Carol Blood latest gubernatorial candidate with McCook ties

McCOOK, Neb. — A contender in the Nebraska governor’s race has McCook ties.

State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue, Neb., who is seeking the Democrat nomination in the governor’s race, was born in McCook; her father, Harry Vacek, operated Harry’s Apco in the early 1960s. The family moved to a farm in Adams County near Hastings, Neb., when she was four.

If elected, she would join Frank B. Morrison, E. Benjamin Nelson, Ralph G. Brooks and Dave Heineman as Nebraska governors who were either born here or lived here.

The values she learned growing up in a rural area she still uses today, Blood said, speaking at the Loop Brewery Sunday. Growing up, she remembers, “you didn’t care about party affiliation, you cared about if you did your job.” Right now in the governor’s race, there’s a lot of “us versus them narrative” and not talking about Nebraska issues, she said.

“It’s a lot of smoke and mirrors and it’s time to actually serve the people.” Blood was elected twice to the Bellevue City Council, then elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2016 and re-elected in 2020.

“You don’t start fights, you start partnerships,” she said. Issues on her platform include state-funded public education to include two years of community college, for trade careers that will generate a younger workforce who can thrive in Nebraska, investing in infrastructure, including the state prison system (Blood formerly worked in corrections), maintaining public safety and addressing unfunded mandates for counties and schools.

“We’re all Nebraskans, we all want the same things,” she said. “But if you keep voting for the same people, you’ll keep getting the same thing.”

Blood’s running mate, Al Davis, former state senator and rancher, also spoke on Sunday.