Jim Pillen defeats crowded field and Trump ally to win GOP Nebraska governor primary

• Jim Pillen is projected to have emerged as the victor in Nebraska's contentious GOP gubernatorial primary.
• Pillen prevailed over businessman Charles Herbster, Trump's pick in the race.

Jim Pillen, a member of the Nebraska state board of regents, is projected to have won the state's Republican gubernatorial primary.

Pillen narrowly bested businessman Charles Herbster, former President Donald Trump's pick in the race. Pillen's victory illustrates once again how Trump's backing does not guarantee a candidate a primary win.

The race and the stakes:

Herbster alleged that Gov. Pete Ricketts, who endorsed Pillen, feed reports of sexual assault allegations against him. The allegations upended Herbster's campaign.

It's not immediately clear how Republicans will move forward from the extremely contentious contest. But Democrats have not won the governor's mansion in decades, an outcome that is unlikely to change this November.

Trump endorsed Herbster over the repeated pleas of Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is term-limited, to not back Herbster, one of Trump's most loyal supporters.

As Politico noted, Herbster supported Trump from the first moment of his presidential campaign — the 2015 descent down the Trump Tower's golden escalator — all the way through January 6, when Herbster left the area outside of the US Capitol just hours before a violent insurrection began.

Despite Ricketts' fierce opposition, Herbster appeared poised to become the Republican nominee for Nebraska governor. In a state as conservative as Nebraska, this would have made him the all but certain next governor.

But in mid-April, The Nebraska Examiner, a local non-profit news organization, published a report detailing how multiple women say Herbster had groped them. One woman, state Sen. Julie Slama, went on the record with her account.

Pillen's victory demonstrates Ricketts' grip on the state GOP establishment, something worth watching as Ricketts ponders his next act after leaving the governorship.

Jean Stothert, mayor of Omaha, Nebraska, threw her support behind state Sen. Brett Lindstrom — a sign of just how divided Republican loyalties are in the race. Lindstrom ran a surprisingly strong campaign, but it appears that he failed to generate enough support in rural Nebraska to claim the nomination himself.

On the Democratic side, state Sen. Carol Blood is projected to be her party's nominee.

Regardless, Democrats face an enormous task in flipping the governorship. Nebraskans haven't elected a new Democrat to the top job since Ben Nelson, who'd later become a US senator, won in 1990.

To give you a sense of how long that's been: To give you a sense of how long that's been: Nebraska Cornhuskers football coaching legend Tom Osborne, who would also go on to serve in Congress himself, had yet to win any of his three national titles, the first of which came in 1994.

Come November, seats will also be up for grabs in the nation's only nonpartisan, single-house legislature — and the nation's smallest in terms of membership.

The Nebraska Unicameral, which is effectively controlled by Republicans, has 24 of its 49 seats on the ballot this November. Republicans continue to hope that they can break what's effectively been a Democratic filibuster there.