A new megadonor family is silently changing Nebraska political races

A Nebraska family has plowed more than $1.6 million into the Lincoln mayor's race, an unprecedented sum and latest burst in a multi-year deluge that, at the federal level, rivals the political spending by a famed Las Vegas casino magnate and a Silicon Valley titan.

It's not the Nebraska family you think.

It's the Peed family and its business, Sandhills Global – not the Ricketts family – that have eclipsed all other donors while trying to help former State Sen. Suzanne Geist, a Republican, oust Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, a Democrat.

The Peeds and their company have steered nearly $1.09 million in cash and in-kind contributions to Geist's campaign and another $535,000 to a political action committee running attack ads against Gaylor Baird.

As of April 17, the Peeds and Sandhills were responsible for nearly two-thirds of the total contributions Geist had received.

It's become an issue in the race, with the mayor and her supporters reacting with alarm, and insinuating the Peed money comes with strings attached. Geist and her allies have dismissed that as political posturing, noting it takes serious money to run a modern campaign.

But there's no debate that the Peeds are now political heavyweights – an unusual position for a family that has long shirked the limelight.

Over nearly four decades, the Peeds built Sandhills from a niche publishing business into one of Lincoln's largest employers. Their assets are allegedly valued at more than $1 billion, according to a court filing. They're longtime philanthropists long involved in the Catholic Church.

Their emergence as GOP megadonors, however, is new; so new that multiple former state party officials said they knew little about the family.

That may soon change.

Since 2020, the Peeds have unleashed a torrent of cash in Nebraska and beyond. In the 2022 federal election cycle, Sandhills-affiliated contributions totaled more than $14.7 million, putting it in the same league as casino magnate Steve Wynn and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman.

In Nebraska, contributions from the Peeds and Sandhills have shot them up the ranks of political donors, drawing comparisons to the Ricketts family, the state's most prominent megadonors.

The sudden spending begs the question: Why are the Peeds shoveling so much money into politics?

The family isn't saying.

Multiple emails sent to family patriarch Tom Peed weren't returned. Shawn Peed, the oldest son and now-CEO of Sandhills, didn't respond to several emails or return a voicemail. Sandhills company outreach coordinator Jim Hansen didn't respond to messages.

For decades the Peeds largely stayed out of politics in their home state, with a few exceptions.

That changed after 2020. Following a year of upheaval – with a pandemic, the police killing of George Floyd, riots and a polarizing presidential election – the Peeds leapt off the sidelines, a Flatwater free press analysis of campaign finance data found.

From 2000 through 2020, the Peeds and Sandhills spent about $140,800 on in-state races, or roughly $7,000 a year.

In the past 28 months, just in Nebraska alone, they've spent nearly $2.7 million, or about $97,000 each month.

Historically, the Peeds and Sandhills have been more active at the federal level. They faithfully supported former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, who worked for Sandhills prior to serving 17 years in the House.

But the 2020 election cycle marked a spike in federal contributions.

Since 2000, the Peeds and Sandhills have contributed more than $21.9 million, according to Federal Election Commission records. Nearly $20.3 million – 93% – has come since 2020.

They've given to state GOP parties across the country and congressional candidates in Nebraska and elsewhere. They gave nearly $1.2 million to committees affiliated with former President Donald Trump. And since 2020 they have delivered $17 million to a super PAC working to elect Republicans to the U.S. House.

In the 2022 election cycle, Sandhills was the 42nd most generous donor of the 30,777 groups that gave, according to OpenSecrets, a D.C.-based nonprofit that tracks money in politics.

That ranking put Sandhills two spots behind the National Association of Realtors and just ahead of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

It's still well behind the No. 1 donor: George Soros' Soros Fund Management gave $179.9 million.

"They really upped the ante ... in 2022. I think in this cycle people are going to be paying more attention to them," OpenSecrets' Brendan Glavin said of the Peeds and Sandhills.

Since its founding in 1978, Sandhills has grown from seven employees to an international firm with nearly 1,200 workers. Tom Peed was among Lincoln's likely millionaires as far back as 1998, according to a Lincoln Journal Star story. In 1997, the newspaper reported that construction of the Peed home set a record as the most expensive house built in Lincoln.

Their business empire has expanded. They own a cattle operation, Lone Creek Cattle Co .; a high-end beef brand, Certified Piedmontese Beef and one of Lincoln's most renowned upscale restaurants, Casa Bovina. They own the Dormie Network, a collection of six private golf clubs.

They co-owned Smart Chicken before selling it in 2018 to Tyson for $382 million.

