Nebraska
Opinion | How an independent candidate put Nebraska Republicans on the ropes
As voters in Nebraska head to the polls, Dan Osborn, an upstart independent challenger to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer, has a chance to pull off the most shocking upset of the 2024 campaign. According to a recent New York Times poll, he is a mere 2 points behind Fischer, and other surveys show him within striking distance.
If he wins, he could help keep the Senate out of Republican control. Yet national Democrats want nothing to do with Osborn — and that’s just fine with him. In what might be the most fascinating race this year, Osborn has run a truly independent campaign against a Republican incumbent — and steadfastly distanced himself from the Democratic Party.
The reason isn’t hard to figure out. As Ari Kohen, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska, told me, “If Dan were a Democrat, he’d be losing by 20 points.”
Barry Rubin, president of Heartland Strategy Group and former executive director of the Nebraska Democratic Party, shares Kohen’s view. A “D” next to the candidate’s name is a “Scarlet Letter in the western part of the state,” where Republicans traditionally dominate, says Rubin.
Osborn’s remarkable campaign in a consistently Republican state offers a tantalizing possibility for Democrats.
Osborn has steadfastly refused to say which party he would caucus with if elected. But if the Senate is 50 Republicans to 49 Democrats after Election Day (and Democrats win the White House), Osborn could be the deciding vote on Senate control — and, in short measure, the most powerful politician in Washington.
Due to the state’s GOP lean and the presence of former President Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, the smart money is on Fischer to pull out a win. But Osborn’s remarkable campaign in a consistently Republican state offers a tantalizing possibility for Democrats: Has he cracked the code for how a progressive candidate can run a competitive race in red-state America?
Because while Osborn has eschewed Democratic support, he is running on a progressive policy platform heavy on economic populism. In September, Trump endorsed Fischer and called Osborn “a Bernie Sanders Democrat” — a claim that, in many respects, isn’t far off.
On his campaign website, Osborn attacks “private equity companies,” calls for ending “subsidies to super-profitable pharmaceutical companies” and vows to protect Social Security. He rails against the “millionaire and billionaire class that are inoculated from the very laws that they make” and recently told The New York Times, “We’re at the apex of a corporate-run government.’’
He also supports raising the minimum wage and corporate taxes and has made passing the PRO Act, a top priority of labor unions, a centerpiece of his policy agenda.
The latter priority is no surprise given Osborn’s biography. Before entering politics, he was an industrial mechanic at Kellogg’s cereal company, where he led a 2021 strike against the corporate conglomerate (he was fired in 2023 in a move that he has called retaliation).
Osborn regularly portrays Fischer as a tool of her corporate donors, calling her a “creature of the D.C. swamp.” The incumbent “has taken so much corporate cash,” says one Osborn ad, that “she should wear patches, like NASCAR.”
But looking under the hood of his campaign, it’s hard to find a single issue on which Osborn openly sides with Republicans.
Since he’s running in a state that Trump won by 19 points in 2020, Osborn isn’t shy about appealing to the former president’s voters. He’s run an ad in which ordinary Nebraskans say they are voting for Donald Trump “with one finger” and Dan Osborn with the other. In the same ad, he says Fischer has more in common with Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump. He even accuses Fischer of “stabbing Trump in the back” after she called for him to exit the 2016 race after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape.
But looking under the hood of his campaign, it’s hard to find a single issue on which Osborn openly sides with Republicans. For example, he’s called for strengthening border security and is even running an ad that says his background as an industrial welder could come in handy in building Trump’s border wall. However, like Vice President Kamala Harris, he has criticized his Republican rival for failing to support the immigration deal negotiated by Republican Sen. James Lankford.
On abortion, he says he opposes the procedure but believes it should be legal and has called for codifying Roe v. Wade in federal law.
In a statement that would warm the heart of a social libertarian, Osborn recently said at a campaign event, “I don’t believe it’s my place or the government’s place to tell people when they should or shouldn’t start families, and that includes I.V.F. and contraceptives.” Even on the issue of guns, which usually trips up Democrats in red states like Nebraska, Osborn has said he supports the Second Amendment but also backs “reasonable gun safety measures.”
