LINCOLN, NEBRASKA — On the first day of the 2026 legislative session, Nebraska lawmakers were asked Wednesday to consider a motion to expel a female Senate colleague accused of making a sexual comment to a legislative staffer and inappropriately touching her during an end-of-session party last year.
If lawmakers vote next week to expel 59-year-old Sen. Dan McKeon, a Republican in Nebraska’s officially nonpartisan Legislature, it will be the first time the body has ever done so.
The unprecedented move follows a complaint from an employee that McCune said she should “lie down” on her vacation and patted her on the buttocks last May during a party at Lincoln Country Club attended by state legislators, staffers and lobbyists.
More attention has been focused on Sexual harassment within state legislatures At the national level. At least 156 state legislators across 44 states have been accused of sexual harassment or misconduct since 2017, when The Associated Press began tracking such incidents amid the #MeToo movement. Of these, 56 resigned or were dismissed from their positions. An almost equal number faced some other type of repercussions, such as losing committee or party leadership positions.
A report on the Nebraska complaint was compiled by an outside law firm at the request of the Legislature’s Executive Council and was released Wednesday. It found that McCune “has a reputation for telling jokes and some of those jokes are unprofessional and/or inappropriate for the workplace.”
The report concluded that McCune’s behavior did not rise to the level of sexual harassment or retaliation for which action could be taken under state or federal discrimination law, but that did not mean it was acceptable. She said McCune’s conduct violated the Nebraska Legislature’s workplace harassment policy, and that lawmakers “may, at their discretion, censure, reprimand or fire the senator for his conduct and comments.”
After interviewing the woman, McKeon and others, the attorney who wrote the report found that the woman, McKeon and another employee were discussing vacation plans at a May 29 party when McKeon asked if the woman was “going to Hawaii to have sex,” she said. McCune described the note as a joke in which he said he hoped she would get a Hawaiian leo while she was in Hawaii.
“The complainant was not vacationing in Hawaii, so this comment is not consistent with a discussion of vacation plans,” the report said.
The employee also said McKeon patted her on the back. McKeown initially denied touching the woman, but later said he may have touched her back, lower back “or even her buttocks,” but insisted it wasn’t meant to be sex, the report said.
The report also stated that after the complaint, McCune was instructed by Senator Ben Hansen, Chairman of the Executive Council, on June 2 not to attend social gatherings where employees were present. Despite this, McKeon attended another party that night that was also attended by employees — including the woman who filed the complaint against him — according to the report.
Nearly a month later, after Hansen urged her to “accept responsibility for what he allegedly did,” McKeon sent the woman a letter telling her she had to find it within her to forgive him “because that’s what the Bible commands people to do,” the report said.
Then, in August, McKeown texted another employee sharing an office with the woman, saying she “seems like she’s difficult to work with,” the report found.
An investigation by the Nebraska State Patrol eventually led to McKeon being charged with a misdemeanor count of disturbing the peace. McCune has pleaded not guilty.
McKeon, who attended Wednesday’s opening session, declined to comment on the report itself. But his statements about the complaint against him and possible firing were in line with the report’s findings, as he cited religious references by saying his name, Daniel, means “just” in Hebrew, and said “we are all sinners” when asked about accusations that he often made inappropriate jokes in the workplace.
He said he has no plans to step down, despite calls from his party leaders — including Republican Gov. Jim Palin — for him to resign. But he appeared willing to accept the possibility of being forced to resign, saying he expected any vote in the legislature to be “very close.”
“It is what it is,” he said. “I’m not going to cry over that or anything else.”
The Legislature’s Executive Council is scheduled to hold a hearing Monday on the decision to fire McKeon. If it is voted out of committee, the entire Legislature could take it up on Tuesday and it would need 33 votes to pass.
If McCune is expelled, he would be the nation’s 57th lawmaker accused of sexual misconduct to leave office via expulsion or resignation since 2017.