Tom Brewer (born August 6, 1958) is an Oglala American retired military officer and politician serving as a member of the Nebraska Legislature from the 43rd Legislative District. Elected in 2016, he assumed office in 2017.
He was active in Future Farmers of America as a teenager and earned his state degree and his American FFA Degree. He focused on agribusiness in FFA, working at a local grain elevator and also competing in parliamentary procedure, meats judging, welding, and public speaking. He credits this public speaking experience and other skills taught in FFA as having prepared him for his later military service and time as a state legislator. He was the first Native American to serve as a Nebraska FFA state officer.[4]
He enlisted in the Army after he graduated high school in 1977.[4] After attending U.S. Army Field Artillery School and earning the Air Assault and Airborne qualifications, he was commissioned an infantry officer in 1983. After infantry officer training, he completed the Pathfinder Course, Jumpmaster Course, and Ranger School,[8] where he was the Honor Graduate.[5]
In 1985, he was assigned to the 167th Cavalry Regiment as an attack helicopter pilot and qualified on the AH-1 Cobra, UH-1 Huey, and OH-58 Kiowa aircraft. He served with the 4th Brigade 1st Cavalry Division in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq.[8]
He became an armor officer after achieving the rank of Major, running M1 Abrams tanks in a cavalry squadron.[9]
Afghanistan
Brewer was mobilized to Afghanistan in May 2003 to take command of the training battalion of the Afghan National Army.[8] On October 12, 2003, Brewer was shot six times and received numerous shrapnel injuries in an engagement at a decommissioned Soviet tank depot, later dubbed the "Battle of the Bone Yard."[10][11] He was awarded the Bronze Star and his first Purple Heart as a result.[8] The Guard News reported that this incident made Brewer the first field-grade officer wounded in the Afghanistan war.[3]
Brewer credits Nepalese Royal Gurkha Sergeant Kajiman Limbu with a feat of heroism in helping recover Brewer from the battlefield and provide initial treatment of his wounds: "He was not a very big guy, he was all of about 130 pounds, and with gear I was around 275 pounds, but he flipped me over his shoulder, threw me over a stone fence, and then he jumped over himself. I was really impressed."[9][12]
Domestic assignments
After recovering from his 2003 injuries, Brewer worked with the National Guard in its domestic counternarcotics mission.[9] Brewer was part of the National Guard's emergency response to Hurricane Katrina, deploying to New Orleans in command of a thirty-member team as part of the recovery mission in September 2005.[13][14]
In January 2010, Brewer returned to Afghanistan, this time assigned as an advisor for the US CENTCOM counternarcotics mission in that country. While carrying out this assignment on December 16, 2011, the day before he was scheduled to return home, he was again severely injured after a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle.[10] He received the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom for his conduct in this event. His injuries resulted in his involuntary medical retirement in 2013. [8]
In total, Brewer served six tours of duty in Afghanistan and was deployed to neighboring Kurdistan for another two tours.[15]
Brewer has been supportive of Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in 2022, explaining that he serves as a "pipeline to share information" with members of Congress on the war.[16] He began making visits to the country's frontlines in May 2022 to assist in training the Armed Forces of Ukraine and delivering supplies.[17][18][19] As the war progressed, he reported back his observations on how foreign aid was affecting the conduct of the war.[20]
During four trips to Ukraine in 2022, 2023, and 2024, Brewer "zig-zagged... through the country, from a hotel overlooking Maidan Square to the controlled border zone in the far northeast," taking him closer to the conflict than any other elected official from the United States.[21] According to Brewer, "We went past where the Ukrainian forces have said 'We're going no closer.' You know you're getting close to the front when the friendly army is going the other way on the road past you[.]"[22]
During a trip in July 2022, he said that if the US did not help Ukraine, then American troops would eventually be fighting Russians.[23] He has advocated for NATO to provide training on location in Ukraine rather than shuttling trainees to and from other member nations.[24] He has also advocated for the United States to embed advisors who could learn from the Ukrainian experience with drones and avoid American losses in a future conflict.[25] Brewer has described the modern battlefield with the advent of drone warfare: “I mean, you got drones that are out looking... Nobody’s safe anywhere on the battlefield ... That’s why it’s become this defensive battle where people live in holes and come out rarely if there’s any drone activity.”[21]
Political Career
2014 Congressional Campaign
Shortly after completing rehabilitation from injuries sustained from the 2011 rocket-propelled grenade attack in Afghanistan,[26] Brewer announced his campaign for Nebraska's Third Congressional District seat against Republican incumbent Adrian Smith in the 2014 primary election.[27] Brewer lost to Smith in the Republican primary, receiving 31.8 percent of the votes cast in the two-way race.[28]
Nebraska Legislature
Brewer (left) prepares to enter the Brown County rodeo grounds with a "Brewer Army" guidon bearer as part of a 2020 campaign event.
