GRAND ISLAND — It only took about a minute into the Nebraska State Fair Senate debate for the name-calling to start.
Incumbent Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts called nonpartisan candidate Dan Osborn “Democrat Dan” 40 times throughout the hourlong event, leading Osborn to joke that there should be a “third podium” for him as he tried to pitch himself as being a working-class populist above party lines.
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Osborn didn’t attack Ricketts as much, but he accused Ricketts of being part of the “rigged game” in Washington, D.C., and assisting the “biggest transition of wealth in human history,” referring to Trump’s tax and spending bill. After the debate, Osborn’s campaign made fun of how many times Ricketts said “Democrat Dan” with a drinking game.
News coverage of the debate noted how fiery it was. Debate watchers saw a microcosm of the yearlong campaign.
Ricketts’ strategy has been maintaining a consistent drumbeat painting Osborn as a “secret” Democrat, vowing not to make the “same mistake” as U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024 by ignoring him.
Ricketts touted Congress’ passing President Trump’s tax and spending bill, securing the southern border, and investing in defense against foreign adversaries as examples of him fighting for Nebraska. He also repeatedly pointed to his accomplishments as governor.
Ricketts is seeking his first full six-year term in the Senate. The former two-time governor easily beat Omaha Democrat Preston Love Jr. in a 2024 special election to finish the final two years of former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who resigned to lead the University of Florida.
He has Nebraska’s dominant political operation behind him, known for its no-holds-barred approach to campaigning.
Meanwhile, Osborn — whom some national media outlets describe as the independent candidate who refused to go away — has tried to win over enough voters statewide without alienating Democrats or Republicans, seeking a better finish than his 2024 7-percentage-point loss to Fischer.
Osborn’s strategy has come with its own problems.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor Kevin Smith said Osborn’s biggest challenge was always going to be getting enough Republicans to vote for him in a ruby-red state where Republicans outnumber Democrats 2-to-1, with a growing number of nonpartisans.
“Based on his race against Fischer, he did persuade some Republicans. I don’t see how he got as close as he did without some Republicans crossing over,” Smith said. “That’s just the way the math works out in the race.”
The Senate race has drawn national attention for its nontraditional political dynamics, serving as a trendsetter as other red states, like South Dakota and Idaho, saw Democrats step aside for independent candidates. In Nebraska, former Democratic Senate nominee Cindy Burbank dropped out to clear the field for Osborn. Ricketts and national Republicans have tried to use the Democratic strategy as proof that Osborn will side with Democrats in Congress and said he is being dishonest with voters.
This election season has also seen twists and turns in lawsuits related to the Democratic primary, new political parties that have faced allegations of being spoilers in the race, and candidates suspending their campaigns to support Osborn.
With November approaching, the national political environment has continued to trend more favorably for the party out of the White House. The Senate, once a pipe dream for Democrats, appears within reach, with races in Iowa and Texas seen as toss-ups by election analysts.
The Nebraska Senate race is still viewed as favorable to Ricketts. There has been a noticeable public shift in how Ricketts has talked about the race compared with earlier in the cycle, when he said Nebraska could determine which party controls the Senate. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told a crowd of Republicans in Lincoln earlier this year that this race is a “real” one.
There have been no polls other than internal polling from the Osborn campaign showing a close race. Smith said it’s hard to tell how the race is going without any high-quality polling.
At a Lincoln campaign event last month at the Rosie’s South Harvester Room, Ricketts told supporters that the election is a contrast between “a man who wants to complain about everything but offers no solutions” and himself as someone who has “been delivering for Nebraskans for over a dozen years.”
Ricketts told the Examiner after the event that he doesn’t view his campaign as negative, saying that “pointing out the contrast with (Osborn) is not being negative.”
“We’re just pointing out that he says one thing and does another,” Ricketts said.
Throughout the campaign, Osborn has had to play defense against controversies amplified by Ricketts and Republicans, such as explaining why he paid himself and his extended family for campaign work — which is legal but often comes at a political price. Osborn called a Federal Election Commission complaint from a conservative watchdog group “baseless.”
The group alleged that payments from Osborn’s campaign committees to his immediate and extended family members and their businesses far exceeded fair market value. The FEC currently doesn’t have enough members for a quorum, so it can’t look into complaints or do much beyond publishing candidates’ financial disclosure reports and other basic tasks.
In the debate, Osborn acknowledged that some political advertisements funded by dark money support his campaign, but said he doesn’t stand by ads that don’t include his approval of the message. In the debate, each candidate accused the other of benefiting from “dark money,” referring to large political donations made by anonymous contributors.
Osborn’s campaign is no stranger to trying to create social media moments; It has produced skits and videos attacking Ricketts for accepting corporate donations and for his stance on marijuana. Osborn’s campaign even has music videos — and the Ricketts campaign has its own song about Osborn.
