John S. McCollister (born April 29, 1947) is an American politician who served as a member of the
Nebraska Legislature
The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators", the Nebraska Legislature is the small ...
from 2015 to 2023, representing an
Omaha
Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...
district. McCollister is a moderate member of the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
.
Early life and education
McCollister was born April 29, 1947, in
Moline, Illinois
Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...
.
[ His paternal grandfather, John M. McCollister, had founded McCollister & Co., an industrial-lubricants business, in 1931. At the time of McCollister's birth, his father, ]John Y. McCollister
John Yetter McCollister (June 10, 1921 – November 1, 2013) was an American Republican politician.
He was born to John M. McCollister and Ruth Yetter McCollister in Iowa City, Iowa. In 1939 he graduated from Washington High School in Sioux F ...
, worked in sales for IBM in Illinois and in Iowa.
In 1966, McCollister graduated from Westside High School in Omaha. He attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Universit ...
, receiving a Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
in business administration in 1971.
Career
After graduating from college, McCollister went to work at McCollister & Co. He remained with the company until 2006, when it was sold to farm cooperative Growmark
Growmark, Inc., is a regional agricultural supply cooperative operating in more than 40 states and one operation in Ontario, Canada. Its local member cooperatives commonly use the name FS ("Farm Supply").
Growmark ranks 74th on the ICA Global 3 ...
.
Local politics
From 1979 to 2008, McCollister served five terms on the board of the Metropolitan Utilities District
The Metropolitan Utilities District, or M.U.D., is the political subdivision and public corporation of the U.S. State of Nebraska that operates the drinking water and natural gas systems for Omaha, Nebraska and surrounding areas. M.U.D. is the only ...
, a public utility that provides gas and water to the Omaha area.[
In 2008, McCollister ran as the Republican candidate for a seat on the ]Nebraska Public Service Commission The Nebraska Public Service Commission regulates railroads, household goods and passenger carriers, telephone companies, grain warehouses and construction of manufactured housing (mobile homes).
The Nebraska PSC is composed of five commissioners. ...
, which regulates railroads, major utility lines, and passenger carriers in the state; he sought to unseat the incumbent, Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
Anne Boyle. McCollister stated that cell-phone bills in Nebraska were too high, and called for reductions in state taxes on telephone service; Boyle maintained that the existing taxes were necessary to provide affordable service to rural areas, and to make it possible to establish the geographic origins of cell-phone calls to emergency number 911
911 or 9/11 may refer to:
Dates
* AD 911
* 911 BC
* September 11
** 9/11, the September 11 attacks of 2001
** 11 de Septiembre, Chilean coup d'état in 1973 that outed the democratically elected Salvador Allende
* November 9
Numbers
* 911 ...
. The two candidates together spent over $120,000 for their campaigns, setting a record for spending in a Public Service Commission race. In the general election, Boyle won with 61.8% of the vote to McCollister's 33.4% and Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...
candidate Doug Paterson's 4.9%.[
In early 2009, McCollister was named executive director of the ]Platte Institute for Economic Research
The Platte Institute for Economic Research is a free market advocacy group and think tank headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska.Margaret ReistPlatte Institute supports tax credits for private scholarship donations ''Journal Star'' (March 3, 2015). ,[ a nonprofit organization often described as "conservative",][ and self-described as "Nebraska's first Free Market think tank".][ He held that position for nearly four years.][
]
Nebraska legislature
2014 election
In late 2013, McCollister announced that he would run for the Nebraska Legislature
The Nebraska Legislature (also called the Unicameral) is the legislature of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The Legislature meets at the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. With 49 members, known as "senators", the Nebraska Legislature is the small ...
from south central Omaha's 20th District. The incumbent, Brad Ashford
John Bradley Ashford (November 10, 1949 – April 19, 2022) was an American politician who served in the Nebraska Legislature and the United States House of Representatives from Nebraska's 2nd congressional district.
After serving in the state l ...
