U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn faces another election spending complaint

The chair of the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission (NADC), Jeffrey Davis, announced Tuesday that he's filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission against independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn. The complaint alleges that Osborn illegally used dark money to finance his campaign.

Davis alleges that a hybrid political action committee, or PAC, founded by Osborn called the Working Class Heroes Fund has two accounts: one, known as a hard money account, has federal limits on any donations. The other, called a “soft money” account, can take any amount of donations from private individuals and corporations. But this soft money fund cannot be used for a federal campaign. Davis said that Osborn used it to pay his campaign staff, including his wife, who manages the PAC, and his sister-in-law, who is the treasurer.

“If you’re trying to get around the contribution limits around the hard dollar account, this is how you would do it,” Davis said.

Davis was appointed to the NADC by Osborn’s opponent in the senate race, U.S. Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts. Davis stressed that he is acting in his private capacity and said neither the Ricketts campaign nor the NADC has anything to do with his complaint against Osborn.

According to Davis’ complaint, 23 of Osborn’s campaign staff were paid by both the campaign itself and the PAC between June and December of 2025. While the payments to each individual varied, the amounts given were very similar: the campaign paid just over $101,000 and the PAC paid the same people over $103,000 from the soft money account.

“The moment outside money starts paying a campaign’s bills, the system breaks down,” Davis said. “Mr. Osborn has made campaign finance reform the centerpiece of his campaign. He has stood before Nebraska voters and said he doesn’t take corporate money, that he’s trying to end Citizens United. But his own filings tell a different story.”

Osborn’s campaign called the complaint a nuisance specifically intended for political purposes.

“This bogus complaint from Ricketts’ cronies is only further proof that the billionaire class is desperate to keep working people out of D.C.,” Osborn’s campaign wrote in an email. “Baseless distractions like this aren’t going to slow Dan’s momentum.”

The FEC will determine if it will investigate the complaint.

This is the second complaint against Osborn in less than a month. On March 23, conservative watchdog group Americans for Public Trust sent a similar complaint to the FEC alleging that Osborn used his campaign committees to pay his immediate and extended family members, and their businesses, for campaign work that far exceeds fair market value.