[2][3][4] In 2009, Kuehn was named to fill the vacant Kearney County seat on the Southern Power District board of directors.
[5] The district is a publicly owned utility that provides electricity to the rural portions of Adams, Franklin, Hall, Hamilton, Kearney, Merrick, and Phelps Counties in south central Nebraska.
[9] In 2014, Kuehn ran for a seat in the Nebraska Legislature from the 38th District, which covers six counties in south central Nebraska and part of a seventh: Clay, Franklin, Kearney, Nuckolls, Phelps, Webster, and the southwestern part of Buffalo County.
[10][11][12] The incumbent, Tom Carlson, a member of the Republican Party, was ineligible to run for a third consecutive term under Nebraska's term-limits law.
[20] Among the "most significant"[22] actions taken by the Legislature in its 2015 session were three bills that passed over vetoes by governor Pete Ricketts.
LB580 would have created an independent commission of citizens to draw new district maps following censuses; supporters described it as an attempt to de-politicize the redistricting process, while Ricketts maintained that the bill delegated the legislature's constitutional duty of redistricting to "an unelected and unaccountable board".
The bill was withdrawn without an attempt to override the veto; the state auditor agreed to work with the governor on a new version for the next year's session.
Supporters were unable to break a filibuster; in the 32–17 cloture motion, Kuehn was among those who voted in favor of the bill.