Brewer was elected to the Nebraska Legislature in 2016, defeating incumbent Al Davis.[29] Brewer received 9,169 votes of 17,545 cast (52.2 percent) in the general election.[30]
Brewer faced a challenge in his 2020 reelection campaign from ranch owner Tanya Storer. In the 2020 general election, he won reelection with 57.9 percent of the total votes cast.[31] The relatively large amount of money spent on the race drew commentary from local media.[32]
As a legislator, Brewer has focused on veterans issues, Native American issues, religious freedom, energy policy, and firearms laws. As chairman of the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, he has also carried a number of bills relating to elections.
Military and veterans
Brewer sponsored a succession of bills to reduce and ultimately eliminate taxation of military retirement benefits.[33][34][35] His Legislative Bill 1394 passed in 2024, exempting National Guard drill and annual training pay from Nebraska income tax.[36]
Brewer introduced LB 253 in 2023 and later amended it to create a new veterans court program that would allow veterans to have their criminal cases dismissed upon successful completion of a specialized training mandated by the court. Former United States Secretary of DefenseChuck Hagel spoke in support of the proposal at a public hearing on the bill, which ultimately passed in 2024 on a vote of 44-0.[36]
Citing the effects of his own military service as a motivation, Brewer introduced successful legislation to improve support for emergency responders suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.[37]
Native American issues
Early in his first term in the Nebraska Legislature, Brewer took a prominent role in discussions about how to address alcoholism on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the alcohol trade in the border town of Whiteclay, Nebraska.[38][39][40]
In his second year in the Unicameral, Brewer co-sponsored legislation to replace the statue of William Jennings Bryan with one honoring Chief Standing Bear, and he subsequently served on the committee that commissioned the replacement statue and participated in its installation at the United States Capitol.[41] Brewer later introduced successful legislation to rename a state government building after Chief Standing Bear.[42]
In 2021, Brewer made national news for his successful efforts to secure the return of Chief Standing Bear's pipe tomahawk from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University.[45][46][47] Explaining his reasons for bringing a resolution calling for the return of the artifact, Brewer said "Harvard has no connection to Standing Bear, it has no connection to the Ponca people. Harvard literally has very little reason to keep this Tomahawk."[48]
In 2022, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska recognized Brewer's work on Native American issues, stating that
"Senator Tom Brewer has been instrumental in many of the most momentous celebrations of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. From the dedication of statues of Chief Standing Bear in the Ponca Tribal homeland in Niobrara and in the nation's capitol in Washington D.C. to advocating for the return of Standing Bear's Tomahawk to the Ponca Tribe to the renaming and dedication of the Chief Standing Bear Justice Administration Building, Senator Brewer has worked within the Nebraska Legislature to promote the Ponca Tribe continually and the legacy of Chief Standing Bear. Senator Brewer remains a tireless advocate for all native peoples in the state of Nebraska."[49]
In 2024, Brewer saw his "First Freedom Act" pass as part of a package prioritized by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. This bill included protections duplicating those found in the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and provisions specifically protecting the wearing of tribal regalia in Nebraska schools.[50] Brewer had previously introduced the First Freedom Act and tribal regalia proposals in 2022 as separate bills.[51][52]
In part for his work on these topics, Brewer received the Chief Standing Bear Prize for Courage from the Chief Standing Bear Project in 2023.[53]
Energy policy
Over his two terms in office, Brewer introduced a number of bills attempting to limit the expansion of industrial wind turbines in rural Nebraska. He has been described as "the figurehead of the opposition to wind energy in Nebraska."[54]
He was actively involved in an effort to prevent construction of the Nebraska Public Power District's proposed "R-Project," a 226-mile transmission line through the Nebraska Sandhills. Brewer filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit brought by ranch owners and environmental groups against the United States Fish and Wildlife Service alleging failure to properly enforce provisions of the Endangered Species Act while considering the environmental impact of the R-Project proposal.[55]
Firearms
Governor Jim Pillen looks on as Senator Tom Brewer delivers a speech at the LB 77 signing ceremony on April 25, 2023.
