, Neb. —
We are entering the final stretch for this year’s midterm elections, with voting day exactly one month away on Tuesday.
One of Nebraska’s U.S. Senate Seats is open; this season’s race has incumbent Republican Pete Ricketts going head-to-head with independent veteran Dan Osborn.
“The son of a billionaire versus a shop floor mechanic. The story writes itself,” Osborn said.
Osborn’s 20 years of experience in the working class sets him apart from his opponent. He served in the Navy and the National Guard; he is also a lifelong mechanic.
Osborn has three kids and a wife, and he prides himself on being a family man.
“Most politicians, actually less than 2% in both the House and the Senate, come from blue-collar, working-class families. It’s a country club,” Osborn said.
“I want to approach politics off of uplifting families. When I wake up every day, the question is going to be, how can we uplift somebody’s life today?” Osborn said.
When we asked Osborn to give us one sentence on why Nebraskans should vote for him, he said: “Nebraska is not for sale.”
“I want to do, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, a government by and for the people. And, you know, the fact that my opponent’s already spent $30 million,” Osborn said,
Osborn is running as an independent but is currently endorsed by the democrats. Osborn said he has hopes for everyone’s support.
“I’m always going to vote my conscience, you know, and do what’s right regardless of a party. And, but that’s what’s going to give Nebraska leverage, right? They’re going to need my vote,” Osborn said.
This is Osborn’s second time running for one of Nebraska’s U.S. Senate seats; in 2024 he lost to Republican Senator Deb Fischer.
“The thing that’s changed is, I have experience. You know, we have data now from 2024 that we can go off of, as well as my opponent’s wildly different than my last one,” Osborn said.
Osborn also said his campaign style is old school: “We’re on a 93-county tour, hundreds of town halls. We’re going to do it with, with people, face-to-face interactions.”
If voters elect him, Osborn already knows the first change he wants to make.
“I’m going to put a bill in that’s going to dial back the big beautiful Bill Act, the 45-Z tax credit,” Osborn said. One of his main priorities is putting money back in local farmers’ pockets.
Osborn also wants to immediately end the war with Iran.
“I don’t know how many days we’re into this war now, but the cost is real. So, it’s going to be about ending as the cost of fuel, fertilizer. Now it’s it’s it’s bringing everything up,” Osborn said.
Osborn also intends to push for restrictions on data centers. “I would be saying in Congress right now, to get guardrails placed on data centers. We need protections: what can data centers can do for people?” Osborn said.
Another goal of his is to industrialize hemp. “The University of Nebraska has more patents around industrialized hemp than anybody in the world. If we can start industrializing and growing it, turning it into concrete additives for our roads, fire-resistant building materials, clothing. I mean, they used it in uniforms in World War II. This is billions of dollars for the state and billions of dollars for the university,” Osborn said.
Osborn also wants to explore federal options regarding property taxes: “I think there’s there’s a lot of things you could do on the federal level to bring regulation or taxes down, especially property taxes. And that’s being able to secure money from the federal government for other programs that our tax dollars go to, to give that relief there.”
Osborn also wants to repair consumer protection issues by breaking up the duopoly of credit cards that he says takes money from small businesses and people’s wallets.
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