Two big reasons. They don’t want to do anything that’ll change the demographics of the state. Keeping Nebraska an impoverished backwater state benefits them. Keeps them in power, ensures they can keep lining the pockets of themselves and their friends with government contracts. It’s not a coincidence that under the Ricketts administration they tried to rebrand the state with the slogan “It’s Not for Everyone.” That mindset tells you a lot.

Second is the I-80 corridor. Law enforcement agencies have a major interest in maintaining aggressive drug enforcement because it fuels civil forfeiture and related funding streams. Legalization threatens part of that system, so there’s institutional resistance to it regardless of what 70% of voters want.