LINCOLN — The Nebraska State Capitol’s unofficial feline mascot could soon become a permanent fixture outside the historic building he brought warmth and love to for a decade.
Until this spring, Cameron the “Capitol Cat” made a home away from home at the Capitol near his downtown Lincoln residence with his owner, Dianna McGinnis. After long legislative days, staffers and lawmakers alike would greet Cameron, even on nights after heated filibusters or those that stretched toward midnight. Many found relief as he awaited their attention.
Cameron retired in May as the unofficial Capitol greeter when McGinnis moved to assisted living. But his pawprint on lawmakers, staff and community members well beyond Nebraska could soon live on with a statue on the south side of the Capitol off Goodhue Boulevard.
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The life-size bronze statue of Cameron would be about 18-20 inches tall and sit atop a pedestal made from Indiana limestone, about 28-32 inches in height. The limestone is proposed to mirror the stone facing and architectural trim of the historic Nebraska State Capitol.
“I mean, let’s be real, it would be so freaking cute and everybody would get their picture by it, and his little head would be petted, and it’d be shiny gold because everybody would rub his little head coming in,” state Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, who is helping the project, said Friday.
No state or taxpayer funds would go toward the statue.
Hughes, who joined the Legislature in 2023, and former state Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, who served between 2017 and 2025, will pitch the privately funded project to the Nebraska Capitol Environs Commission on Friday. The meeting is for feedback initially, and the supporters would need final approval before the statue could be affixed near the Capitol.
The commission includes seven voting members — five appointees from the Lincoln mayor and two from the Nebraska governor — who oversee the Capitol Environs District and associated architecture, landscaping, urban planning and real estate.
The purpose of the commission is to maintain and enhance a “dignified setting” for the Capitol, encourage appropriate improvements in the district and protect vistas to the Capitol.
‘Heartwarming story’
Hughes said she first heard of the statue idea around the time lawmakers adjourned in April from one of her constituents, Scott Shafer, who works for the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. Using artificial intelligence, she created a rendering of how the statue could look. However, the final design would fall to the storied sculptor supporters hope to hire.
Benjamin Victor of Boise, Idaho, the artist behind the Ponca Chief Standing Bear and Dr. Susan La Flesche Picotte statues on Lincoln Mall north of the Nebraska Capitol has agreed to sculpt the bronze Cameron.
“What a warm idea for a sculpture,” Victor said Monday.
Victor sculpted Nebraska’s Chief Standing Bear statue in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. He has sculpted three other statues in Statuary Hall, the only living sculptor with that honor:
- Civil rights leader, journalist and author Daisy Lee Gatson Bates, who fought for school integration and assisted the Little Rock Nine (Arkansas).
- Agronomist Norman Borlaug, who developed high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties and is often called the “father of the Green Revolution” (Iowa).
- Paiute writer, activist and lecturer Sarah Winnemucca, who was one of the first Native American women to testify before Congress (Nevada).
In his handful of trips to the Nebraska Capitol, Victor said, he met Cameron on multiple occasions. He said it’s awesome to see Cameron’s impact.
“We all know our pets touch our hearts, and they’re part of our lives, and they’re part of our families,” Victor said. “But then to see a cat that just hung around the Capitol all the time and got to know everybody, it’s really kind of an amazing story and a heartwarming story and a wonderful thing as an artist to get to do something like that.”
Supporters had originally thought of adding a bronze Cameron closer to the entrance to the Capitol. However, commission regulations in the Lincoln Municipal Code say the “Capitol Square,” the four blocks where the Capitol sits, is meant to be a “complete and finished design.”
‘As old as the stone’
Wishart said people have been missing Cameron amid his celebrity status in Lincoln, a city of more than 300,000. In Wishart’s daily life, the former lawmaker said, she meets with people who ask about Cameron and tell her they previously drove by just to say “hi” to the Capitol Cat.
“We think that it’s important for his presence to be permanent, because he was such an important little figure there every day at the Capitol,” Wishart said.
With Cameron’s daily presence, Wishart said, it was hard to remember when he first started showing up but believes it was around 2018. She remarked that it almost felt as if Cameron knew when the Capitol would be busy, “and you see him trotting down the street from his home to come and see everybody.”
“It almost feels like he’s as old as the stone of the Capitol,” Wishart said of his presence.
One of the goals, Wishart said, is also to get the statue up “as soon as possible” for McGinnis, who relocated due to serious health decline and chronic pain in recent months. Wishart noted Cameron always had a positive presence and brought out “shared humanity.”
A storied legacy
John Shaw, a local photographer who published a book about Cameron that is sold at a gift shop in the Capitol, among other Cameron merchandise, is also helping the project.
Shaw said Cameron’s family is “very on board” and excited. As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraising campaign had raised almost $3,500 toward its $37,500 goal just a few days after launching. Shaw has also agreed to donate profits from his photo book about Cameron to the project through October.
The cost includes Victor’s estimate and ongoing maintenance. Meeting materials indicate minimal upkeep with materials “designed to withstand Nebraska seasonal cycles without degradation.”
While Shaw was not necessarily an animal photographer, he said he always enjoyed photographing Cameron. He has two adopted cats of his own — littermates, which his daughters named Toby, after “The Office” character, and Peanut, for a marking on his nose.
After publishing his book and writing about Cameron’s retirement, Shaw said, he heard the “deeply emotional stories” people had about Cameron well beyond Nebraska.
Shaw said those stories were about “how they might have had loss in their life, and they came and saw Cameron and how it touched them and reminded them of people they had lost and how comforting he was.”
‘Peaceful constant on the south steps’
Also endorsing the statue is Nebraska’s top legislator, Speaker John Arch of La Vista.
Arch, who is finishing his eighth and final year, including four as speaker, wrote in a supporting letter that he saw the “intense energy, long hours and rigorous debate” in the Legislature.
“In a setting dedicated to high-stakes public policy, Cameron served a unique and comforting purpose,” Arch wrote. “For over a decade, he was a peaceful constant on the south steps and lawns — offering a quiet moment of warmth to senators, legislative staff, page classes and constituents alike as they entered and exited the building.”
On one hand, lawmakers work “tirelessly” to represent Nebraskans, Arch said. Yet Cameron “represented the sheer goodwill of our Capitol culture.” Arch said Cameron’s retirement — after a tenure longer than modern lawmakers — marked the “end of a remarkable era.”
Wrote Arch: “Moving his memorial site directly across the street to the south grounds allows us to preserve his story and connection to the Capitol campus while respecting the physical integrity of the building itself.”
The Capitol Environs Commission meeting is 8:30 a.m. Friday in Lincoln.
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
