> While campaigning last year against Deb Fischer, a Republican who has represented Nebraska in the Senate since 2013, Osborn often spoke about his history as a union leader who led a successful strike against the Kellogg plant in Omaha. (It ended after 77 days with the company agreeing to meet most of the union’s demands.) In a state where many voters consider the Democratic Party culturally alien, he tried to neutralize the power of partisanship by running as an independent. But in the end, while Osborn won over some Trump supporters, his class-based appeal fell short. In a state Trump carried by more than 20 points, Osborn lost by a little under seven.
>There are some reasons for optimism that he could do better next year, when he’ll be running against Pete Ricketts, Nebraska’s other Republican senator. Trump won’t be on the ballot, and in the past, some Trump voters have failed to turn out in midterms. According to an April poll by Osborn’s team, while Trump’s approval rating in Nebraska is 55 percent, Ricketts’s is only 38 percent. Osborn plans to draw a contrast between Ricketts’s silver-spoon background — he’s the son of the billionaire Joe Ricketts, founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade — and his own working-class credentials. “It’s going to be the C.E.O. versus the guy from the shop floor,” he said.
GUlysses on
Last election this guy outperformed Trump by +13. So he’s got a shot in a good year for Democrats by trying the McMullin strategy. Nate Cohn even said that if 2022 had been a 2018 level blue wave, McMullin could have beat Mike Lee.
dkirk526 on
He outperformed Trump by 14 points and will be going into a midterm where far fewer MAGA type voters are showing up. He also beat Fischer in two of Nebraka’s three congressional districts.
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He’s got a good chance of contesting here. A NYT article touched on his candidacy yesterday:
[How to Make Senate Republicans Pay for Their Awful Bill](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/opinion/dan-osborn-tax-bill.html)
> While campaigning last year against Deb Fischer, a Republican who has represented Nebraska in the Senate since 2013, Osborn often spoke about his history as a union leader who led a successful strike against the Kellogg plant in Omaha. (It ended after 77 days with the company agreeing to meet most of the union’s demands.) In a state where many voters consider the Democratic Party culturally alien, he tried to neutralize the power of partisanship by running as an independent. But in the end, while Osborn won over some Trump supporters, his class-based appeal fell short. In a state Trump carried by more than 20 points, Osborn lost by a little under seven.
>There are some reasons for optimism that he could do better next year, when he’ll be running against Pete Ricketts, Nebraska’s other Republican senator. Trump won’t be on the ballot, and in the past, some Trump voters have failed to turn out in midterms. According to an April poll by Osborn’s team, while Trump’s approval rating in Nebraska is 55 percent, Ricketts’s is only 38 percent. Osborn plans to draw a contrast between Ricketts’s silver-spoon background — he’s the son of the billionaire Joe Ricketts, founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade — and his own working-class credentials. “It’s going to be the C.E.O. versus the guy from the shop floor,” he said.
Last election this guy outperformed Trump by +13. So he’s got a shot in a good year for Democrats by trying the McMullin strategy. Nate Cohn even said that if 2022 had been a 2018 level blue wave, McMullin could have beat Mike Lee.
He outperformed Trump by 14 points and will be going into a midterm where far fewer MAGA type voters are showing up. He also beat Fischer in two of Nebraka’s three congressional districts.