Last year, the Peeds launched the 1890 Initiative, one of the primary name, image and likeness, collectives working to help Husker athletes get compensated.

The family also heavily supports local charities.

A Flatwater free press analysis of public IRS records found the Peed Family Foundation gave more than $7.4 million to charitable causes from 2001 through 2020, including $585,250 to the Food Bank of Lincoln and $106,500 to the Lincoln Parks Foundation.

The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln received more than $1.8 million. Pius X High School, attended by all three Peed children, received at least $406,700. Family matriarch Rhonda Peed told the Journal Star's L Magazine in 2018 that their faith drives their charitable giving.

In 2022, the Peeds lined up behind Jim Pillen in the GOP gubernatorial primary, contributing $300,000 to his campaign. They gave to Republicans running for the legislature. They gave a total of $65,000 to three conservative candidates for the State Board of Education. They dropped $200,000 into the campaign to pass voter ID requirements.

But their recent willingness to pour large sums of money into local races is distinguishing them from other GOP donors.

"It's really unfortunate for candidates of both political parties that ... want to serve their communities ... but may not be best friends with the rich oligarchs that are funding the campaigns," said Adam Morfeld, former state senator.

Last year Morfeld ran for Lancaster County attorney against incumbent Pat Condon in a race that turned out to be a harbinger of the Lincoln mayoral race.

Morfeld was significantly outraising Condon, thanks largely to small donations and five-figure contributions from organizations such as Planned Parenthood and Bold Alliance.

The Peeds and Sandhills had donated $60,000 directly to Condon. But one month before Election Day, they contributed $250,000 to a PAC called Together Nebraska – the same PAC now opposing Gaylor Baird in the mayor's race.

Together Nebraska spent $276,520 opposing Morfeld in the final two weeks. Condon won by fewer than 800 votes. Condon stopped responding to text messages and calls after initially indicating he would talk for this story.

Said Morfeld: "I don't know who the Peeds are. ... I don't know what their issues are. And I don't know what issues I advocated for that apparently upset them so much."

He is far from alone.

"What family?" said Dan Welch, the former chairman of the Nebraska GOP, when asked about the Peeds.

Welch, state Republican chairman for seven years, said the name Peed didn't register in his mind as a party donor. "If they were consistent donors, I'd probably recognize them," he said. Several other party officials said while they knew of the Peeds, they knew little about them.

The anonymity extends beyond politics, differentiating the family from other megadonors, such as Sen. Pete Ricketts and businessman Charles W. Herbster.

The Peeds have largely refrained from the spotlight in Lincoln, their company's homebase since 1986.

"They've been a well-known entity and a distinguished employer in Lincoln for quite some time, but quietly doing their business," Wendy Birdsall, former president of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, said of Sandhills.

In the past year, Sandhills has announced a $5 million contribution to a tech center at Southeast Community College and a $4 million donation to the Lincoln Youth Complex, which will include baseball and softball fields, including one for children with disabilities.

Despite Sandhills' community engagement efforts, the Peeds remain a relatively unknown presence in Lincoln, including at City Hall, where they now hope to shake up the leadership.

"I don't remember ever having an issue brought to me from the Peeds," said Don Wesely, former Lincoln mayor and state senator. "I mean, I was going to a lot of events and involved with a lot of organizations ... but never ran across them that I can remember."

Gaylor Baird said she can recall just one instance when she heard from the Peeds, and it concerned the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2021, Shawn Peed sent a letter to Gaylor Baird and others that included his company's own analysis of public COVID-19 data from three Nebraska counties.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department had extended a mask mandate several times and it was unclear if the department would do so again.

The analysis concluded that "mask mandates did not have a measurable direct effect on improving COVID-19 case rates and death rates."

The campaign messages and attack ads the Peed money is paying for focus on public safety, not COVID policies.

Geist said she had no pre-existing relationship with the family, aside from sometimes bumping into them at a restaurant.

In an interview, she said she asked the Peeds if there was a specific issue motivating their giving.

"And they just said they want their city back. They want a voice at the table. They want to be heard ... Whether you give to my campaign or not, I'm committed to listening to every citizen who wants to speak," Geist said.

Gaylor Baird and her supporters, however, wonder what the Peeds expect in return. And they worry that the heavy spending is the new normal in local races. Four years ago, the Peeds donated $5,000 to Cyndi Lamm, who lost to Gaylor Baird. This time around, they have given 320 times that amount.

"Four years ago felt kind of like it built on the previous mayor's races. It was sort of similar size, similar price points," Gaylor Baird said. "This race ... feels like a D.C. congressional race or something."

The Flatwater free press is Nebraska's first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.