Charles Herbster, a frontrunner for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Nebraska and a Trump-backed candidate, has been accused of groping a sitting GOP state senator and seven other women, the Nebraska Examiner reported.
In its investigation, the outlet alleges that Mr Herbster inappropriately touched eight women in separate incidents dating back to 2017 and spanning to this year.
Mr Herbster, who is currently on a three-city campaign tour in his bid for governor and was joined Wednesday by Donald Trump Jr, has denied the allegations.
One of the women who confirmed to the Nebraska Examiner that the GOP candidate for governor had touched her inappropriately was Republican state Senator Julie Slama, who claims the businessman reached up her skirt, without consent, and “touched her inappropriately” at a 2019 event.
The outlet reported that another person attending the same event, the Douglas County Republican Party’s annual Elephant Remembers dinner, saw the alleged incident take place between Mr Herbster and Sen Slama, who had just recently been appointed to the District 1 legislative seat representing southeast Nebraska.
The Independent reached out to Mr Herbster’s communications team on Thursday and received no reply.
In a response to the Nebraska Examiner’s reporting, Mr Herbster’s campaign manager, Ellen Keast, said in a statement that the gubernatorial candidate denies the women’s allegations “unequivocally”.
The Examiner added that Ms Keast said that “this is a political hit-piece built on 100 per cent false and baseless claims”, before blaming the “political establishment” for “smearing and trying to destroy him with lies”.
“Charles W Herbster has a lifetime record of empowering women to lead,” the campaign manager said in the statement. “His company, farm, and campaign are all run by women. Despite leading hundreds of employees, not once has his reputation been attacked in this disgusting manner.”
Six of the women who levied the accusations of inappropriate touching against Mr Herbster told the Examiner that the incidents occurred at political events or beauty pageants, the gropes were outside of their clothes, on the buttocks, and they usually happened when they were either posing for a photograph or saying hello or goodbye.
One woman claimed that Mr Herbert “once cornered her privately and kissed her forcibly”, the Examiner reported.
Another witness attending the Elephant Remembers dinner in 2019, who claims to have also seen Mr Herbster put his hand up Sen Slama’s skirt, told the Examiner that she and two others saw the Republican candidate “grope another young woman on her buttocks at the same event”.
When the Examiner put both allegations, her own accusation against Mr Herbster and the one where a woman from the same 2019 dinner party was groped, to Sen Slama, she responded by saying: “Yes, confirmed”.
The Independent has reached out to the Nebraska senator for comment and confirmation regarding the allegations against Mr Herbster.
In response, Sen Slama forwarded a statement, that has since been shared to her official Twitter account, where she confirms the Nebraska Examiner’s reporting as “true”.
“Today’s Nebraska Examiner report about Charles Herbster sexually assaulting me in 2019, when I was 22 years old, is true,” the statement reads. “I indirectly referenced the assault in February 2022 floor speech in the Legislature and prayed I would never have to relive this trauma.”
In February 2022, Sen Slama provided a speech on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature as the body discussed misconduct allegations against then-state Senator Mike Groene.
“When the Nebraska Examiner contacted me about a witness account of my assault and the seven other women who shared their stories, I was not going to deny the truth.”
The Nebraska Examiner did not disclose the identity of the seven other women who came forward with allegations against Mr Herbster.
Aaron Sanderford, the reporter who investigated the allegations over the course of months, released a statement on Twitter regarding the outlet’s process and confirmed that each account of inappropriate touching levied against Mr Herbster was corroborated by at least one witness.
“As the article explains, I corroborated the information every woman gave me and that kind of reporting takes time,” Mr Sanderford wrote in a tweet posted on Thursday.
“Nebraska residents have a right to know about these allegations.”
Mr Herbster is among nine Republican candidates running in the party’s primary on 10 May, which will determine who will be the GOP nominee for the 8 November general election for Nebraska governor.
Once a chairman of former US president Donald Trump’s Agriculture and Rural Advisory Committee, Mr Herbster is now considered a frontrunner for the ticket and even received an endorsement from his previous boss back in 2021.
