Welcome to Lee Benham for Senate

---

My name is Lee Benham.
I’m an insurance professional and health care policy advocate who has spent decades working inside the system that politicians only debate — but rarely understand.

I’ve never needed talking points. I’ve never sat behind a podium trying to spin what doesn’t work. I’ve worked directly with families, employers, seniors, and taxpayers navigating a system that was built by politicians and protected by inertia.

I know how health care is financed in America — and how that broken financing system suppresses wages, inflates the cost of goods and services across the economy, drives up property taxes through public employee benefit costs, wastes trillions of dollars, and leaves working families worse off.

That’s why I’m running for the United States Senate.
And that’s why, after a lifetime as an independent voter with fiscally conservative values, I made the decision to join the Democratic Party — not because my values changed, but because the party that says it wants to help working families should be the one fixing this.

This Isn’t About Ideology.
It’s About Reality.

I’ve voted mostly Republican in the past because I believed in personal responsibility, transparency, and fiscal discipline. I still do.
But over time, it became impossible to ignore a hard truth: both parties have failed to fix the one thing that touches every household and drives our national debt — the way we pay for health care.

Republicans talked about repeal but never fixed the root cause.
Democrats talked about coverage but continued defending a system that hides costs and depresses wages.

The result?

• Families paying $30,000–$40,000 a year for “coverage”
• Workers losing wage growth to invisible premiums
• Property taxes skyrocketing to fund public employee health plans
• Taxpayers subsidizing open-ended waste they never see and would never vote for

That is not compassion. That is not fiscal responsibility. And it is not sustainable.

Why I Left the Sidelines

I didn’t leave the Republican Party because I changed.
I left because they stopped offering any real solutions.

For more than a decade, they’ve promised to fix health care — then done nothing about how it's financed.
They protected employer-sponsored insurance because donors benefit from the tax shelter.
They criticized Obamacare while preserving the very structure that made it unworkable.

Democrats, meanwhile, tried to expand access, but never addressed the cost engine underneath.

Both sides protected the status quo.
And neither fixed the problem.

I’m done pretending that’s acceptable.

Why My Work Aligns with What Democrats Should Stand For

The solution I’ve spent my career building — age-based tax credits — aligns more closely with the values Democrats claim to stand for:

• Fairness: Support based on age, not job title or lobbying strength
• Transparency: Spending that’s visible, capped, and honest
• Worker empowerment: Wages returned to workers, not diverted to inflated insurance premiums
• Fiscal responsibility: Defined taxpayer exposure, not open-ended subsidies
• Dignity: Ownership of your own coverage, not dependence on an employer or government program

Age-based tax credits don’t nationalize health care.
They don’t kick anyone off their coverage.
They don’t remove choice.
They simply give people ownership and freedom of choice using the money already being spent on their behalf.

That’s not radical. That’s common sense.

What Nebraska Used to Stand For — And What We Can Stand for Again

Nebraska has a proud tradition of electing Democrats who cared more about problem-solving than party politics.
Senators like Bob Kerrey understood that governing is about doing what works — not what polls.

He challenged both sides. He broke ranks when it mattered. And he told the truth about hard choices.

That’s the tradition I’m running in.
A Nebraska Democrat grounded in policy.
Serious about fixing what’s broken.
And willing to work with anyone — left, right, or center — who’s ready to deal in facts.

This Campaign Is About Solutions — Not Slogans

Health care isn’t failing because Americans disagree.
It’s failing because politicians won’t admit how it’s actually paid for:

• Through suppressed wages
• Through inflated premiums
• Through rising property taxes
• Through hidden federal subsidies and tax breaks

We can fix this.
We just need to stop defending the system that caused it.

That’s why I’m running.
That’s why I joined the Democratic Party.
And that’s why this campaign isn’t about left vs. right.
It’s about people vs. a broken system.

If you believe Nebraska deserves honest math, real solutions, and leadership that puts policy ahead of party — I’m asking for your support.