LINCOLN- Southeast Nebraska will elect a new state senator this year after State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar changed course and decided not to run for re-election. Slama, a lawyer who earlier announced that she was running for a second term, said in a statement that she was stepping back to focus on her family, including a newborn child. She called serving in the Legislature an “honor and privilege.”

“I’ve decided to begin a new chapter as an attorney in the private sector and focus on the joys and responsibilities of being a new mom,” she said in a statement, the deadline for incumbents to file for re-election. Slama might not be finished with her political career, however. She steps away from the race with $146,000 raised cash on hand, more than any of her Republican peers in the Legislature.

Slama has made no secret about wanting to run for higher office one day, having applied for Gov. Jim Pillen’s consideration as the state treasurer after John Murante took another job. Local political observers have said she might eventually run for state treasurer, secretary of state or attorney general. She did not address those possibilities in her announcement.

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