Dan Osborn’s unorthodox campaign challenges GOP stronghold in Nebraska’s US Senate race

In Nebraska, a wild card candidate is shaking up the US Senate map for Republicans, who never expected to be defending a seat in a reliably red state.

Independent Dan Osborn, a former union president who led his colleagues in the Kellogg’s strike in 2021, is proving to be a stronger-than-expected challenger in the state and is getting a bit too close for comfort for GOP incumbent Sen. Deb Fischer, prompting the Senate Republican campaign arm to get involved at a time when the party had been looking to invest in other, closer races across the country.

It’s a testament to how a little known independent with a populist message is resonating despite his sometimes unpolished delivery and unorthodox approach to the campaign. Osborn isn’t saying whom he’d caucus with if he were elected to the Senate and his views on policy don’t neatly fit into a Republican or Democratic box. But, political watchers in the state argue that Osborn has benefited from a dynamic where Fischer, a two-term senator, has focused a lot of time in Washington handling committee work and being in GOP leadership without building the kind of national or state profile that gives her notoriety back home.