Independent Dan Osborn launched another run for the Senate in Nebraska on Tuesday after having waged a surprisingly competitive, though ultimately unsuccessful, campaign last year.
And Osborn said the biggest difference between last year and next year will be his Republican opponent.
“Everything that I talk about, I think Pete Ricketts embodies,” Osborn said in an interview, referring to the Republican senator and former governor who is running for his first full Senate term next year after he won a special election last year.
“Billionaires shouldn’t be able to buy their way into Senate seats, first of all,” Osborn said. “But it’s this race to the bottom that people like me are experiencing, because it’s — everything is so expensive, and it’s just extremely difficult to get ahead in life.”
Republicans have already signaled that they plan to deploy the same playbook they used against Osborn last year, casting him as a Democrat masquerading as an independent. Osborn went on to lose to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer by 7 percentage points.
“Senator Ricketts has consistently worked for and voted to secure the border and cut taxes for Nebraska workers, families, and seniors," Ricketts campaign spokesman Will Coup said in a statement Tuesday to NBC News. "Dan Osborn is bought and paid for by his liberal, out-of-state, coastal donors. Dan Osborn will side with Chuck Schumer over Nebraska families and vote with Democrats to open the border, hike taxes, and stop the America First agenda."
Osborn had been weighing runs for the Senate, the House or governor and launched a political action committee to support working-class candidates.
Osborn received some financial support from Democrats during his 2024 bid, as the party did not field a candidate against Fischer. The Senate Majority PAC, which is aligned with Schumer, of New York, the Senate Democratic leader, donated to a super PAC that boosted Osborn, though outside groups cannot coordinate with campaigns. Osborn also had the backing of some prominent Democratic donors, like Tom Steyer, when he raised more than $15 million in his campaign. And he recently shared a fundraising link for ActBlue, a Democratic fundraising platform.
But Osborn has still maintained independence from the Democratic Party, and he said he would not caucus with either party if were elected. (Republicans are looking to protect the party’s 53-47 majority in the Senate next year.)
“First of all, I’ve been a registered independent from the time I could vote,” Osborn said. “But second of all, I didn’t ask for that money. This time around, I’m not going to ask for it again. The Democrats are going to do what the Democrats do, and Republicans are going to do what the Republicans are going to do. And I just want to show the people that an independent can win in a state like Nebraska or any state, for that matter.”
Osborn told The New York Times last year that he was a Democrat until 2016, but he recently said he “misspoke” during that interview.
“I was telling the reporter that I grew up in a conservative household, and I’ve voted for Democrats, and I’ve voted for Republicans,” Osborn said. “I tend to vote based off of principles, first, before party. And somewhere in that conversation, that got skewed a little bit. I don’t remember the context of the year 2016 and why that was relevant in the conversation.”
KETV of Omaha reported that Osborn has been registered as a “nonpartisan” since 2004, and state records also show a "Daniel L. Osborn" registered as nonpartisan.
“Fiscally, I would, I would fall in line with more of a traditional conservative,” Osborn said. “Sometimes I think a small government can be a better government. But when it comes to social issues and lifting up people in need, I would lean left that way.”
Osborn said he does not plan to seek the state Democratic Party’s endorsement. Last year, Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb accused Osborn of “going back on his word” by ultimately saying he did not want the party’s endorsement after having quietly sought it for months. Osborn said that he had hoped for both the Democratic Party’s and the Libertarian Party’s support but that he decided to forgo the endorsements when they could not be made at the same time.
“I was seeking the endorsement of everybody,” he said.
Republicans’ efforts to paint him as a Democrat underscore the delicate balancing act Osborn faces as he runs in a state Donald Trump carried by 20 points last year.
Osborn said he did not vote for Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris in November, instead writing in United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain for president. Osborn, a former union organizer, described Fain as “one of my personal heroes.”
During his Senate run last year, Osborn’s campaign launched a TV ad saying he was with Trump “on China, the border and draining the swamp.” Osborn said he still aligns with Trump on border security, saying former President Joe Biden “did fail on the border.”
Osborn had mixed views of Trump's trade policies, saying tariffs “definitely have their time and place” but adding that they need to be “calculated and targeted.”
“Blanket tariffs, especially with our neighbors Canada and Mexico, doesn’t make any sense to me,” Osborn said. “I think that all that’s going to do is increase prices for the consumers and make life more expensive at a time where it’s too damn expensive already.”
Osborn was hesitant to directly criticize Trump by name, but he did say he would have voted against Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill, pointing to cuts in social programs and tax cuts that would benefit the wealthy.
“It's going to cut services for people. They’re going to have to cut through so much red tape to continue to have their special-needs kids or whatever the case they’re on these programs for,” he said. “And folks like Ricketts are going to continue to make millions more off of these cuts. I just don’t see how everybody didn’t have a problem with that.”