, was precluded by Nebraska's term-limits law from running for a third consecutive term; he subsequently announced that he would run as a Democrat for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.[
In the nonpartisan primary, McCollister faced two registered Democrats: Matt Lathrop, an Omaha trial lawyer, whose brother, ]Steve Lathrop
Steve Lathrop (born April 1, 1957) is an American attorney and Democratic Party politician from the U.S. state of Nebraska. From 2007 to 2015, he served as a member of the Nebraska Legislature, representing an Omaha-area district.
He did not ru ...
, then represented another Omaha district in the state legislature; and Laura Baumgartner, a 25-year-old project manager for an Omaha advertising agency.[ When the primary election was held, McCollister received 3389 votes, or 49.5% of the total; Lathrop, 2227 votes, or 32.5%; and Baumgartner, 1232 votes, or 18.0%.][
As the top two vote-getters, McCollister and Lathrop moved on to the general election. Both candidates expressed concern about the growth of partisanship in the officially nonpartisan legislature; both stated that high taxes were a concern; both asserted that it was necessary to adequately fund education; and both favored prison- and sentencing reform. McCollister declared that the legislature needed more businessmen and fewer lawyers; Lathrop maintained that his training in mediation would help him to find satisfactory compromises between conflicting interests.][
Both campaigns spent in excess of $100,000. McCollister's organization raised about $150,000 and spent about $185,000; major contributors included the Nebraska Bankers, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, and the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry.][ The Lathrop campaign raised about $154,000, and spent about $146,000; his principal contributor was the Nebraska State Education Association, which yielded over $25,000 in cash and in-kind contributions; other significant contributors included the ]International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) is a labor union that represents approximately 775,000 workers and retirees in the electrical industry in the United States, Canada, Guam, Panama, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands; ...
, the Nebraska Association of Trial Lawyers, the United Transportation Union, and Firefighters for Better Government.[ The Nebraska Realtors PAC contributed to both candidates: $4000 to McCollister and $2000 to Lathrop.][
Turnout for the general election was about twice that of the primary. McCollister won, with 6409 votes, or 52.1% of the total; Lathrop obtained 5898 votes, or 47.9%.][
]
Legislative tenure
2015 session
In the 2015 session of the legislature, McCollister was named vice chair of the Urban Affairs Committee; he was also seated on the Business and Labor Committee and the Natural Resources Committee.[
]
National policy
In August 2019, McCollister was widely quoted in the national press for having stated that "The Republican Party is enabling white supremacy
White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...
in our country", after the 2019 El Paso shooting
On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting occurred at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, United States. In the terrorist attack, a far-right individual killed 23 people and injured 23 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the sh ...
. The Nebraska Republican Party rejected him.
A column written in December 2019, after the Midwestern U.S. floods, emphasized the importance of renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
for Nebraska in the face of climate change
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. McCollister praised the Omaha Public Power District
Omaha Public Power District, or OPPD, is a public electric utility in the state of Nebraska. It is a publicly owned electric utility in the United States, serving more than 855,000 people in Omaha and 13 surrounding counties in southeast Nebraska. ...
for committing to becoming 100% carbon free. In addition to solar, he stated that "Nebraska has the third best wind energy
Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...
generating potential of any state," and emphasized the employment impact of wind energy projects.
During the 2020 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 January:
**C ...
, McCollister endorsed the Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
nominee Joe Biden and encouraged other Republicans to "get on the right side of history". On October 9, 2020, he endorsed Kara Eastman, the progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...
Democrat running against Republican Congressman
A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...
Don Bacon
Donald John Bacon (born August 16, 1963) is an American politician and former military officer serving as the U.S. representative for Nebraska's 2nd congressional district since 2017. Before holding public office, he was a United States Air For ...
.
References
External links
McCollister's Nebraska Legislature website
"McCollister for Legislature"
2014 campaign website
Archived 2015-01-16
a
Wayback Machine
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCollister, John S.
People from Moline, Illinois
Politicians from Omaha, Nebraska
Republican Party Nebraska state senators
1947 births
Living people
21st-century American legislators
University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni