State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, right, shakes hands with State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil. April 10, 2026. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
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LINCOLN — With 10 years logged before his time in the Nebraska Legislature comes to an end, State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood has served longer than the rest of his term-limited colleagues.
Generally, Nebraska lawmakers can serve a maximum term of eight years before they have to take at least four years off before running again. Clements is a unique case because he was appointed to the Legislature in 2017 to replace disgraced former State Sen. Bill Kintner.
Today, Clements is one of the most prominent members of the body. For the past few years, he’s served as chair of the Appropriations Committee and helped form multiple Nebraska budgets through a fluctuating economic landscape. Most recently, he helped dig the state’s biennial budget out of two consecutive projected deficits, with a structural deficit still looming over the future.
When then-Gov. Pete Ricketts put out a call for applications for the open seat representing Legislative District 2, Clements was leading American Exchange Bank in Elmwood — a business the Clements family has been involved in since 1907. Clements said several people questioned whether he would apply, and he told them he would not throw his name in, unless the governor called.
A few days after saying that, Clements said he got the call from the Governor’s Office.
After an hour-long phone call with a Ricketts staffer to review his policy positions, Clements was told that Ricketts would meet with him in-person that afternoon. Before speaking with the governor, Clements said he had to speak with his wife, Peggy, to gauge her opinion about his potential public service.
What Peggy told him solidified Clements’ resolve to seize the opportunity: “I think it’s a God thing.”
Clements, a longtime Christian, said he believes there is a difference between simple coincidences and divine intervention. He believes God called him to serve in the state Legislature.
After meeting with Ricketts on Feb. 4, 2017, Clements was sworn in and started working in the Legislature on Feb. 7.
A ‘good nature’
For his first four years in office, Clements sat behind former State Sen. Ernie Chambers. He said the two, who held polar opposite political views, often joked about canceling out each other’s votes. In his early years in the Legislature, Clements said he would sometimes decide how to vote by going opposite to what Chambers voted.
Though they were politically opposed, Clements said he wanted to get along with Chambers to show him that Christians could be friendly. Chambers’ final words to him before he left office convinced him he’d accomplished this.
“Tell your father he raised a fine young man,” Chambers told him.
Multiple colleagues — both in the Legislature and the professional world — attested to Clements’ ability to get along with others. State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, who is often on the opposite side of votes to Clements, said she appreciated Clements’ “good nature” and called it a testament to the strength of the Unicameral that in the sea of different personalities, lawmakers can still find common ground.
Brian McHugh, a retired banker Clements described as a “friendly competitor,” agreed with Clements’ assessment, saying the Clements and McHugh families have been friends for three generations, with each family running their own local bank. American Exchange Bank and McHugh’s bank, Corn Growers State Bank, are the only two independent banks left in Cass County, he said.
“If you held up both families next to each other, it’d be like looking in a mirror,” McHugh said.
While they were competitors during the day, McHugh said he and Clements were friends outside work hours. He said they often sat together at professional events, and would warn each other about “ne’er-do-wells” in the area looking to make suspicious transactions.
Thrown into the deep end
Clements replaced Kintner on the Appropriations Committee, which was exactly where he wanted to be assigned, but he said he didn’t have a concept of the large numbers that made up Nebraska’s budget at first. As a banker, Clements said he was familiar with doling out loans that sometimes ranged above $1 million, and suddenly he was dealing with numbers in the hundreds of millions, or billions.
In 2017, the Legislature was facing a projected deficit of almost $1 billion, but was later reduced through positive economic forecasts. Clements said the Appropriations Committee balanced the budget using the same strategy used for more recent deficits — cash fund sweeps.
A few years later, Nebraska was dealing with a different problem when the state was given more than $1 billion in federal pandemic relief that the committee was tasked with allocating. While Clements said he was initially unsure if they could find enough uses for that much money, the committee received roughly 80 requests that combined would cost about $4 billion.
Clements said the previous Appropriations chair, former State Sen. John Stinner, handled these requests by asking his committee members to rank their top 10 proposals they would like to see the dollars allocated to. That session introduced Clements to projects that are still relevant today, including the Perkins County Canal and the new state prison that’s now under construction.
Clements took over as Appropriations chair in 2023, and noted that his leadership style was vastly different from Stinner’s. He described Stinner as more “Type A,” and said he would sometimes pound the table when he wanted to make a point about what he felt should or shouldn’t be included in the state budget.
Clements said he prefers to avoid conflict, and actually tried to recruit lawmakers to the committee that he felt confident he could work with. What he did not expect was for State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha to join the committee in 2025.
Cavanaugh fostered a polarizing reputation in the Legislature, and was known as a vocal critic of past state budgets who had said several times that she wished to be on Appropriations. Though Clements said he was intimidated to have Cavanaugh on the committee at first, he appreciated that she was one of the few lawmakers outside the committee that truly studied the budget bills before they reached floor debate.
Their first session on the committee together was a bit rocky, with Cavanaugh calling out Clements for organizing at least one private committee meeting that included only the Republican lawmakers on the committee. This session, however, ran smoother than Clements expected, as he said they seemed to form an understanding of each other.
