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HARTINGTON — Unofficial returns from Tuesday night's Primary Election show Randolph native Sheila Korth-Focken finishing in third place in the Nebraska Primary race for Governor.
As of midnight Tuesday, the 2004 Randolph High School graduate had tallied 13,611 votes. Gov. Jim Piullen won the election with 135,434 votes. John Walz finished second with 17,072 votes.
He will now take on Democrat Lynn Walz in the general election. Walz is married to Hartington native Chris Walz.
Korth-Focken's campaign started in February with a video conference targeted at those in Cedar and Pierce counties last week.
“I started out with what I consider my home – Cedar County, Pierce County,” the Randolph native said. “I’ve campaigned everywhere from minimum maintenance roads to grocery stores, plus a lot of phone calls, Facebook messages, emails, website messages, and Zoom meetings.”
Korth-Focken earned a degree from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in economics and management information systems. She received the Truman Scholarship in 2007, which took her to D.C. and then a fellows program where she worked for former Congressman Jeff Fortenberry. In 2009, Korth completed her master’s degree in environmental policy from The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Korth moved to the Omaha area next and went to work for budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense for two years.
She’s always known she would run for office and was encouraged bya mentor who has also worked in state and national politics.