As a freshman senator in 2017, Brewer introduced several unsuccessful firearms-related bills, including a constitutional carry proposal. He introduced several more iterations of this proposal over the course of his two terms in office.[56] He finally succeeded in passing permitless carry and state preemption legislation with LB 77 in 2023.[57] The Legislature's only two African-American senators broke ranks with Democratic Party colleagues to support the bill, and this support was credited as making its passage possible. These senators, Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney, cited racist motivations of the original 1873 state concealed weapons ban and racist enforcement of it in Omaha as central to their support of the change.[58][59]
Brewer introduced LB 582 in 2019 to make it easier to prosecute criminal cases relating to stolen guns. The bill passed early in the 2020 session.[60]
In 2024, Brewer introduced school security legislation to authorize armed security by non-law enforcement at public and private schools in the state of Nebraska. A compromise version of the bill limited the changes to smaller rural public schools, private schools, and post-secondary institutions.[36]
Elections
As chairman of the committee with jurisdiction over elections, Brewer has frequently carried omnibus election law updates.[61][62]
In 2023, Brewer carried the bill to implement photographic voter identification after Nebraska voters approved a 2022 constitutional amendment requiring it. The bill ultimately passed in the final moments of the 2023 session despite a contentious fourteen-hour filibuster.[63][64][65]
Reputation as a senator
(Top) Brewer signing a Ukrainian flag in the basement of a humanitarian aid depot in Orikhiv, Ukraine in June 2023. (Bottom) Brewer with chaplain Gennadiy Mokhnenko at the ruins of the same building in May 2024.
From before his first election in 2016, Brewer was described as an unusual fit for the job of senator. He campaigned from the back of a mule, riding 500 miles across the Nebraska Sandhills in a legislative district larger than New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island combined.[10][66] He competed in international sniper competitions.[2] In 2021, he made news when he led a diverse team of five Nebraska legislators on a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro.[67][68][69][70] An article published by the National Conference of State Legislatures described the team's training regimen and their different political points of view, and the relationship-building on the excursion that had a subsequent effect on the climbers' legislative relationships.[71]
He also drew attention when he traveled to Ukraine in wartime on four occasions during his tenure in the Legislature.[21] Brewer's legislative colleagues presented him with a framed Ukrainian flag featuring their signatures at the conclusion of his final regular legislative session in April 2024.[72]
Competitive marksmanship
Brewer has long been involved in competitive shooting. He helped coach the 1996 U.S. Men's shooting team in preparation for the 1996 Olympic Games, and he has won ten national championships as a shooter and others as a coach of the All Guard and All Army shooting teams. In 1999, he was named director of the Marksmanship Training Center at Little Rock, Arkansas. As a soldier, he qualified as a Distinguished Rifleman and Distinguished Pistol Shot, and he earned the President's Hundred tab awarded to the hundred top-scoring military and civilian shooters in the President's Pistol and President's Rifle Matches.[8]
