Nebraska independent Dan Osborn, a former union leader who waged a competitive but ultimately unsuccessful bid for Senate in 2024, is trying again.
Osborn announced Tuesday that he is taking on Republican Pete Ricketts, the state’s former governor who is running for his first full term in the Senate.
Osborn, who lost to GOP Sen. Deb Fischer by single digits last fall, will again run as a working-class populist, a message that he says will contrast with Ricketts, one of the wealthiest members of Congress.
“This race represents the foundational battle taking place in America right now: The Billionaire Class vs. The Working Class,” Osborn posted on social media.
Just as they did last cycle, Republicans wasted no time seeking to define Osborn as a Democrat whose only hope of winning in deeply conservative Nebraska is to brand himself an independent.
“Nebraska ‘independent’ Dan Osborn is trying his hand again at the US Senate,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee posted on social media. “Voters rejected this Chuck Schumer Democrat in 2024, and they’ll do the same in 2026.”
Nebraska Democrats, who didn’t run a candidate against Fischer, may take the same approach in next year’s Senate election, with state party chair Jane Kleeb telling Semafor they would not back a Democratic candidate against Ricketts.
Osborn, who made a name for himself leading a 2021 strike at a Kellogg’s cereal plant in Omaha, easily outperformed Democrat Kamala Harris in the state last year — in contrast to his 7-point defeat to Fischer, she lost to Donald Trump by more than 20 points. His campaign also forced national Republicans to invest money into the race.
Ricketts, though, could be a more difficult target for Osborn. A former two-term governor, he was appointed to the Senate in 2023 after Republican Sen. Ben Sasse resigned. He hails from a prominent family of GOP fundraisers and donors; his father helped found TD Ameritrade, and his family owns the Chicago Cubs.
Ricketts has already secured Trump’s endorsement in the race in a state where Republicans haven’t lost a Senate election in nearly two decades. He was also elected on the same ballot as Fischer last fall to serve out the remainder of Sasse’s term and won by 25 points, exceeding Trump’s statewide margin.
Before settling on the Senate race, Osborn had reportedly weighed runs for governor and for Nebraska’s 2nd District, an Omaha-area seat known as the “blue dot” in the red state. The current occupant of that seat, Republican Rep. Don Bacon, announced last week that he wouldn’t seek reelection, accelerating the fight for one of the most competitive districts in the country.
Last cycle, Osborn became one of the first Senate candidates to draw a salary from his campaign after the Federal Election Commission made it easier for those running for office to use donor money to pay themselves. He said he chose to do so because he believes politics shouldn’t be the realm of the wealthy who can afford to campaign full time.
After his loss to Fischer, Osborn created a political action committee to support working-class candidates.
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