“Even when we disagreed, she would be accurate in her statements,” Clements said.
As Appropriations chair, Clements said there were many days when his car was the first to enter the senators’ parking lot in the mornings, and the last to leave at night. Conrad noted that she never witnessed Clements miss a day of the session, and he was always in his seat for floor votes.
During this session’s tough fight to balance the state budget and fill a $646 million projected deficit, Speaker John Arch of La Vista said he met with Clements and Revenue Chair State Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Elkhorn area at least once a week to coordinate the effort.
Conrad criticized Clements for what she described as a lack of independence between the executive branch and the Appropriations Committee under his leadership. In the “term-limits era,” Conrad said she’s noticed a lack of willingness to push back against requests coming from the Governor’s Office.
Clements countered that there were several examples from this session where he reduced budget requests from Gov. Jim Pillen, including recommendations to cut more than $40 million from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, eliminating the Nebraska Cultural Preservation Endowment Fund, and funding a $7 million K-12 school voucher program.
“I didn’t ask about that, I told (Pillen),” Clements said. “I did that.”
Many senators, including Conrad, have praised Clements’ understanding of the numbers that make up Nebraska’s budget. Von Gillern said he will miss Clements’ expertise when he’s gone.
“I don’t know what qualifies as a savant, but he’s pretty close,” von Gillern said.
Political priorities
In a tribute speech to Clements on Friday, State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering noted that over his 10 years in office, Clements introduced 51 bills, which is fewer than most of the senators leaving office after eight years. Clements avoided “fluffy” ideas, Hardin said, instead focusing on proposals with the potential to benefit the most people.
“He brought his expertise to bear on the best ideas,” Hardin said.
Outside managing the budget, Clements said one of his top policy goals was eliminating Nebraska’s inheritance tax.
Currently, Nebraska imposes a 1% inheritance tax on children, parents and siblings for inheritances exceeding $100,000. Higher tax rates are charged to more distant relatives: 11% for aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews after a $40,000 exemption. Non-relatives would have to pay 15% after a $25,000 exemption.
To Clements, it boiled down to a fairness issue, as he still doesn’t understand why someone with no children would come with a higher tax for the family who would inherit their estate. It also hinders Nebraska’s competitiveness with other states, Clements said, as none of Nebraska’s neighbors impose inheritance taxes.
While Clements was not successful in his goal of eliminating the tax entirely, he was able to reduce the tax for distant relatives.
County officials opposed his proposals, noting that inheritance taxes make up roughly 9% of their annual budgets, Clements said. This led some senators to worry that eliminating the tax would result in raised property taxes.
Clements estimated it would cost about $90 million each year to replace the revenues generated by inheritance taxes for counties, leading him to believe his goal could only be accomplished in a year with a budget surplus.
Clements said State Sen. Robert Hallstrom of Syracuse will likely take up the mantle of fighting to eliminate inheritance taxes in Clements’ stead. Hallstrom agreed, noting that he introduced a constitutional amendment in 2025 to repeal inheritance taxes. Hallstrom said he is working to find options for replacement revenues to cover counties.
Though he didn’t bring any bills on the issue, Clements said restricting abortion access was one of his top priorities in office, and was the reason behind a golden lapel pin showing two footprints of a “10-week old unborn baby” that he wore every day.
“I believe if there is no right to life, there are no rights at all,” Clements said.
Clements said he also is proud of a $3 million project to convert the rarely seen fifth floor of the state Capitol into a museum displaying some of the history of the Legislature, Capitol and the Governor’s Office. The project is ongoing, with an expected completion in 2028, Clements said.
Beyond his political positions, Arch said Clements is one of the most principled men he has ever met. Clements said those principles came from his upbringing, which taught him that success is not measured by money, but by integrity.
Clements’ principles were tested on his first day in the Legislature, when he discovered a new pet peeve — trading votes. About two hours into his first day, Clements said he was approached by senators who offered to ensure he was assigned to the Appropriations Committee if he voted against a bill he supported.
Clements turned down the offer, and said he never received offers to trade votes after that.
“Being a person of your word is priceless,” Clements said.
Life after office
Before he got the call from Ricketts’ office in 2017, Clements, who was then 66, had promised his wife he would retire from banking at 70.
Now 75, Clements said his only regret is that he hasn’t been able to spend as much time with his family as he wanted. Clements has five children and 14 grandchildren.
The loss of family time has worn on Clements, to the point that he said even if he wasn’t term-limited, he would still have likely left office this year.
“My wife sits at home all day … and I will be home at maybe 11 o’clock,” Clements said. “Those kinds of things are sacrifices that I’m willing to do, but not enjoy.”
After he leaves office, Clements said he plans to focus on his family in his retirement, though he will remain on the board of directors for his bank.
Clements said he’s often asked if he’s enjoyed his time in the Legislature, a question that has become one of his “least favorite.” He has an answer ready when anyone asks.
“I would have applied for it if I wanted it, but I’m glad I’m here,” Clements said.
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
