LINCOLN – Former Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn decided Thursday to explore another nonpartisan run for the Senate, this time against Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts in the midterms.

The former Omaha labor leader’s announcement of a second possible Senate run comes after his populist bid against U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in 2024 made national headlines for turning an expected safe race into a potential upset. He attracted an extraordinary fundraising haul for a nonpartisan federal candidate in Nebraska of $14 million, including some late money from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee once they saw his momentum. He lost by about six percentage points.

Osborn told the Nebraska Examiner last month that he had expanded his scope for his next political office run last month after initially thinking about running against Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon in the Omaha-based 2nd District or running for governor against GOP Gov. Jim Pillen.

The steamfitter who made his name by leading the Kellogg’s strike in Omaha in 2021 and made waves by choosing to pay himself in 2024 with campaign funds chose the race that offered the clearest contrast.

“Multi-billionaire Pete Ricketts is Nebraska’s other Senator. He’s up next year,” Osborn said. “We could replace a billionaire with a mechanic.”

Ricketts served two terms as governor before Pillen. He was the most established figure in the Nebraska Republican Party until some in the party’s base revolted against the leadership team loyal to Ricketts. As the eldest son of a billionaire businessman who founded TD Ameritrade and whose family now owns the Chicago Cubs, Ricketts has a significant political war chest and has used his own money to influence Nebraska politics.

Populism’s Rise

But populism, whether Osborn’s approach or Trump’s, is the driving force in modern politics, as voters lose faith in institutions and seek alternatives. The same working-class-focused rhetoric that drove President Donald Trump’s victory gives someone like Osborn an opening.

Typical political wisdom would suggest risk to the incumbent party during midterm elections, which could help Osborn, but Democrats bucked that trend and gained a firmer grip in the Senate in 2022.

After losing to Fischer, Osborn launched a political action committee to support working-class candidates and encourage more “plumbers, carpenters, teachers, nurses and factory workers to run for office.”

While populism is on Osborn’s side, Ricketts has the dominant political operation in the state. Republicans who crossed him have lost seats, and his endorsement holds weight. His endorsed candidate for governor, Pillen, defeated a Trump-endorsed candidate in 2022, Charles Herbster.

“Even Chuck Schumer’s $4 million wasn’t enough to sell Nebraskans on Dan Osborn being anything other than a liberal Democrat,” a political spokeswoman for Ricketts said. “Voters will reject Dan Osborn again because they know he will oppose the America First agenda and side with the coastal elites bankrolling his campaigns.”

Partisan Questions

Nebraska Republicans, including Fischer, have called Osborn a Democrat in sheep’s clothing. Several joked Thursday about him tweeting a fundraising link from ActBlue, a key fundraising tool of used by many Democrats.

Osborn said on the podcast of his former campaign manager, the Dan Parsons Show, that he did not want to play spoiler in a potential three-way race in the 2nd District. Democrats haven’t yet announced a candidate for the congressional district, but have signaled they will. The potentially crowded 2nd District field contributed to Osborn choosing a different path.

“It is our job to build the Democratic Party, and we are focused on doing that while creating alliances with candidates like Dan when it is the best path for Nebraskans,” Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said last month.

Republicans have almost completely taken over America’s heartland, a region once known for its prairie progressivism. If Osborn were able to unseat any of Nebraska’s federal delegation, it would be the first time a non-Republican had represented Nebraska in Congress since Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford upset Republican U.S. Rep. Lee Terry in the 2nd District in 2014.

The last non-Republican governor was Ben Nelson in the late 1990s. 

“We could have a chance to win,” Osborn said. “We could take on this illness, the billionaire class, directly.”

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/04/03/nebraskas-dan-osborn-exploring-m...