List of Nebraska state senators

This is a list of all senators who have served in the Nebraska Legislature since it became a unicameral body in 1937.

Records show that the apportionment of the legislative districts established for the 1936 election remained unchanged through the election of 1962.^[1][2] The boundaries of these districts were restricted to fall along county lines. In the election of 1962, the voters of Nebraska passed a measure to loosen the county-line boundary restriction and to increase the number of legislative districts from 43 to 49.^[3] This resulted in a new apportionment that renumbered all the existing districts and added two additional districts to Lancaster County, three additional districts to Douglas County, and one north of Douglas county. That plan went into effect for the election of 1964.

However, on June 15, 1964, the United States Supreme Court handed down Reynolds v. Sims, which held that state senate districts must be roughly equal in population. One month later, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska in League of Nebraska Municipalities v. Marsh held that the portion of the 1962 amendment to the Nebraska Constitution allowing the legislature to give consideration to area when redistricting was unconstitutional. This meant that the legislature had to once again redraw the district boundaries in 1965 based solely on population.^[3] In July 1965, the legislature approved a plan with newly apportioned districts which was upheld by the Nebraska Supreme Court in January 1966 and went into effect for the election of 1966. After 1966, the Nebraska Legislature conducts a process of redistricting every ten years after the decennial United States Census.

After its inception in 1937, members of the unicameral Nebraska legislature served for a term of two years, and all state legislative districts were up for reelection in every biennial election. However, another change adopted by the voters of Nebraska in the 1962 election was to increase the term of state senators from two to four years, and to stagger the election of state senators so that roughly half of the districts were up for election every two years.^[3] The election of 1964 was the last election in which all legislative districts were up for election at the same time. Odd-numbered districts elected senators to four-year terms, such that odd-numbered-district elections would coincide with United States presidential elections. Even-numbered districts elected senators in 1964 to two-year terms, such that even-numbered-district senators would be up for election again in 1966, in which they would be elected to four-year terms such that even-numbered-district elections would coincide with United States midterm elections.

Even though the Nebraska Legislature, as a nonpartisan body, officially recognizes no party affiliations, the party affiliations of individual members are still noted below when known for reference.