LINCOLN — Former Nebraska State Sen. Loran Schmit is remembered as a dogged advocate for rural Nebraska and the father of the state’s ethanol industry, as well as a legislative leader who was ahead of his time on other issues, including gambling.

Schmit, 96, died Wednesday at his home in Bellwood.

“He was an example of someone with a vision and a passion who was willing to go to the mat to make it happen,” said Scott Moore, a former legislative colleague.

It was a passion, he said, that sometimes worked against Schmit, a farmer, lobbyist and businessman.

Schmit, a Republican who served in the officially nonpartisan Legislature from 1969 to 1993, is credited for legislation that built the state’s ethanol industry, which today is directly responsible for 1,800 high-paying Nebraska jobs and an economic impact estimated at more than $8 billion.

He fought the oil industry, which opposed the corn-based fuel, to get it done.

“I don’t think there would be an ethanol industry in this nation without him. He would just not give up,” said former State Labor Commissioner John Albin, whose late wife, Julie, was one of Schmit’s 10 children.

At the height of his political power in the 1980s, Schmit could make or break a bill, according to former legislative aide and ethanol industry colleague Pat Ptacek.

“If you got Loran on a bill, he could pull 12-15 votes on any given issue, because he worked with these people,” Ptacek said.

Schmit got bills passed to create the state’s expressway system, to allow physicians assistants to practice in Nebraska and to create the State Ombudsman’s Office and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Control. He pushed for higher-quality grain to increase international trade, and he took on the nation’s supermarkets, claiming they were involved in price fixing on meat, which hurt Nebraska’s cattle producers.

He also went against the grain of the state’s elite by supporting starting local option, slot-machine gambling operations, partly to reduce property taxes.

According to Albin, he had encouraged the Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack — which opposed expanded gambling back then for fear it would hurt racing — to install slot machines and help finance the track, but the track declined. Today, of course, the Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack is gone, and voter-approved casinos operate in five Nebraska racetracks. Some of the proceeds are being used to offset property taxes.

Schmit also took on the powerful in leading a 1988 investigation into the collapse of the Franklin Credit Union and the rumored involvement of several prominent Nebraskans in an associated child sex-trafficking ring.

A Douglas County Grand Jury investigated, concluding that the allegations were a “carefully crafted hoax,” and a federal grand jury also ruled later that the rumors were unfounded. In 1992, Schmit was defeated for re-election, ending his elected career.

“He thought that when little people were wronged, big people were behind it, and that made him some enemies,” said Moore, a former state senator and secretary of state who recently retired as an executive with Union Pacific.

Schmit’s second oldest son, Steve, said his father would have wanted to be remembered as a “friend” who stayed in touch with his constituents, attending many funerals and visiting many nursing homes.

“He never forgot where he came from,” the younger Schmit said. “When he talked to you, he was talking to you, not past you.”

David Ben Fischer, a former legal counsel to legislative committees headed by Schmit, recalled that the senator, like him, was an early riser.

“I’d get to the office by 6:30, and he’d already be there,” Fischer said. “The difference was I’d walked six blocks to get there, and he’d driven 60 miles (from Bellwood) after doing farm chores.”

In 1978, Schmit ran for an open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1st District against fellow State Sen. Doug Bereuter. Some considered Schmit the front runner, but his support dwindled after he became embroiled in a controversy over the hiring of his helicopter firm to dynamite ice jams on the Platte River. He lost the primary race by 3,200 votes.

In 1980, Schmit was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Agricultural Achievement. Then Gov. Charlie Thone gave the induction speech, saying that the senator and farmer was proof “that one person who chooses to do so can make a difference.”

“He can, so to speak, beat the unbeatable foe. He can reach the unreachable star. He can make an entire nation, which is overly dependent upon foreign oil, stop in its tracks and examine an alternate idea such as gasohol,” Thone said.

Schmit had been in declining health in recent years but continued to lobby for the state’s ethanol industry for years after leaving the Legislature.

His body was donated to science, according to Ptacek, because of his commitment to physicians assistants. Funeral services are pending.

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/09/18/former-state-senator-remembered-.../