Dan Osborn gives Democrats hope in Nebraska Senate race

Independent candidate Dan Osborn is giving Democrats hope in Nebraska's US Senate race after the party chose not to field its own candidate against Republican Senator Pete Ricketts.

Osborn, a 51-year-old Navy veteran, industrial mechanic and former union leader, is running as a political independent in the November 3 midterm elections. He told AFP he has refused to define himself along party lines and wants voters to move beyond a left-versus-right political divide.

Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said this month that Democrats were “uniting behind Dan Osborn,” describing him as a working-class Nebraskan who had served in uniform.

Nebraska is usually difficult ground for Democrats. Donald Trump won almost 60 percent of the state's vote in the 2024 presidential election. Osborn ran unsuccessfully for Nebraska's other Senate seat two years ago, but won nearly 47 percent of the vote against Republican Deb Fischer.

Democrats are also trying similar strategies in Idaho and South Dakota, backing independents or more moderate candidates in states Trump easily won in 2024.

Osborn has rejected Ricketts's attempts to portray him as a Democrat. He said the US national debt, which recently passed $40 trillion, gave him “40 trillion reasons” to agree with fiscal conservatives, while also arguing that multinational corporations should pay more.

Osborn helped lead a 77-day strike at a Kellogg's plant in 2021 while working as a mechanic and leading a local food workers' union. He said his Senate campaign was “a way for me to give the power back to the people.”