Deb Fischer

Fischer was re-elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018, defeating Democratic challenger Jane Raybould by a significant margin.

After the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting, Fischer stated that any legislative proposals to restrict individuals on the terrorist watchlist from buying guns would not stop mass shootings. Fischer asserted that preventing self-radicalization was more important than restricting gun access.

As of 2015, Fischer is the senior U.S. senator from Nebraska.

In the general election, Fischer defeated Kerrey 58%–42%. Fischer won mainly by swamping Kerrey in the state's rural areas. She won 88 of Nebraska's 93 counties. Kerrey only won Douglas, Lancaster, Saline, Thurston, and Dakota counties.

Fischer has expressed support for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution limiting Senators to two six-year terms, and U.S. Representatives to three two-year terms. She pledged to "limit herself to two terms in office"–equivalent to 12 years. She also stated that members of the U.S. Congress should be placed under a lifetime ban from becoming federally registered lobbyists.

Fischer's district was geographically the largest in the Nebraska Legislature, comprising 12 counties and part of a 13th. During her tenure in the legislature, she did a weekly radio show on seven stations covering her district, and wrote a weekly column printed in several newspapers.

In January 2012, after incumbent Democratic Senator Ben Nelson announced his retirement, Fischer officially announced she would run for the U.S. Senate. The Republican primary campaign was expected to shape up as a battle between Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Treasurer Don Stenberg; Fischer and three less well-known candidates were also on the ballot.

In 2009, Fischer was one of fourteen co-sponsors of L.B. 675, which required abortion providers to display ultrasound images of the fetus at least one hour prior to the abortions, in a position where the abortion seeker could easily view them. A spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee stated that the Nebraska law was stronger than those of other states, which only required that the client be asked if she wanted to see an ultrasound image. The measure passed by a 40–5 vote, and was signed into law by Governor Dave Heineman.

In 2008, she won re-election unopposed. Nebraska's term-limits law precluded her running for re-election in 2012.

In the campaign, Fischer was outspent by Bruning, who raised $3.6 million, and Stenberg, who spent $865,000. Fischer's campaign raised only $440,000. However, Bruning and Stenberg spent much of their resources attacking one another; Fischer benefitted from the damage that each did to the other's approval ratings. She was also aided by $725,000 in television ads bought by the Club for Growth attacking Bruning. Shortly before the election, she was endorsed by Nebraska U.S. Representative Jeff Fortenberry and by 2008 Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who recorded robocalls endorsing her; and a super PAC financed by former Omaha businessman Joe Ricketts paid for $250,000 worth of television advertising promoting Fischer and opposing Bruning.

In 2007, she helped to filibuster a bill that created a statewide smoking ban for indoor workplaces and public places.

In 2004, Fischer ran for the Nebraska Legislature from the 43rd legislative district. In the nonpartisan primary, she came in second in a field of seven, receiving 2226 votes (25.1%); front-runner Kevin T. Cooksley received 2264 votes (25.5%). In the general election, she defeated Cooksley with 8178 votes to his 8050, for a margin of 50.4%–49.6%.

In the course of the campaign, Kerrey's advertising accused Fischer of unprincipled conduct in the matter of a 1995 adverse possession suit, whereunder the Fischers had attempted to obtain title to 104 acres (42 ha) of land adjoining their property. Fischer maintained that their intent in filing the suit was to obtain a more manageable boundary for their ranch, after repeated attempts to purchase the land had failed; an Omaha World-Herald analysis stated that the Kerrey campaign's statements regarding Fischer's actions in the Legislature failed to mention her support for a compromise measure that would have allowed NGPC to buy the land. A Fischer spokesman accused Kerrey of "reckless disregard for the truth" and "gutter politics" in the matter.

In the general election, Fischer faced Democrat Bob Kerrey, a former Nebraska governor and U.S. senator, who was running for the seat that he had held from 1989 to 2001.

In 1972, she married Bruce Fischer, from Valentine, whom she met at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She and her husband raised three sons on the Fischer family cattle ranch south of Valentine. In 1987, she returned to the university and completed her B.S. degree in education.

Fischer became the third female U.S. Senator in Nebraska's history, and the first since 1954. She was the first elected to a full term: of the earlier woman Senators, Eva Bowring was appointed in 1954 to occupy the seat vacated by the death of Dwight Griswold until a special election could be held to replace him later that year; Hazel Abel won that special election to finish Griswold's term, but did not seek a full term.

Debra Lynelle Strobel Fischer (born March 1, 1951) is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Nebraska since 2013. She was elected to the Senate in 2012 and reelected in 2018. Fischer served two terms in the Nebraska Legislature, representing a rural district in the Sandhills, from 2005 to 2013. She is a member of the Republican Party and the first woman elected to a full term as a U.S. senator from Nebraska.

Fischer was born Debra Strobel in 1951, in Lincoln, Nebraska, the daughter of Florence M. (née Bock) and Gerold Carl "Jerry" Strobel. Her father was the State Engineer/Director of the Nebraska Department of Roads under Governors Kay Orr and Ben Nelson and her mother was an elementary school teacher with Lincoln Public Schools.