Osborn held an impromptu press conference to showcase a large fake bank check made out to “My sweet baby boy Pete Ricketts” from Ricketts’ father to “buy a Senate seat,” after fundraising reports showed the senator had donated $5.2 million to his own campaign.
Ricketts said he has contributed to his own campaign because he believes in Nebraska and that is where his roots are.
Republicans attacked Osborn because the largest share of contributions in his latest fundraising report came from donors in California and most of his money came from Democrats.
Osborn separated himself from former Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner, accused of sexual assault by a former girlfriend, after Republicans pointed out that the two had shared consultants at one point.
Reporting from the Flatwater Free Press showed that Osborn staffers from his 2024 campaign infiltrated the Legal Marijuana NOW Party and tried to dissolve it.
Leak, leak and even more leaks
The former labor union leader also had to endure, or push back against, multiple leaks of audio recordings of his campaign events and town halls by conservative and national outlets. The audio leaks were brought up during the debate. In one recording, Osborn said that he would be “f—ed” as a candidate if he said that he wanted to “abolish ICE,” and that he couldn’t win in Nebraska if he said, “Oh, I love trans people, and they should be able to play in sports.”
In another audio leak after the debate, he told Latino and Black Democrats that President Doanlnd Trump’s border wall is “a symbol of racism” that “does nothing” in a private meeting in July, according to Politico.
Osborn addressed some of the leaks during the debate, saying that Ricketts’ campaign ads using the recordings are a “joke” because they take snippets of what he says out of context. At one moment in the debate, Osborn said he didn’t know what Ricketts was referring to when he said Osborn had compared U.S. law enforcement to Nazi Germany and called officers “chicken sh–.”
Ricketts was referring to an article in the online outlet Plains Sentinel quoting Osborn criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for wearing masks. At a town hall, he said, “Take your masks off, chicken sh— … If you have to wear a mask to do your job, you’re probably doing something wrong,” according to the Plains Sentinel.
On the debate stage at the State Fair, Osborn said he tried to calm the “temperature down” with some people at his events because they were very passionate.
Smith, the UNL professor, said he was unsure how effective Ricketts’ attacks would be in the grand scheme of things, but pointed out that it might be meaningful for the outcome if it can “persuade just a small portion of wavering Republicans,” if the race is as tight as Osborn’s internal polling claims.
Osborn is currently on a statewide tour that includes rallies and town halls.
He told the Examiner last month after a campaign event at Bourbon Theatre in Lincoln that one of the reasons for his tour is to set the “record straight” with voters, as those “controversies” have often been brought up at his events.
Osborn said he wants to be asked those questions, as he can answer voters face-to-face rather than through a TV or radio ad.
“Ricketts … he wrote himself a check for five and a quarter million dollars, and now he’s up on TV, and he’s lying about me … I am not enriching myself or my family,” Osborn said.
The campaign has been marked by endless attacks from both candidates. It wasn’t used during the debate, but Osborn has called Ricketts “Pocket Pete” on social media and at rallies. He has told voters that Nebraskans have been “abandoned” by their elected officials for “corporations and special interests funding their campaigns.”
Ricketts and Osborn have attacked each other about the late Florida sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Osborn attacked Ricketts about “voting against” the release of the Epstein files — Ricketts did vote with the rest of the state’s federal delegation for the U.S. House’s Epstein Files Transparency Act.
Ricketts attacked Osborn for a canceled fundraiser with a long-time Democratic donor who was mentioned in the Jeffrey Epstein files — the donor said “nothing pertaining to me in the March 2024 email” was true.
On the trail, Osborn has lumped in the Ricketts family with Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerberg, calling them “modern-day robber barons stripping” the country bare.
“This ain’t a damn football game”
Nebraska Democrats’ support of Osborn has been a focus of multiple news cycles in the race.
Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb said during a late July press conference that having Democrats’ support doesn’t hurt his chances because some Republicans are “frustrated with Ricketts.”
“I think a lot of folks are putting their kind of partisan ideology aside this election cycle and looking to see who can deliver better on promises,” Kleeb said.
Osborn said after a campaign event last month that he wasn’t aware that state Democrats had endorsed him, adding that he wants to be endorsed by everybody.
Kleeb endorsed Osborn last year, and it was widely reported.
Osborn, in the same private meeting in July, told the group of minority Democrats there are “two separate pots in politics. Campaigning is not being a U.S. senator, so it is about trying to win votes in a Republican state.”
“This isn’t about [partisanship] anymore. …This isn’t Team Red versus Team Blue. This ain’t a damn football game,” Osborn told the Examiner in August. “This is up versus down.”
Smith, the UNL professor, said he expects the race to be competitive, but whether Osborn is in “striking distance” is a different question. He added the “wild card” in the race is that November is likely to be tough for Republicans nationwide.
“Your crystal ball is as good as mine,” Smith said.
The general election is Nov. 3.
This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.
