Pachyderm Luncheon with Scott Petersen

Scott Petersen is an Omaha businessman and Republican nominee for Nebraska Secretary of State in the 2026 election. He defeated two-term incumbent Bob Evnen in the May 12, 2026, Republican primary (roughly 55%–45%) and faces Democrat Sarah Slattery in the November general election.

A University of Iowa graduate (bachelor’s degree, 1976), Petersen has decades of private-sector experience as owner of Petersen Printing Inc. and Chase Marketing, and he previously served as business and compliance manager for Don Bacon’s congressional campaign. He has held Republican Party roles, including former chairman of the Douglas County Republican Party, member of the state party’s executive committee, and 2024 Trump national delegate. He and his wife, Ann, live in Omaha.

His campaign centers on election integrity and restoring public confidence in the electoral process. Petersen advocates for more transparent, verifiable elections, including stronger chain-of-custody protections, expanded post-election audits (with full hand counts in selected or close races), accurate voter-roll maintenance, meaningful voter ID with citizenship verification, restricting no-excuse/mail-in voting (favoring request-only absentee ballots limited to special circumstances such as military or disability), ending taxpayer-funded mass ballot-request mailings, and greater county-level control. He has also emphasized modernizing the office’s business-services division for efficiency.