After previously taking first place as a military servicemember in 1997, he returned to a world sniper competition in Bulgaria as a sitting state senator in 2018.[73] He competed again in 2019, and his two-man team took the top prize in the 2019 International T-Class Confederation Multigun competition.[2] This win occurred weeks after Brewer broke several ribs in a bicycle accident while training for the contest.[74]
Electoral history
2014 Nebraska's 3rd congressional district Republican primary
Brewer is a member of the OglalaLakota tribe and the first Native American elected to the state legislature of Nebraska.[10] He is a descendant of Chief Red Cloud.[77]
^Christ, James F. The Bone Yard. Battlefield Publishing. 2009. ISBN9780978860431
^Duggan, Joe. "Exhibit honors citizen soldiers." Lincoln Journal Star. November 15, 2007. [6]
^Hackley, Cheryl. "Guard counterdrug units aid hurricane rescue effort." National Guard Bureau Public Affairs. September 10, 2005. [7]
^Grace, Erin. "He was in the military for 36 years, but nothing compared to Katrina." Omaha World-Herald. August 31, 2015. [8]
^Padmore, William. "Listen: State Senator and Veteran Tom Brewer On the Afghanistan War and Was it Worth it." Nebraska Public Media. August 30, 2021. [9]
^Hammel, Paul. "Nebraska state senator returns to Ukraine to deliver Bibles, stove, food — and message of support." Nebraska Examiner. November 1, 2022. [10]
^Hammel, Paul. "Nebraska senator says Ukrainians can win the war, but it will take time." Nebraska Examiner. July 11, 2023. [11]
^ abcGrinvalds, John. "War-Torn: Stories from Ukraine - Nebraska state senator makes fourth trip to embattled country." 1011 Now. July 17, 2024.[12]
^Knapp, Fred. "Brewer: Living Conditions Near Ukrainian Front 'Just Horrible.'" Nebraska Public Media. July 13, 2022.[13]
^"Nebraska to offer full tax exemption to military retirees." Associated Press. May 25, 2021. [22]
^ abcBamer, Erin and Martha Stoddard. "Nebraska lawmakers pass bill to let some schools authorize staff to carry guns." Omaha World-Herald. April 11, 2024. [23]
^"Nebraska leaders jerk alcohol licenses for Whiteclay stores blamed for problems on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation." Capital Journal. April 20, 2017. [24]
^Hammel, Paul. "Nebraska State Sen. Tom Brewer catches flak for stand against Whiteclay beer stores." Associated Press. April 24, 2017. [25]
^Schulte, Grant. "Nebraska seeks fixes for reservation border-town beer sales." Associated Press. March 9, 2017. [26]
^"Chief Standing Bear, who ‘changed the course of history,’ is honored with statue in U.S. Capitol." Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. September 19, 2019. [27]
^Gonzales, Cindy. "Nebraska government building to be renamed for Chief Standing Bear" Nebraska Examiner. May 28, 2022.[28]
^Mollenkamp, Allison. "Bill Seeks Study on Murdered and Missing Native American Women." Nebraska Public Media. February 26, 2019.[29]
^"Legislative Bill 154: Authorize a study to improve reporting and investigation of missing Native American women and children." 106th Nebraska Legislature, First Session. [30]
^Hammel, Paul. "Nebraska lawmakers may lend support for returning Standing Bear's tomahawk." Omaha World-Herald. May 10, 2021. [31]
^"Editorial: Return of Standing Bear's tomahawk can have important symbolic meaning." Omaha World-Herald. May 20, 2021. [32]
^Recker, Jane. "Harvard Returns Chief Standing Bear's Pipe Tomahawk to the Ponca Tribe." Smithsonian Magazine. July 7, 2022. [33]
^ "Bringing the tomahawk of Standing Bear back to the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska" 3 News Now. May 18, 2021. [34]
