Dan Osborn spurns Democrats, other parties whose help he sought in Senate race

Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn speaks during a press conference Tuesday in his Chalco Hills-area garage. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

OMAHA — If blue-collar, nonpartisan candidate Dan Osborn gets elected to the U.S Senate this fall, he will do it without the help of the Nebraska Democratic Party — a party he courted for months and whose help political observers say he needed to win.

Osborn announced Wednesday at a press event in his garage in the Chalco Hills area that he would no longer seek endorsements from any political party. He did so one day after the 2024 primary election, with Nebraska Democrats poised to endorse his bid this Saturday during a scheduled meeting.

Osborn said he didn’t want to be beholden to either major party or the money and special interests behind them. The steamfitter and longtime Omaha union leader said he can’t be “charmed” and won’t be “schmoozed” and “won’t suck up to anyone.”

Much of his campaign is modeled off the style U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania used to appeal to a broad swath of working-class voters from both parties. Fetterman, however, ran as a Democrat.

“I want to be clear that I’m an independent,” Osborn said. “I want to stay true to who I am.”

He said he wouldn’t accept the Democratic Party’s endorsement if it did choose him. He pointed to recent divisions between Nebraska’s all-GOP federal delegation and the Nebraska Republican Party as evidence that party endorsements matter less than ever. All five members of the delegation won their primaries Tuesday, despite the state party endorsing challengers in three of the five races.

Democrats feel ‘betrayed’

Democratic leaders said they felt “betrayed” by Osborn changing course the day after the primary. The timing of his announcement came too late for the state party to add a Democratic candidate to the fall ballot, election officials confirmed. 

The party would have needed to run a Democrat in the primary. State party Chair Jane Kleeb said Osborn “asked us to keep our ballot line open so we could form a coalition.” And the party agreed, in part, because he had enough support for an endorsement, she said.

A handful of regional Republican political consultants asked Wednesday whether Osborn was intentionally trying to distance himself from the political party’s label that they describe as a non-starter for many voters in the GOP-leaning state.

Two pointed to Osborn’s previous acknowledgments that his bid could be a test run of whether nonpartisan candidates fare better in red states than Democrats who share similar positions. 

He said again that he has not decided which party he would caucus with if elected. And he said he had not decided which candidate to support for president.

A clearly frustrated Kleeb said her team and voters from across the political spectrum had been meeting with Osborn for months to discuss ways to defeat U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb. 

“Elections are won by addition, not subtraction, and today by Dan going back on his word, he is telling Democratic voters that he doesn’t want their party’s support,” Kleeb said. “We kept our word to Dan and now that he has betrayed that trust. 

“We will put forward a write-in candidate to represent the Democratic Party.”

Not Osborn team’s first time

This won’t be the first time the party has tried to backfill a Senate seat. In 2020, the party withdrew support from Democratic Senate candidate Chris Janicek following accusations of improper treatment of a campaign staffer and backed a write-in candidate instead.

This time is different, political observers and local partisans explained, because it looks like an intentional effort by Osborn to lock Fischer into a race with only two active candidates on the ballot.

Democrats weren’t the only party targeted. Osborn’s move comes after he had sought the backing of the Libertarian Party of Nebraska in March. His supporters also executed a takeover of the Senate ballot slot held by the Legal Marijuana NOW Party, as the Lincoln Journal Star reported first.  

Kerry Eddy, who won the Legal Marijuana NOW Party’s primary Tuesday, posted plans on her campaign website this spring to drop out after the primary and shift her supporters toward Osborn. She told the Examiner this week she is dealing with family health issues.

A political action committee backing Osborn also helped fund Eddy’s bid. Members of the marijuana party have said they felt misled. Party chairman Mark Elworth Jr. has said he did not appreciate “shenanigans” undermining election integrity.

Elworth told the Examiner on Wednesday that he feels bad for the Democrats. He said Osborn has no path to victory without the votes of Democrats. Elworth was one of several partisans to express frustration with Osborn’s actions.

“When you lie in politics, it always catches up to you,” Elworth said of Osborn. “He’s just really a dishonest guy and not to be trusted.”

Osborn responds

The Examiner asked Osborn on Wednesday how Nebraska Democrats could trust him after he waited until after the primary to make public that he had decided not to seek or accept party endorsements. He sidestepped that question and a follow-up.

“I can’t really speak to that,” Osborn said. “But what’s going to change their mind is our message.”

He has railed against corporations and special interests and said modern politicians are being bought and sold. He blames corporate greed for a lot of why food, medicine and fuel cost so much. He said he wants people to try something new to fix the problem of inflation.

“People are tired of the country club politicians,” he said, adding that if elected he would be one of the only blue-collar people in the Senate. “Only 2 percent of the Congress in the House and Senate come from the working class.”

Osborn, who was fired after leading a strike against Kellogg’s, recently stepped back from his United Association of Steamfitters Local 464 apprenticeship in order to campaign full time. He said he would pay himself what he previously earned, about $7,100 a month, out of his $1 million in campaign funds. 

This arrangement appears to be allowed under Federal Election Commission rules. But it is rare because of the political cost of appearing dependent on donors for a candidate’s living expenses. Osborn acknowledged the risk of looking like what he criticizes.

Plans Valentine campaign stop

Osborn said that his average donation has been $38 and that the bulk of his money comes from small-dollar donors who understand why he needs to be able to campaign without financially straining his family.

He said made the decision in order to campaign farther away than North Platte when he had a day or two off work. He has planned his longest campaign trip yet next week, to travel to Fischer’s hometown of Valentine.

He said he wants people all over the state to hear his pitch. He also said he had heard rumors that Fischer was “not a great neighbor.” Fischer’s campaign declined to comment Wednesday about Osborn or his decision.

Elworth said Osborn’s decision could have consequences he didn’t intend. It was bad enough that his team played games with a smaller party like his, Elworth said. But faking out the Democrats, he said, could make Osborn unelectable.

“He needs the Democrats’ votes,” Elworth said. “He has no chance without the Democrats’ votes.”

And if Eddy drops out, the Legal Marijuana Now Party plans to replace her on the November ballot. Elworth said the party might consider replacing her with a Democrat.

Given a sense hours later of what others had said, Osborn defended his actions.

“I’m a true independent who will never bow to the wishes of any political party,” he said. “This kind of behavior is frankly the exact reason I decided not to take political endorsements. Americans are sick of political elites putting party over principle, and so am I.”

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