Senator Ricketts?

Few find Social Security an inspiring subject.

Few find Social Security an inspiring subject. But when White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove traveled to Bellevue, Nebraska, in July to promote the Bush administration’s proposed reforms to Ameritrade employees, he made quite an impression on the online broker’s COO: Pete Ricketts was prompted to run for the U.S. Senate.

“I’d been thinking of running since last fall, but what pushed me over the edge was the visit by Karl Rove,” says the 41-year-old conservative Republican and son of Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts. “We didn’t talk about the Senate seat but about laying the foundation for the next century right now.”

Ricketts faces a tough three-way primary this fall, running against exNebraska attorney general Don Stenberg and former state GOP chairman David Kramer. And that’s just the warm-up: The Republican winner will go up against veteran Senator Ben Nelson, who defeated Stenberg for the seat in 2000 and fishes in the Republicans’ pond as one of the Senate’s most conservative Democrats.

But Ricketts, who announced his candidacy on August 13 and stepped down from his Ameritrade post two weeks later, starts out with an instant war chest: He estimates his personal wealth at $25 million. And that’s a fraction of the family’s $1.5 billion fortune.

The COO-turned-candidate realizes, however, that money isn’t always all-powerful in politics. Last year he helped lead a successful effort to defeat gambling initiatives in Nebraska. “We were outspent 20-to-1,” he says. “But if people get involved, good things can happen.”

As for his platform, Ricketts emphasizes his conservative beliefs. He would lower taxes, oppose abortion and gay marriage and -- here’s a surprise -- support Bush’s push for private retirement accounts within Social Security.

Related