Biography
Rick Beard of Omaha is the Legal Marijuana NOW nominee for governor, a wine professional and private chef. He is running on a state-run medical cannabis program that he says could raise new revenue for property-tax relief, along with an industrial hemp industry and limits on corporate and political action committee money.[1][2]
Beard is a wine professional and private chef and a former farmer; one listing also describes him as a winemaker.[1][2]
Beard won the Legal Marijuana NOW primary on May 12, 2026, with 69.1% of the vote over James Charvat, and chose Omaha Housing Authority commissioner Keenya Barnes as his running mate.[2] In a July 2026 interview with the Nebraska Examiner he listed his priorities as medical cannabis and industrial hemp programs, getting corporate and political action committee money out of state politics, and a pause on data center development with mandated closed-loop cooling systems.[1] He said a state-run medical cannabis program, in which the state would hire farmers, buy facilities and oversee land, could generate $100 million in new tax revenue a year, rising to as much as $500 million.[1]
- 1.Beard talks priorities, pivot from Nebraska primary election to Nov. 3 faceoff · WOWT / Nebraska Examiner · 2026-07-27 News report
- 2.2026 Nebraska gubernatorial election · Wikipedia · 2026-10-21 Reference
Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.