Lynne Walz

Lynne Walz makes Swedish pancakes for her grandchildren and counts running and swimming among her favorite ways to spend time outside work.¹ She and her husband, Chris, a longtime Fremont morning radio host and station manager, have three adult children and seven grandchildren.¹

She grew up on a hog farm outside Fremont, hauling feed and water, cleaning pens and helping with a family venture that involved planting and harvesting 100,000 onions by hand.¹ Her father was a union carpenter and her mother worked at the local hospital.¹ After high school she cared for women with developmental disabilities, then opened a home daycare and worked jobs including a grocery deli, a factory and a clothing store while attending college.¹

With an education degree from Midland Lutheran College, Walz taught fourth and fifth graders in Fremont public schools and at Archbishop Bergan Catholic School.¹ Elected to the Legislature in 2016, she later chaired its Education Committee, which introduced the 2022 law creating the Teach in Nebraska Today loan repayment program.¹²

Against Republican Governor Jim Pillen, Walz proposes expanding the homestead exemption and targeting property tax relief to Nebraska residents, along with a gas tax holiday.³ Both candidates promise property tax relief, but disagree over the method: she favors targeted homeowner assistance, while Pillen emphasizes caps on local spending and valuation growth.³