The Democratic primary is an unusual proxy battle, with the general election between Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts and independent populist Dan Osborne.
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Nebraskans are set to vote on May 12 in the year’s most unusual Senate primary, with Republicans and Democrats accusing each other of trying to confuse voters with fake candidates.
That’s because Dan Osborn, a populist independent who came within 7 percentage points of winning the 2024 U.S. Senate race in a state that is firmly Republican, is attracting attention in the general election. The 51-year-old former union president and military veteran’s close margin was far better than the 21 points President Donald Trump gave to former Vice President Kamala Harris in the Cornhusker State.
As a result, Nebraska Democratic officials are hoping to endorse Obsohn’s endorsement against Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts in November.
“There’s a realization in red states that Democrats can’t compete statewide and that their only hope for getting a candidate even remotely close to them ideologically and politically is to support independents,” said Mark P. Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.
Sitting in the primary race is Cindy Burbank, 62, a former pharmacy technician who has vowed to withdraw from the general election and support Osborne if she wins the nomination. But the state Republican Party has denounced Burbank’s bid as an unfair and coordinated ploy by Democrats to prop up independent voters.
CNN reported on March 30 that Burbank is running against William Forbes, a 79-year-old pastor who voted for Trump three times and attended a Republican training event earlier this year. The Nebraska Democratic Party denounced his last-minute candidacy as an example of Republican interference in the primary in a plan to siphon votes from Osborne in the fall.
Political observers say this mass of confusion makes it difficult for the average voter to know who to support and why. The test also highlighted how deeply damaged Democrats are in the Great Plains and other parts of the country where President Trump will hold an overwhelming majority in 2024.
“The national brand of the Democratic Party is harmful to voters in states like Nebraska in the sense that they identify very much with coastal liberal elites on many issues,” Jones said. “The Democratic Party in Nebraska has this kind of Plan B strategy of not running any Democratic candidates at all.”
Osborne seeks to end ‘doom loop’ between two major parties, but Republicans call out Democratic donors
Osborne, a former Democrat, first caught fire among progressives during a 77-day strike at a Kellogg cereal factory in 2021. As president of the City of Omaha’s local union, he led fights over pay and benefit issues, including loss premiums for health insurance and reductions in retirement benefits.
The crash catapulted Osborne, an industrial mechanic and military veteran, onto the national stage. His unique political views include support for gun rights, legalizing medical marijuana, expanding reproductive rights, and making it easier for labor unions to organize.
Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said a consistent theme in several Democratic primaries this year is giving candidates more alignment with working-class voters rather than corporate donations.
That means building a consensus to defeat Ricketts outside of the traditional Democratic primary system, which has consistently failed to produce strong candidates in general elections. Nebraska hasn’t had a Democratic senator in nearly 15 years.
“Osborne is a perfect example of someone who is a culturally attuned working-class populist who can avoid some of the baggage associated with the Democratic Party brand that needs to be addressed in the medium to long term but doesn’t have time in the short term,” Greene said.
Osborne has promised not to caucus with either major party, telling USA TODAY that voters in the state are tired of politicians of both parties and are “looking to corporate interests to finance their campaigns.” Instead, he said, he wants elected leaders who support the average working people who “run this state,” including farmers, ranchers and small business owners.
“We are stuck in a destructive two-party loop, and the rest of us are all paying the price,” he said in a statement. “I’m running to disrupt the status quo of partisan politics in Nebraska because this system isn’t working for any of us.”
But national Republicans and Ricketts, who was appointed to the Senate in 2023 to replace Republican Ben Sasse with the support of President Donald Trump, do not accept the idea that he is a de facto independent.
Ricketts is facing four main challengers of his own, but he has largely ignored them in order to draw more attention to Osborne in what is expected to be a competitive race. Polls show Mr Ricketts leading Mr Osborne by just 1 percentage point.
The former governor, the son of billionaire Joe Ricketts, called attention to donations to Osborne’s campaign in an April 17 post on X, which includes out-of-state liberal mega-donors such as philanthropist Wendy Schmidt and progressive groups such as Fight Agency, which boasts ties to New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani. They helped Osborn build a $3.8 million treasure chest.
Nick Puglia, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the political arm of Senate Republicans, told USA TODAY that these contributions reveal that Osborne is a “fake independent.”
“Mr. Osborne is backed by the Democratic Party, advised by Zoran Mamdani’s henchmen, and his sham campaign has netted Mr. Osborne and his relatives more than $350,000,” he said in a statement.
He has a political action committee called Conservatives for Osborne, which raised about $230,000 in his last Senate campaign, according to Federal Election Commission records. But a review of this year’s election database revealed that he had received no donations in the first three months of the year and had less than $100 in cash on hand.
These donations “tell us everything we need to know about his values,” Ricketts said in April.
Osborne allies vs. “fake” Democrats
The Nebraska Democratic Party initially did not plan to field a candidate, but has endorsed Burbank in the primary.
Mr. Forbes’ late start and anti-abortion rights stance had state party leaders concerned that he was trying to “cheat” voters and steal some of Mr. Osborne’s support in November.
“William Forbes is a Ricketts factory,” Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Cleave said in a May 7 post on X. “Don’t let the MAGA Republicans ruin our primary. Vote for Cindy Burbank.”
Ricketts’ campaign denies any relationship with Forbes, where he is a registered Democrat, according to state records. But progressive critics and others point out that the conservative pastor has publicly supported the former governor online in the past.
Forbes could not be reached for comment.
Burbank was temporarily removed from the ballot by Republican Secretary of State Bob Evnen in March after indicating he would not run in November. She sued for reinstatement and won.
She has also faced backlash for paying a $1,740 filing fee to Mike Marvin, a third-party candidate running under the banner of the Legal Marijuana NOW party.
Republicans said Mr. Marvin also plans to leave the party this fall and support Mr. Osborne. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but reportedly denied involvement with other camps.
Democratic targets in Omaha
Even though Nebraska leans Republican overall, Democrats hope to pick up one seat outright there. In Omaha, Republican Rep. Don Bacon plans to retire in 2024 from a district that Harris won by about 4 percentage points. The seat is rated Democratic-leaning, according to the nonpartisan Cook Political newspaper.
Democrats John Kavanaugh and Dennis Powell were selected as the Democratic candidates for the district, and came in second in Nebraska.
Mr. Powell, a former business executive, argues that if Mr. Kavanaugh, a state representative, wins, it would jeopardize Nebraska’s status as one of only two states in the country, along with Maine, that distribute Electoral College votes based on congressional districts rather than a statewide winner-take-all system.
Kavanaugh’s campaign website countered, saying, “Nebraska’s elected Democrats are confident they can win enough seats to cover John’s votes in November,” and argued that Nebraska Democrats “don’t have to choose between standing up to Trump and defending our Blue Dot.”
