Traducción nuestra. Las citas textuales de personas, tribunales y leyes aparecen primero en inglés, tal como se dijeron o se publicaron, y van seguidas de nuestra traducción entre paréntesis. Si algo difiere, vale el inglés.
The rule that decided all of it
Neither bill lost a majority. Both died on the same threshold, and it is worth reading the rule in the Legislature's own words before looking at any name.
The Legislature has 49 members. Two-thirds of 49 is 32.67, so 33 votes are needed. Cloture ends debate. Without it a bill can be talked to death no matter how many senators support it, and the rule also says a cloture motion can only be made by the bill's own introducer or committee chair, and that the presiding officer may rule it out of order if full and fair debate has not been afforded.
What happened, in order
| When | What | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 10, 2019 | LB110, Adopt the Medical Cannabis Act (Wishart) | Indefinitely postponed Aug 13, 2020 |
| 2019–20 | Attorney General Opinion 19-010, to Sen. La Grone, on LB110 — the opinion later called "unassailable" on the floor | Entered in the Journal Jan 8, 2020 |
| Jan 15, 2021 | LB474, Adopt the Medicinal Cannabis Act (Wishart) | — |
| May 12, 2021 | MO65 (Slama), bracket until June 10 | Failed 16–27 |
| May 12, 2021 | MO67 (Wishart), cloture | Failed 31–18 — 33 needed |
| Apr 20, 2022 | LB474 after carryover | Indefinitely postponed |
| Nov 5, 2024 | Initiatives 437 and 438 — the voters decide directly | Approved, about 71% and 67% |
| Jan 22, 2025 | LB677, to regulate what the voters passed (Ben Hansen) | — |
| May 20, 2025 | MO165 (Storm), indefinitely postpone — an attempt to kill it | Failed 17–20 |
| May 20, 2025 | MO278 (Hansen), cloture | Failed 23–22 — 33 needed |
| Apr 17, 2026 | LB677 after carryover | Indefinitely postponed |
Read the outcomes column twice. On the 2025 cloture vote, more senators voted yes than no, 23 to 22, and the motion still failed. That is the rule working as written, not a mistake.
The fourteen who were there for both
These are the senators who voted on LB474 cloture in 2021 and are still in office today. The 2024 ballot result falls between the two votes.
| Senator | District | LB474 cloture, 2021 | LB677 cloture, 2025 | Compared | Term expires |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arch | District 14 | no | Present Not Voting | Not comparable | Jan 2027 |
| Bostar | District 29 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2029 |
| Brandt | District 32 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| John Cavanaugh | District 9 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2029 |
| Machaela Cavanaugh | District 6 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| Clements | District 2 | no | No | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| DeBoer | District 10 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| Dorn | District 30 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| Ben Hansen | District 16 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| Hunt | District 8 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| McKinney | District 11 | yes | Yes | Same both times | Jan 2029 |
| Moser | District 22 | no | No | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| Murman | District 38 | no | No | Same both times | Jan 2027 |
| Sanders | District 45 | no | No | Same both times | Jan 2029 |
13 of the 14 voted the same way both times. None changed. The one row that cannot be compared is Sen. Arch, who voted no in 2021 and was recorded as present not voting in 2025 — a different act from a no, and not counted as one here.
This page does not say why anybody voted either way, and does not treat a vote as a statement about medical cannabis itself. A senator can vote against cloture and still support a bill, and several said as much on the floor in 2021. The way to know is to ask them, which this project has not yet done.
The full 2025 cloture roll call
Cloture (say KLOH-chur) is a vote to end debate so the Legislature can move to a final vote. In Nebraska it takes 33 of 49 senators, not just a majority. Without it, a bill can be talked to death.
All 49, as the Clerk's own vote page prints them. Official record. Totals: 23 yes, 22 no, 3 present not voting, 1 excused.
| Senator | MO278 cloture, May 20, 2025 |
|---|---|
| Bostar | Yes |
| Brandt | Yes |
| Cavanaugh, J. | Yes |
| Cavanaugh, M. | Yes |
| Clouse | Yes |
| Conrad | Yes |
| DeBoer | Yes |
| Dorn | Yes |
| Dungan | Yes |
| Fredrickson | Yes |
| Guereca | Yes |
| Hansen | Yes |
| Holdcroft | Yes |
| Hughes | Yes |
| Hunt | Yes |
| Juarez | Yes |
| McKinney | Yes |
| Meyer | Yes |
| Prokop | Yes |
| Quick | Yes |
| Raybould | Yes |
| Rountree | Yes |
| Wordekemper | Yes |
| Andersen | No |
| Armendariz | No |
| Ballard | No |
| Clements | No |
| DeKay | No |
| Dover | No |
| Hallstrom | No |
| Hardin | No |
| Ibach | No |
| Jacobson | No |
| Kauth | No |
| Lippincott | No |
| Lonowski | No |
| McKeon | No |
| Moser | No |
| Murman | No |
| Sanders | No |
| Sorrentino | No |
| Storer | No |
| Storm | No |
| Strommen | No |
| von Gillern | No |
| Arch | Present Not Voting |
| Bosn | Present Not Voting |
| Riepe | Present Not Voting |
| Spivey | Excused Not Voting |
Two names on this roll call need a word. "Meyer" is Glen Meyer of District 17, elected 2024. The other current Sen. Meyer, Fred Meyer of District 41, was not serving that day: District 41 was held by Sen. Dan McKeon, who is on this roll call and is no longer in the Legislature. McKeon announced his resignation on the floor Jan. 13, 2026, effective that day, and Gov. Pillen appointed Fred Meyer to the seat on Jan. 14, 2026 — Meyer's second appointment to District 41, having also finished Sen. Tom Briese's term from Nov. 15, 2023. A special election for the remainder of McKeon's term is set for November 2026. Sources, from the Legislature's own news service: Nov. 15, 2023 · Jan. 13, 2026 · Jan. 14, 2026.
Data files: lb677_2025_cloture.json and lb474_2021_roll_call.json.
What we have not confirmed
Why any senator voted as they did, either time. Nobody on this page has been asked. Two votes four years apart is a record, not a motive, and this page does not supply one.
Surnames are matched between the two roll calls by hand, and one of them — Meyer — was settled only after tracing who held District 41 on the day of the vote (see the note under the roll call). The Hughes case is the same trap: the 2021 Hughes is not currently serving, and Sen. Jana Hughes of District 24 is someone else. The fourteen compared here were matched against the Legislature's current senator list, but no independent identity check was done beyond that.
We did not pull the LB677 votes other than cloture and MO165, and we have not read AM1251, the 124-page committee amendment LB677 carried.
AG Opinion 19-010 has still not been read. It is named in LB110's official history and was quoted on the floor in 2021, but this project has only read the parts read aloud into the transcript.
Vote totals on this page were computed from the individual names and matched against the totals the Clerk announced. The 2021 figures come from the floor transcript; the 2025 figures from the Clerk's vote page.
How this was checked
2021 votes: the Clerk of the Legislature's floor debate transcript for May 12, 2021. 2025 votes: the Legislature's recorded vote page for MO278. Bill histories: the official pages for LB110, LB474 and LB677. The cloture rule: the Legislature's own rule book. All read 2026-09-23. Corrections welcome, and will be published.
See also: Who Voted on LB474, May 12, 2021 · What Hilgers Said About LB474 in 2021