Dan Osborn launches independent Senate bid against Ricketts in Nebraska
Dan Osborn, an industrial mechanic who lost a Senate bid as an independent against Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) by single digits last year, is launching another bid for the upper chamber – this time for Sen. Pete Ricketts' (R-Neb.) seat.
In his launch video, Osborn contrasts his working-class background as an industrial mechanic and military veteran with Ricketts' family wealth, being the eldest son of TD Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts.
"There's a lot of rich guys in Washington like Pete Ricketts, but not a lot with hands like these," Osborn says in the ad. "We fix their cars, grow their food, fight their wars."
"Politicians like Sen. Pete Ricketts are the problem," he continued. "His dad worked for a living, but Petey? He got his money the fast way: His billionaire family."
Osborn's ad also nods to the steamfitter's background, where he led a major strike against Kellogg in Omaha in 2021, and says, "I didn't buy my way into politics."
"I'm running for Senate because Congress shouldn't just be a playground for the rich. We gotta make things more affordable, secure the border, and take on corruption in Washington," he says in the ad.
In an interview with The Hill ahead of his announcement, the mechanic said he was making another run for Senate to advocate for the working class. Osborn surprised many last year when his longshot Senate bid against Fischer came strikingly close. He lost to the cattle rancher by close to 7 points while President Trump handily won the state by more than 20 points.
He noted that some of the dynamics of this race would be different compared to his run against Fischer, including the fact that he's a better-known candidate this time around and he's running against a wealthy incumbent.
Osborn said he wanted to show Americans and Nebraskans specifically that "there's another way forward and create a level playing field for workers to be able to get ahead in this country and stop racing towards the bottom and wealth funneling to the top."
While Osborn made last year's race surprisingly competitive, the election underscored the increasingly difficult political terrain for independent candidates in an ever-partisan environment. Beating Ricketts, who was appointed to the Senate in 2023 after former Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) retired early from his seat, will also be no easy feat.
The former Nebraska governor, who is running for a full term next year, will have a clear financial edge over Osborn. Even before Osborn made his announcement, Trump came out with a strong endorsement of Ricketts on his Truth Social platform in April while deriding the steamfitter as "a Radical Left Open Border Extremist, who will put our Country, and Safety, LAST."
At the same time, Osborn could also benefit from the midterm environment, when the president's party typically faces electoral headwinds.
Despite Nebraska's reliably Republican leanings, Osborn thinks there's still an appetite for a middle-of-the-road candidate.
"If you look at the end zones being the two parties, the loudest certainly sit in the end zones, and if you sit around and you either watch Fox News or MSNBC all day long you know you would think we're all fighting in the streets with each other, and we hate each other," Osborn said.
"My world's a different world," he said. "I walk around and talk to people all day long, and I think most people operate within the 40-yard lines, somewhere down the middle, either left or right, but certainly, there's a lot of things that we all agree upon no matter what side you fall on."
Osborn said that if he's elected, he wouldn't caucus with either party – something he also pledged the last time he ran. He quipped that he's a "free agent" -- a potentially enviable position in a narrowly divided Senate.
"If I have to bring a lawn chair and then pop it between the two aisles, that's where I sit. I'll eat lunch by myself," the Nebraska independent said.
"I want to challenge the system and show people that you could be an effective senator as an independent."