John Kuehn

Personal life and professional career

Kuehn was born on May 26, 1974, in Heartwell, Nebraska. He grew up on his family's farm and graduated from high school in Minden in 1992. He attended Hastings College, graduating in 1996 with a B.A. in biology; he then studied veterinary medicine at Kansas State University, receiving his D.V.M. in 2000.

He returned to Nebraska and worked in a group veterinary practice in Hastings from 2000 to 2002. He then established his own practice, Kuehn Animal Health. In addition to the veterinary practice, he raised cattle and quarter horses on his farm near Heartwell. In 2004, he took on an additional position, joining the Hastings College faculty as an associate professor of biology.

Political career

In 2009, Kuehn was named to fill the vacant Kearney County seat on the Southern Power District board of directors. The district is a publicly owned utility that provides electricity to the rural portions of Adams, Franklin, Hall, Hamilton, Kearney, Merrick, and Phelps Counties in south central Nebraska. In 2010, Kuehn ran unopposed for the remaining two years of the term; in 2012, he ran unopposed for a new six-year term. He resigned from the board in early 2015.

2014 election

In 2014, Kuehn ran for a seat in the Nebraska Legislature from the 38th District, which covers six counties in south central Nebraska and part of a seventh: Clay, Franklin, Kearney, Nuckolls, Phelps, Webster, and the southwestern part of Buffalo County. The largest city in the district is Holdrege; other cities therein include Minden, Superior, Sutton, Red Cloud, and Franklin. The incumbent, Tom Carlson, a member of the Republican Party, was ineligible to run for a third consecutive term under Nebraska's term-limits law.

Kuehn, a Republican, ran unopposed in the legislative election. Despite the lack of opposition, he raised nearly $43,000 for the campaign and spent about $12,000. Major contributions included $5500 from the Nebraska Realtors PAC and $2100 from the Nebraska Bankers State PAC. The Nebraska Telecommunications Association PAC, which represents local telecommunications companies, contributed $2000; the Glenwood Telephone Membership Corporation, a telecommunications cooperative based in Blue Hill, contributed another $1500. The Nebraska Cooperative Council PAC, a trade organization representing agricultural and other cooperatives in the state, contributed $2000. Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete Ricketts gave $1000 to the Kuehn campaign.

Legislative tenure

In the 2015 legislative session, Kuehn was named vice-chair of the special Legislative Performance Audit Committee, which directs reviews of state agency programs to assess how effectively they implement legislative intent. He was also appointed to the Appropriations Committee.

Among the "most significant" actions taken by the Legislature in its 2015 session were three bills that passed over vetoes by governor Pete Ricketts. LB268 repealed the state's death penalty; LB623 reversed the state's previous policy of denying driver's licenses to people who were living illegally in the United States after being brought to the country as children, and who had been granted exemption from deportation under the Barack Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program; and LB610 increased the tax on gasoline to pay for repairs to roads and bridges. Kuehn voted against the death-penalty repeal, and to sustain Ricketts's veto of the measure; he voted for passage of LB623, and to override the gubernatorial veto; and he voted for passage of the gas-tax increase, and to override the veto.