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LINCOLN The Democratic candidate for Nebraskas 1st Congressional District spent most of her life as a rock-ribbed Republican.

State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks grew up in a very conservative Republican household in Lincoln. She joined the GOP herself because of the partys traditional focus on the economy and fiscal responsibility.

She even co-chaired the Lancaster County Republican Party for a couple of years in the late 1980s.

But Pansing Brooks found herself increasingly out of place as social issues became more prominent in GOP politics. Newer party positions clashed with her post on the Planned Parenthood board, her support for abortion rights and her defense of a nephew who came out as gay in 1989.

She hung on for several years but ended up switching parties in 2008.

Today, at 63, she is a Democrat with a record of working across the aisle and a determination to find common ground. Friends say she leads with passion, honesty, hard work and kindness qualities that helped her get more than 60 bills passed during her eight years in the Nebraska Legislature.

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To me, its not about party, she said. Its about doing the right thing. I vote for people. I vote for concerns. I dont look at some sort of agenda from this party or that party.

But being a Democrat puts Pansing Brooks at a disadvantage in seeking to represent the Republican-leaning 1st District. Republicans account for 46% of registered voters in the district, with Democrats at 29% and nonpartisan voters at 23%, according to the Secretary of States Office.

The district encompasses all or part of 12 counties in eastern Nebraska, including Lancaster and Sarpy Counties. Lincoln is the largest city; the district also includes Bellevue, Offutt Air Force Base, La Vista, most of Papillion, Fremont, Columbus and Norfolk.

The seat became vacant March 31 when U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry stepped down after being convicted of three felonies, including two counts of lying to federal agents and one of concealing illegal campaign contributions.

Pansing Brooks will face off with Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, the Republican candidate, twice in the next six months.

The winner of a special election set for June 28 will fill out the remaining months of Fortenberrys term. Early voting is already underway in the race.

The two will meet again in the November general election, which will decide who represents the district for the next two years.

Pansing Brooks said she decided to get into the race after redistricting in 2021 narrowed the Republican dominance of the district and opened a potential path for victory. She believes she can reach people no matter their party registration.

People in Nebraska do not live in a partisan prism, she said. Most people have the same concerns. They care about their families, their health, their job, their ability to put food on the table. Thats what people care about, not the parties.

Sen. John McCollister of Omaha, a Republican who endorsed Pansing Brooks, said he has faith in her ability to connect with voters. He said she demonstrated that skill in the Legislature, forging common cause with Republican colleagues on specific issues despite other differences.

She is such a warm person, he said. Nobodys a stranger with Patty Pansing Brooks.

Former Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln worked with Pansing Brooks in 2006, when the two led a $250 million school bond issue campaign. The bond issue passed with 63% support after Pansing Brooks helped lay the groundwork by bringing together a variety of community leaders, including local tax watchdogs.

That campaign, plus Pansing Brooks work on numerous other community efforts, has made her very well thought of in Lincoln, Campbell said.

Shes just very passionate about the causes she supports and extremely hardworking, she said. She has a very caring, compassionate attitude.

Pansing Brooks credits that attitude and her approach to politics and community involvement in large part to her family.

Her father, Tom Pansing, was a World War II veteran and attorney who served on the Lincoln City Council and was acting mayor. Her mother, Lu Pansing, was elected to the Lincoln school board. Both were heavily involved with the community, and dinner discussions often focused on national and local issues.

I grew up discussing issues, often heatedly, she said. It really led me to care so much about the country and about the Constitution and about the freedoms for which so many people have fought in the past.

Pansing Brooks fell into a dark place when her father died of lung cancer at age 55. She was 14. She said she struggled with doubts about whether she would live to graduate from high school, make it through college or marry. But she did all three and went on to get a law degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Eventually, she came to appreciate all the people in her life.

I think part of it is I dont know if Ill see the person the next day, having had my dad go at such an early age, she said. I really feel like we have to spend more time being kinder to one another and being willing to embrace one another and find the common ground.

Two years after getting her law degree, Pansing Brooks and her husband, Loel Brooks, started their own law firm. He focused on telecommunications, she did business and real estate law.

She also got involved in the community. Over the years, she has been active with a long list of organizations and efforts, including the PTOs at her childrens schools, the Lincoln Community Foundation, Bryan Medical Center and Lincoln-Lancaster Commission on the Status of Women. In many, she held leadership positions.

After the LPS bond issue, she co-chaired a $6 million fundraising drive to build Union Plaza, Lincolns first urban park, and a $9.6 million campaign to renovate Centennial Mall, which stretches between the State Capitol and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus.

Pansing Brooks said she and her husband really feel its necessary to give back because of the good fortune we have of living in this community and the work that others have done.

In 2014, she said running for the Legislature was an extension of that community involvement. She won election handily that year and was unopposed for reelection in 2018. She is term-limited out after this year.

Over the past eight years, she has worked on juvenile justice reform, expanding childrens rights to legal counsel, getting childrens court records sealed once they complete their sentences and keeping a closer eye on the use of solitary confinement for juveniles. Along with GOP colleagues, she worked to strengthen state laws on human trafficking, while extending protection to trafficking victims.

She created and led a task force that highlighted the problems at Whiteclay, a tiny village on the South Dakota border that sold more than 3.5 million cans of beer annually to residents of the dry Pine Ridge Reservation.

Other legislation created breast cancer awareness license plates, protected workers from retaliation for discussing wages, codified dyslexia as a learning disability and required schools to offer evidence-based reading support, and established Indigenous Peoples Day as a state holiday.

She fought unsuccessfully to protect Nebraskans from job discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, citing the effects that the lack of protection has had on people like her son, Taylor Brooks, who is gay.

In 2015, she ruffled a lot of rural feathers with comments about farm income and property taxes. She made the comments after learning of a federal report that showed Nebraska farms earned an average $112,966 per year between 2009 and 2013, after taxes and other expenses.

They just dont want to pay the taxes, it seems to me, Pansing Brooks said, while serving on a work group looking at property taxes and school funding.

Since then, she said, she has learned a lot more about agricultural issues and has changed her views. She said those changes have been reflected in her votes.

Nebraska has 49 state senators in the Legislature. Scroll through to find your state senator and others.

State Sen. Julie Slama

District: 1

From: Sterling

Party: Republican

State Sen. Robert Clements

District: 2

From: Elmwood

Party: Republican

State Sen. Carol Blood

District: 3

From: Bellevue

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Robert Hilkemann

District: 4

From: Omaha

Party: Republican

State Sen. Mike McDonnell

District: 5

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh

District: 6

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Tony Vargas

District: 7

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Megan Hunt

District: 8

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. John Cavanaugh

District: 9

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Wendy DeBoer

District: 10

From: Bennington

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Terrell McKinney

District: 11

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Steve Lathrop

District: 12

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. Justin Wayne

District: 13

From: Omaha

Party: Democratic

State Sen. John Arch

District: 14

From: La Vista

Party: Republican

State Sen. Lynne Walz

District: 15

From: Fremont

Party: Democratic

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Democrat Pansing Brooks touts ability to work across the aisle after party switch - Omaha World-Herald