Ernie Chambers, the longest tenured Nebraska state senator, has filed to run for the legislative seat he held for 46 years.
The Nebraska Secretary of State Office confirmed to KLIN News that Chambers, 86, will again seek election to represent North Omaha’s legislative District 11.
Chambers will face primary opponents, including incumbent Senator Terrell McKinney, a law student Creighton School of Law, and Calandra Cooper, an adjunct instructor at Metro Community College and urban farmer.
In 2000 lawmakers approved a two term (8 year) legislative term limit. Due to this, Chambers was forced to leave the legislature in 2008 after 38 years in the seat he held since 1971. Chambers sought reelection as soon as he could and served another two terms from 2013 to 2021, making him the longest serving State Senator in Nebraska history with 46 years in the body… leading Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly who served for 34 years, from 1963 to 1997.
Chambers had previously indicated to the Nebraska Examiner that he was “thinking about” running in 2024. Upon his departure from the Unicameral in 2021, Chambers said he would consider a run in ’24 if he was in good mental and physical health.
The North Omaha barber turned lawmaker gain infamy as an orator and skilled lawmaker on the floor of the legislature, responsible for numerous filibuster efforts and a crusade to abolish the death penalty. He succeeded repealing capital punishment as a practice in Nebraska in 2015, later thwarted by a petition effort spearheaded by then Governor Pete Ricketts.
For most of his career, Chambers was the only nonwhite senator in the body. He is also the only African-American Nebraskan to run for governor and the first to have run for U.S. Senate. Additionally, Chambers has been a vocal atheist. In 2008, Chambers sued “God” to publicize the issue of public access to the court system, making the point that no lawsuit should be considered frivolous.
Chambers first gained notoriety for his appearance in the 1966 documentary film ‘A Time for Burning,’ which depicts the attempts of Augustana Lutheran Church minister L. William Youngdahl of Omaha to persuade his all-white congregation to reach out to “Negro” Lutherans in the city’s north side. In the film, Youngdahl converses with Chambers while he cuts hair in his barber shop. Youngdahl and Chambers share a tense exchange, with Chambers telling the minister, “As far as we’re concerned, your Jesus is contaminated,” and “I think the problem is so bad, we can have no understanding at all.” Youngdahl ends up leaving the shop and later resigns as minister of the church.
In 2005, A Time for Burning was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”
If his reelection bid is successful, Chambers’ term would run from 2025-2029.