{"id":33749,"date":"2023-03-10T15:51:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T21:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33749"},"modified":"2023-03-20T12:36:38","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T18:36:38","slug":"eclectic-path-brings-hardin-to-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=33749","title":{"rendered":"Eclectic path brings Hardin to Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Brian Hardin and family dog, Layla, take a snack break while enjoying a hike.<\/em><\/p>\n

A wooden business card holder sits on Sen. Brian Hardin\u2019s desk, engraved with his name and district number \u2014 a gift from U.S. Congressman Adrian Smith. It was Smith\u2019s father, Neal, who first suggested that Hardin run for the open seat in Legislative District 48.<\/p>\n

The elder Smith was principal of the country grade school in Mitchell Valley that Hardin attended, and the two men ran into each other at church a few years ago. Hardin had been away from the area for 27 years, most of them in Denver, but had recently returned to Gering following the death of his sister-in-law.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d always been close with his brother, Hardin said, and the chance to be near family again was a strong draw. So he and wife Lili, along with a geriatric, \u201cunruly\u201d Jack Russel Terrier named Layla, moved home.<\/p>\n

Running into Neal Smith that day was, he says, like most things in his life, \u201cmore providential than planned.\u201d<\/p>\n

After attending seminary in Denver and earning a master\u2019s degree, Hardin worked in ministry in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania for nearly seven years. While he loved the people and the natural beauty, he missed Nebraska and the \u201cspecific culture\u201d of middle America.<\/p>\n

A move back to Denver opened up a new door to the insurance industry, where Hardin thrived \u2014 eventually building a business with several thousand brokers across the country.<\/p>\n

The insurance industry was pivotal in Hardin\u2019s life in two ways. First it afforded him the freedom to pursue his music interests. But, additionally, a fateful public policy decision regarding the industry was the spark that got him interested in politics.<\/p>\n

Hardin\u2019s love of music has resulted in a few hundred songs that he\u2019s written and a fair amount of time spent in Nashville. His cover band, Kid Shelleen \u2014 named after Lee Marvin\u2019s character in the classic film “Cat Ballou” \u2014 has gigs booked well into 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re mostly a support group for old men,\u201d Hardin joked.<\/p>\n

Professionally, everything changed for him with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernmental overreach ruined a business that I worked really hard building,\u201d Hardin said.
\n\u201cThat gets your attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

His frustration led to involvement in local politics in the Denver area and eventually to that fateful
\nconversation with Adrian Smith\u2019s dad.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d heard that I was involved with the G.O.P. in Colorado and while I initially ignored his
\nsuggestion about running for office, I kept thinking about it,\u201d Hardin said.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s earned a seat in the Legislature, Hardin said he looks forward to working with
\nfellow senators on legislation that reflects his constituents\u2019 conservative values \u2014 and to
\ndecorating his Capitol office with some of his many guitars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we can accomplish a lot of things that the majority of Nebraskans want,\u201d Hardin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A wooden business card holder sits on Sen. Brian Hardin\u2019s desk, engraved with his name and district number \u2014 a gift from US Senator Adrian Smith. It was Smith\u2019s father, Neal, who first suggested that Hardin run for the open seat in Legislative District 48.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[280],"class_list":["post-33749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-brian-hardin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Hardin_blog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33749"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33923,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33749\/revisions\/33923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}