischer announced that she would vote to certify the election results. She was on Capitol Hill to participate in the count when

supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. During the attack, Fischer tweeted: "These rioters have no constitutional right to harm law enforcement and storm our Capitol. We are a nation of laws, not some banana republic. This must end now." On May 28, 2021, Fischer voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the

2021 United States Capitol attack On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of Donald Trump, President Donald Trump in an attempted self-coup,Multiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * * two months afte ...

. In January 2024, she endorsed Trump's 2024 presidential election campaign.

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Fischer was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 On January 19, 2023, the United States hit its United States debt ceiling, debt ceiling, leading to a debt-ceiling crisis, part of an ongoing political debate within United States Congress, Congress about United States federal budget, federal ...

Personal life

Fischer is married to Bruce Fischer. They operate a family ranch, Sunny Slope Ranch, near Valentine, Nebraska. Their children own most of the stock in the family corporation, while the elder Fischers retain a minority share. In 2020, Fischer and her husband moved to Lincoln, Nebraska.

Electoral history

References

External links

*
Senator Deb Fischer
official U.S. Senate website
Campaign website
* , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Fischer, Deb 1951 births 21st-century American women politicians 21st-century members of the Nebraska Legislature 21st-century United States senators American Presbyterians Female United States senators Living people Nebraska Republicans People from Valentine, Nebraska Politicians from Lincoln, Nebraska Protestants from Nebraska Ranchers from Nebraska Republican Party Nebraska state senators Republican Party United States senators from Nebraska University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Women state legislators in Nebraska

Early life, education, and career

School board (1990–2004)

Nebraska Legislature (2005–2013)

Elections

U.S. Senate (2013–present)

Elections

2012

2018

2024

Tenure

Committee assignments

Political positions

Abortion

Climate change

Gun access

Health care

LGBTQ rights

2020 presidential election

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Personal life

Electoral history

See also

References

Further reading

External links