Nebraska's Democratic Senate candidate endorses independent in 1st Congressional District

The Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska has offered her endorsement to a candidate in the race for the 1st Congressional District, but it isn’t the Democrat.

Cindy Burbank, who won the Democratic Senate primary, announced Tuesday that she is endorsing Austin Ahlman, who announced an independent bid for the 1st District earlier this month.

Burbank, who has vowed to drop out of the Senate race and endorse independent candidate Dan Osborn against Republican Pete Ricketts, said in a statement that she supports Ahlman because he truly understands the real struggles of families in Nebraska right now, because he’s taken on banks, health insurers and government bureaucracies himself.”

Burbank noted that Osborn, during his run for Senate in 2024 against Republican Deb Fischer, actually won the vote in the 1st District.

“Austin is the only candidate worthy to hold the position, and the only challenger who can actually defeat Mike Flood in November,” Burbank said in the statement that was emailed by Ahlman’s campaign.

When he announced his bid for the office, Ahlman said his fight against "corporate monopolies and political corruption” is personal. His parents both worked on the meatpacking line at the Tyson Foods plant in Norfolk that closed in 2006. He said the same fate impacted thousands of families in Lexington, where the Tyson Foods plant there closed earlier this year. He will need to collect at least 2,000 valid signatures from voters in the 1st Congressional District to get onto the ballot.

Burbank said she is supporting Ahlman, rather than Democratic candidate Chris Backemeyer because his work in the U.S. State Department “attracted controversy.”

“Chris’ experience over two decades in the State Department, rubber-stamping disastrous policies in Gaza and Yemen, might play well with donors and consultants in DC, but voters here are sick of being sold out and failed by self-important elites on both sides of the aisle,” Burbank said in her statement.

“Nebraskans want fresh voices who are ready to shake things up. We’re sick of choosing between the lesser of two evils. It's time to put this state ahead of either political party. It’s time to take Nebraska back.”

The Nebraska Democratic Party said in a statement that it supports Backemeyer.

“Chris has deep roots and real-world experience to bring costs down for Nebraskans. Chris also has the backbone to stand up to the extreme MAGA agenda - including last week’s disgraceful move to create a legal fund for January 6th insurrectionists,” the statement said. “Nebraskans deserve a congressman who fights to lower costs, not one who rewards those who attacked our democracy. Anyone jumping into this race this late to split the vote isn’t offering an alternative - they’re handing Mike Flood a gift.”