{"id":37103,"date":"2025-01-24T17:59:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T23:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37103"},"modified":"2025-01-24T17:59:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T23:59:18","slug":"sorrentino-wins-race-to-the-capitol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37103","title":{"rendered":"Sorrentino wins race to the Capitol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Tony Sorrentino competes for Team Nebraska in the 2015 Twin Cities Marathon in Minneapolis.<\/em><\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Tony Sorrentino keeps his Brooks running shoes in a bright yellow bag in his Capitol office and his running clothes in the trunk of his car.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust in case,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n

Running is more than a hobby for the freshman senator \u2014 it’s a philosophy and a way of life. Sorrentino has been running competitively for more than 50 years and is likely the most youthful 70 year old you\u2019ll ever meet.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly my passion,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took away my real knees and gave me some fake ones a couple of years ago, but I still run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other parts of his life that contribute to the spring in his step include teaching adjunct at Creighton Law School and serving as the assistant coach for the Creighton women\u2019s cross country team. Over the years, he\u2019s coached runners at almost every level from junior high to college.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy being around the students,\u201d Sorrentino said. \u201cThey energize you and keep you young.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorrentino, a CPA and attorney, has competed in 163 marathons in locations all over the world, including finishing the prestigious Boston Marathon six times. At one time he was sponsored \u2014 with athletic companies paying for his shoes, clothing and travel \u2014 but such deals require a minimum number of races per year. With four children at home, his wife Kate\u2019s own busy career and overseeing his company, there simply wasn\u2019t time.<\/p>\n

Sorrentino said one of his most memorable running experiences was in the birthplace of the marathon. After Greece was chosen as the site for the 2004 Summer Olympics in 1989, he was one of the runners on the newly mapped out course meant to retrace the race\u2019s historic origin.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the course wasn\u2019t completely marked out by the time the runners arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pack I was in got lost and ended up running 28.5 miles,\u201d he laughed. \u201cWe were literally stopping people in Athens and asking them where the Panathenaic Stadium finish line was.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Sorrentino isn\u2019t daunted by races that don\u2019t go exactly as planned.<\/p>\n

He ran for a seat in the Legislature 18 years ago and, in his words, \u201cfinished Miss Congeniality.\u201d In the years since, he concentrated on work, teaching, coaching and other interests, but never lost sight of the desire to serve.<\/p>\n

After selling his business a few years ago and moving to District 39, which had an open seat last year due to term limits, Sorrentino felt it was time to try again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always had an interest in government,\u201d he said. \u201cI was the beneficiary of good governance \u2014 good leadership \u2014 all my life growing up in Nebraska. Now I have the time to give back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having a runner\u2019s energy helped when knocking nearly 10,000 doors while on the campaign trail. His advice to others seeking a spot in the legislative hustle and bustle?<\/p>\n

\u201cBring your energy and bring your walking shoes,\u201d Sorrentino said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to take both to put together a winning race.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Omaha Sen. Tony Sorrentino keeps his Brooks running shoes in a bright yellow bag in his Capitol office and his running clothes in the trunk of his car. <\/p>\n

\u201cJust in case,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37106,"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":[309],"class_list":["post-37103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senator-features","tag-sen-tony-sorrentino"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Sorrentino_blog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37103","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=37103"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37136,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37103\/revisions\/37136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}