Senate candidate Dan Osborn hits campaign trail with populist, blue-collar message

The 2026 general election may be more than a year away, but the U.S. Senate race in Nebraska is already heating up.

Dan Osborn, the industrial mechanic and independent candidate who made national waves for his closer-than-expected race with Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024, is back on the campaign trail – this time against another Republican incumbent, Sen. Pete Ricketts.

Osborn may have lost to Fischer by more than 6 percentage points, but in a state that hasn’t elected a non-Republican to the Senate since 2006, the close margin elevated his profile and motivated supporters heading into the next election cycle.

“It just started with an idea, and we turned it into getting 47% of the vote in Nebraska,” he said Monday of his 2024 campaign, interrupted by cheering and applause from the crowd.

Osborn wasted no time during the kickoff event in Lincoln to draw a contrast between him and his new opponent.

“Pete Ricketts is for big Pharma, big insurance, big railroads, big everything,” he said. “And I come, again, from the shop floor. I want to represent the everyday person.”

While Ricketts has praised the so-called "Big, Beautiful Bill" as a generational opportunity for Nebraska, Osborn told the audience things would have looked different if he were in Washington.

“Interestingly enough, if I would have been elected in 2024 the bill wouldn't have passed because it was a tie breaker,” he said.

Osborn said millionaires and corporations ought to pay their fair share of taxes and criticized Ricketts for using his wealth to "buy elections."

The latest numbers from the Federal Election Commission Cycle show Ricketts has outraised Osborn in the 2026 election cycle, but that only represents receipts through June, before either candidate officially began their campaigns.

Osborn said he expects Ricketts to spend big on the election, up to $50 million if he has to. In 2024, Osborn raised $15 million, while Fischer raised just shy of $9 million.

“He's going to buy the ads. He's going to be on the TV, he's going to be on the radio,” Osborn said of Ricketts. “I'm going to be in your living room, I'm going to be in your hometown, and I'm going to be talking to people.”

Osborn indicated he isn’t afraid of the race turning negative.

“Politics are hard to watch these days, the mudslinging, the name-calling, but I'm not going to let them get away with that, okay?” he said. “I am going to sling mud right on back, because I come from the shop floor.”

An internal poll from the Osborn exploratory committee in April indicates a close race between the candidates. The Change Research poll of more than 500 likely voters showed Ricketts ahead of Osborn 46% to 45%, within the 4.6% margin of error. Last week, Osborn posted on Facebook that a new poll shows him ahead of Ricketts by 1%.

However, the Cook Political Report lists the 2026 Nebraska Senate race as solid Republican, meaning the nonpartisan election handicapper believes the race isn’t considered competitive and is unlikely to become closely contested.

No Democrat has filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska as of Monday.

Nebraska Public Media News will provide coverage of Ricketts’ campaign event in Beatrice later this week.