Nebraska’s Democratic Party chairwoman backed independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn on Wednesday in the state’s 2026 Senate race, signaling the party’s candidate preference against Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE).
“We are supporting Dan Osborn,” Chairwoman Jane Fleming Kleeb said on X after being asked which Democrat was running against Osborn.
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“We believe a coalition of Dems, Indys and Republicans can beat Ricketts and break up the one-party rule,” she added. “We like the odds of a mechanic vs a billionaire.”
She also reposted an Osborn post on X saying he would support Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) bill to ban stock trading in Congress. Kleeb is a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.
Osborn is viewed as Democrats’ best shot at robbing Republicans of a Senate seat in the state. He gathered the most support for a non-Republican in a Senate race since former Sen. Ben Nelson in 2006. Osborn lost to Sen. Deb Fischer in the 2024 election, 53.19%-46.52%.
Ricketts’s campaign sought to connect Osborn with Democrats during his 2024 campaign, though Osborn has insisted that he is an independent populist with an affinity for unions but who dislikes illegal immigration. He has not said what party he would caucus with if he wins in 2026.
“Nebraska Democrats have their Senate candidate for 2026: Dan Osborn,” Ricketts campaign spokesman Will Coup told the Washington Examiner. “Fake Dan Osborn can continue pretending to be an Independent, but he is endorsed by the Nebraska Democratic Party, funded by Democrats, and backs Democrats’ most extreme policy positions.”
“Dan Osborn is a Democrat,” he added.
The Ricketts campaign has sought to take Osborn more seriously than Fischer did. Dona-Gene Barton, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said the Osborn campaign caught Fischer “a little flat-footed.”
“Fischer wasn’t really taking him seriously at the beginning of the campaign,” Barton said. Osborn “didn’t have as much name recognition, so she didn’t think that this was a serious contender.”
Ricketts told ABC affiliate KLKN that he and his campaign team “are going to continue to talk about and expose how left Dan Osborn really is.” Fischer did the same near the end of the 2024 campaign.
Osborn’s campaign is seeking to define Ricketts as a billionaire caught in the political system.
“Pete Ricketts is the living embodiment of everything we talk about. Billionaires own our political system,” Osborn campaign manager John Dolan said.
Osborn took Democratic money during the 2024 campaign cycle, though Democrats denied supporting him.
“First of all, I’ve been a registered independent from the time I could vote,” Osborn told NBC News. “But second of all, I didn’t ask for that money. This time around, I’m not going to ask for it again. The Democrats are going to do what the Democrats do, and Republicans are going to do what the Republicans are going to do. And I just want to show the people that an independent can win in a state like Nebraska or any state, for that matter.”
Osborn is currently fundraising on the Democratic platform ActBlue.
DAN OSBORN ANNOUNCES NEBRASKA SENATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST PETE RICKETTS
The Nebraska Democratic Party has not formally endorsed Osborn. The Washington Examiner reached out to ask if it would do so but did not receive a response.
The Washington Examiner also reached out to Osborn’s campaign but did not receive a response.