^"Senator Brewer honored in October 3rd ceremony in Ralston." Member News. Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. November 2022. [35]
^Wendling, Zach. "Legislature outlaws public records special fees, extends grace period before charges." Nebraska Examiner. March 21, 2024. [36]
^Van Kampen, Todd. "West central Nebraska senators begin filing legislation on 'microTIF,' 'constitutional carry'". North Platte Telegraph. January 5, 2022. [37]
^Gilbert, Noemi. "Nebraska legislation update." The Register. February 18, 2022. [38]
^Hammel, Paul. "State senator who is member of Oglala Lakota Tribe is chosen for ‘courage’ award from Standing Bear group." Nebraska Examiner. September 25, 2023. [39]
^Rawal, Arjav, John Upton, and Joseph Giguere. "Wind of Change: Energy Blows Across Nebraska Thanks to Wind Farms." Climate Central. April 9, 2023. [40]
^Doyle, Michael. "A threatened species complicates power line plans." E&E News by Politico. September 24, 2024. [41]
^Sanderford, Aaron. "Nebraska Sen. Tom Brewer offers a 'cleaner' permitless concealed carry bill." Nebraska Examiner. January 5, 2023. [42]
^Beck, Margery A. "Nebraska lawmakers pass permitless concealed carry gun bill." April 19, 2023[43]
^Beck, Margery A. "Permitless concealed carry gun bill advances in Nebraska." Associated Press. March 3, 2023. [44]
^"Floor Debate March 3, 2023." Transcriber's Office, Clerk of the Legislature. 108th Nebraska Legislature. [45]
^"New law places more responsibility on Nebraskans to know if they possess a stolen gun." KHGI. February 14, 2020. [46]
^Whitney, Alex. "Election bills see contentious debate in committee hearing." NTV News. January 27, 2022. [47]
^"Omnibus elections bill clears first round." Unicameral Update. Nebraska Legislature. February 6, 2024. [48]
^ Sanderford, Aaron. "Committee votes for Brewer’s voter ID proposal; Slama vows floor fight against ‘abomination.’" Nebraska Public Media. May 18, 2023. [49]
^Beck, Margery A. "Nebraska voter ID bill passes, despite filibuster by lawmaker." Associated Press. June 1, 2023. [50]
^Hammel, Paul. "On final day of session, legislators give final OK for voter ID, tax break bills." Nebraska Examiner. June 1, 2023. [51]
^Walton, Don. "Tom Brewer — he's a whole different type of senator." Lincoln Journal Star. March 12, 2017. [52]
^Walton, Don. "Nebraska state senators ready to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with bad weather ahead." Lincoln Journal Star. November 11, 2021. [53]
^Bonderson, Aaron. "'I kept my fingers crossed that we could get through it:' Senator Brewer Describes Hike up Kilimanjaro." Nebraska Public Media. November 19, 2021. [54]
^Bonderson, Aaron. "Group of Five Nebraska State Senators and Others Reach Summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro." Nebraska Public Media. November 17, 2021. [55]
^Walton, Don. "Nebraska senators reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro." Lincoln Journal Star. November 17, 2021. [56]
^Schley, Stewart. "Across the Aisle: Nebraska Senators Climb High for Harmony." National Conference of State Legislatures. February 21, 2022. [57]
^Van Kampen, Todd. "Brewer, Erdman say farewell to Unicam after 8 years each." North Platte Telegraph. April 19, 2024.[58]
^Walton, Don. "State senator, longtime soldier returns to world sniper competition." Lincoln Journal Star. September 24, 2018[59]
^Young, JoAnne. "Nebraska state senator breaks ribs in 'no-big-deal' biking accident." Lincoln Journal Star. October 11, 2019. [60]
^ ab Abourezk, Kevin. "After 36 years of service, Col. Brewer stepping back, speaking out." Lincoln Journal Star. December 23, 2013. [61]
