LINCOLN- U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a trip this week to Nebraska to dine with major GOP donor Tom Peed. Dinner was held at the Casa Bovina steakhouse in northeast Lincoln which is owned by Peed's son. Though McCarthy’s political and committee staff wouldn’t share his reason for coming, several political observers with GOP connections said the California Republican was in town raising money for the Congressional Leadership Fund, which he leads.

Federal fundraising records show the Peed family has given more than $10 million to the fund over the past two election cycles, in 2020 and 2022. Sandhills gave the fund another $6.5 million over the same span. The 2022 data showed both Tom Peed and his wife, Rhonda, among the group’s top 20 national donors. The fund raises money outside of GOP House candidates’ campaigns and spends it independently on House races.

The Peeds have emerged in recent years as a financial force in Nebraska politics. The Peeds helped make the 2023 Lincoln mayor’s race the city’s most expensive, plowing about $2 million into State Sen. Suzanne Geist’s second-place finish to Nebraska’s most prominent Democratic officeholder, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird. Tom Peed did not immediately return calls seeking comment about McCarthy’s visit.

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