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Steve Halloran
Steve Halloran
Member of the Nebraska Legislature from the 33rd district
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; January 4, 2017
Preceded by	Les Seiler
Personal details
Born	June 29, 1948 (age 76); Hastings, Nebraska, U.S.
Political party	Republican

Steve Halloran (born June 29, 1948) is an American politician who has served in the Nebraska Legislature from the 33rd district since 2017.^[1]^[2]

Career

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Halloran was president of the Nebraska branch of the National Farmers Organization. In this role, Halloran was critical of US President Ronald Reagan's agricultural policy as being too favorable to ranchers and food processors and unfavorable to grain-growing farmers.^[3] Halloran was elected president of the NFO in December 1991. In that position, he advocated farmer cooperation and the development of domestic grain consumption over grain exporting.^[4] By 2006, however, Halloran had retired from farming and was co-owner of a HuHot Mongolian Grill restaurant in Billings, Montana.^[5]

Politics

Halloran was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2016, where he has "largely aligned himself with the far-right flank of Nebraska politics" according to the New York Times.^[6]

Education

As a state senator, Halloran has been particularly critical of education policy. In February 2017, he proposed a bill that would remove funding from the Nebraska Master Teacher program.^[7] In this, Halloran has frequently been allied with state senator Steve Erdman. Along with Erdman, in April 2017 Halloran was one of three senators that opposed new rules requiring Nebraska schools to expand accommodation to students with children including breastfeeding accommodations.^[8] In August 2017, the University of Nebraska (UN) became embroiled in a controversy when a graduate student and an undergraduate student entered into a political argument related to the undergraduate's involvement in Turning Point USA, a conservative education advocacy organization. After a video of the event was released, Erdman, Halloran, and state senator Tom Brewer were outspoken in criticism of the grad student and UNL that it was hostile to conservative viewpoints. A group of 70 UN faculty accused the senators and Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts of being politically motivated in their criticism and seeking to damage the university.^[9] The graduate student lost funding as a result of the dispute, a move that was heavily criticized by AAUP, the faculty Union. The senators proposed a bill that would restrict the ability of the university to govern itself with regards to speech issues. They also called for an outside agency to study campus attitudes towards conservatives. The university suggested using Gallup for this study, but the senators felt that Gallup could not be unbiased and insisted that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) be used instead, although FIRE would determine the graduate student was within her rights and should not have lost her position.^[10]^[11] The senators fight with the University continued for much of 2018. In March, they proposed an amendment to strip $17 million of funding from UNL, which ultimately failed.^[12] In October, Halloran claimed that the university sought to indoctrinate students to become liberal at a panel put on by the Academic Freedom Coalition of Nebraska.^[13]

Comments about rape

Halloran inserted the name of a colleague into a rape scene which he read aloud on the floor of the legislature in March 2024.^[14] The scene was an excerpt from a book, Lucky by Alice Sebold, which Halloran is attempting to ban from schools for obscenity.^[15] Another senator launched a formal workplace harassment investigation against Halloran.^[16]

Other

Halloran called for an amendment to the US Constitution requiring federal fiscal restraint in January 2019,^[17] opposed increasing tipped workers minimum wage in March 2019,^[18] and in October 2021 called for a law opposing vaccine mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic.^[19]

References

^ "Halloran running for District 33 seat". Hastingstribune.com. 2016-01-08. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
^ "Halloran wins District 33 seat". Hastingstribune.com. 2016-11-09. Retrieved 2019-02-17.
^ Nebraska Farm Officials Criticize Reagan's Proposed Ag Cuts, The Lincoln Star (Lincoln, NE), 10 Jan 1989, page 1 and 4
^ Hovey, Art. Path to higher grain prices begins with pooling - NFO president, The Lincoln Star (Lincoln, NE), 4 Feb 1992, page 2.
^ Bridge, The Billings Gazette (Billings, MT) 5 Nov 2006, page 4D
^ King, Maya (March 19, 2024). "A Nebraska Lawmaker Incites Outrage Over the Reading of a Book's Rape Scene". New York Times.
^ Reist, Margaret. Teacher reps argue for retention of master teacher program, Beatrice Daily Sun (Beatrice, NE) 2 Feb 2017, page A3
^ Young, JoAnne. Breastfeeding Accommodation Bill Advances, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE) 5 April 2017, page B1 and B2
^ Dunker, Chris. Faculty: Politicians using incident to damage university. Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE) 28 Nov 2017 page A1 and A2
^ Dunker, Chris. FIRE admonishes UNL leaders, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE) 10 Dec 2017, page B1 and B2
^ Elder, Frank. Senators display unacceptable silence, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE) 20 Feb 2018, page A7
^ Dunker, Chris. Amendment to strip funding from NU fails, Beatrice Daily Sun (Beatrice, NE) 22 Mar 2018 page A2
^ Dunker, Chris. Free speech at center of debate, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE) 14 Oct 2018, page C1 and C2
^ Gowen, Annie; Ables, Kelsey (March 19, 2024). "Lawmaker apologizes after inserting colleague's name into book rape scene". The Washington Post.
^ Wendling, Zach (March 18, 2024). "Lawmaker called to resign for invoking colleague's name while reading a rape scene during debate". Nebraska Examiner.
^ Hammel, Paul (March 20, 2024). "Workplace harassment investigation launched against Hastings senator". Nebraska Examiner.
^ Young, JoAnne. Proper execution protocol sought, Fremont Tribune (Fremont, NE) 15 Jan 2019, page A4
^ Young, Joanne. Tipped workers would get raise, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE) 14 March 2019, Page A3 and A5
^ Calling for special session, Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE) 20 Oct 2021