District details

Before becoming a senator, Sanders served as Bellevue’s mayor for eight years. Her campaign website states she and her husband own Richmont Senior Living Retirement Campus and they are both developers. According to her Unicameral biography, she’s currently a member of the UNMC Board of Counselors, Offutt Advisory Council and on the U.S. STRATCOM Consultation Committee. She also used to be the chair of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce. Sanders boasts endorsements from Nebraska’s two U.S. senators and the two congressional members who represent eastern Nebraska. She also has the endorsement of the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Nebraska Right to Life.

In both 2016 and 2020, Bellevue residents elected Centineo to the Bellevue School Board. Before going to law school, she worked as a nurse at Children’s Hospital for 15 years. Now she is an attorney at Centineo Law P.C., and co-owns Aceso, a consulting company that reviews medical records and advises attorneys. She said she’s running for office because she has the experience, education and background to represent the needs of all Nebraskans. She wants voters to know she’s a mother of two sons and rescues dogs. Centineo touts endorsements from multiple unions, including the state teachers’ union, the state AFL-CIO and the Nebraska Association of Public Employees. She also has endorsements from the Sierra Club’s Nebraska chapter and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Nebraska.

On the issues

The two candidates diverge on a number of issues. 

Centineo testified against the Sports and Spaces bill which would ban transgender athletes from competing as the gender they identify with. Districts should enact their own policies and use existing policies the Nebraska School Activities Association developed, Centineo said. She also opposes the state’s abortion restrictions, saying she would prefer no ban. She added that abortions after 24 weeks are extremely rare and should only happen in cases where there is not viability for the fetus.  

Sanders did not respond to the Flatwater Free Press questionnaire. Her website highlights her support of the bill that prohibited minors from receiving gender-altering care and enacted a 12-week abortion ban. Sanders’ priority bill last year, which she introduced at the request of Gov. Jim Pillen, upped per-student K-12 funding and increased state support for special education. It passed without opposition. Sanders also voted in favor of the school choice scholarship program. Her priority bill this year, a measure that would have required life imprisonment for people convicted of sex trafficking with a minor and other sex offenses involving a minor, failed to advance. 

Centineo told the Flatwater Free Press that she strongly opposes school choice legislation, adding that public funds should only go to public schools. Centineo listed improving health care access and freedom as a top priority, and stressed the need for workforce development by addressing housing and child care.

Location

The district covers the sliver of Sarpy County east of South 26th Street. It includes Offutt Air Force Base and most of Bellevue. 

In the primary

Sanders received 59% of the vote in the primary compared to Centineo’s 41%.