While Osborn’s unique style of politics has paid dividends, he has also benefited from Fischer’s missteps. Even after two terms in the Senate, she isn’t particularly well-known in the state and is one of the most unpopular senators in the country. For most of the campaign, Fischer ignored Osborn, a decision that backfired badly. “The Osborn campaign has basically been campaigning for a year unchecked by Fischer,” says Rubin. “He’s held hundreds of public events, and he was able to define himself before Fischer could.” When she finally started running ads against him, it had the perverse effect of raising Osborn’s profile further.
While her fellow Republican Pete Ricketts (running to complete former Sen. Ben Sasse’s term) is nearly 20 points ahead of his Democratic rival, national Republicans have been forced to plunge money into the state to rescue Fischer.
Osborn’s success is a direct result of his running as a true independent.
Osborn has also benefited from the quirkiness of Nebraska’s politics. Though the state is currently considered solidly Republican, Nebraska has a long tradition of nonpartisanship. Its unicameral state Legislature (the only one in the country) is nonpartisan, as candidates don’t run for office under party monikers. And it wasn’t long ago that Democrats were competitive in the Cornhusker State. As recently as 2012 the state was represented in the Senate by Democrat Ben Nelson — and he succeeded Democrat Bob Kerrey, who served two terms as senator.
But like much of red-state America, the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and the GOP’s takeover by more extreme voices (first the tea party and then Trump’s MAGA), Democrats were simply unable to compete in states dominated by Republicans.
Osborn’s success is a direct result of his running as a true independent — and separating himself from the cultural and social baggage of being a Democrat in a red state like Nebraska. Not surprisingly, Fischer has tried to paint him as a secret Democrat, but it’s a hard sell when Osborn has never been a member of the Democratic Party. “He’s an honest to God non-partisan,” says Kohen. “You can’t pin him down on being a party person. That makes him very unique.”
Democrats have done their part to respect Osborn’s independence. Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, the head of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, recently said Democrats aren’t engaging in Nebraska “in any shape or form,” and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., hasn’t spoken to the upstart candidate. The state’s Democratic Party chairwoman even criticized Osborn as “inauthentic” and compared him to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz.
Nonetheless, Osborn’s potential path to victory can give Democrats hope. “The message of this race is that their policy agenda can have resonance in red-state America,” says Kohen. “If you disconnect issues from party, this is what you end up getting.”
Rubin agrees that while Osborn’s success is a bit of a “perfect storm,” his success in making this race competitive “can be a model for other states.”
“There are a lot of people in the middle” who aren’t represented by either party,” says Rubin. “For any non-MAGA Republican, Osborn is a good fit.” We’ll have to see whether it’s enough to prevail on Tuesday night, but if Osborn somehow wins, the political earthquake could reshape American politics.
Nebraska
Walt Radcliffe's friends say lobbyist was part of State Capitol’s ‘fabric' • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — It was 1979, and a college freshman was searching the State Capitol for lobbyist Walt Radcliffe, who was scheduled to speak to young leaders from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Eventually, the freshman, Scott Moore, caught up with Radcliffe, who posed a profane question to the student that was something like, “What the heck am I supposed to say to these kids?”
“I knew right then that this was someone I was going to like,” said Moore, who went on to become a state senator, Nebraska Secretary of State and later, a top executive at Union Pacific.
Stories like that, and many more, circulated across the state as word spread about the death of Radcliffe, 77, on Thursday afternoon.
Work spanned 10 governors
A Lincoln native whose work spanned 10 governors, Radcliffe was the undisputed dean of the statehouse lobbying corps. He had his own padded bench in the Capitol Rotunda.
His firm, Radcliffe Gilbertson & Brady, annually ranked among the state’s top in annual revenue.
He also served as a valuable — and engaging — font of institutional knowledge about the Legislature for lawmakers and governors as such knowledge was disappearing due to term limits.
His storytelling was legendary, as were his counsel and history lessons for lawmakers and others.
“He really cared about the institution,” said Patrick O’Donnell, the former clerk of the Legislature and a long-time friend who met Radcliffe in a UNL fraternity. “The Legislature had a big loss today.”
“Nobody knew the legislative process better than him,” said Lynn Rex, executive director League of Nebraska Municipalities. She said Radcliffe was a mentor to her and many other lobbyists.
Former State Sen. John Stinner, who chaired the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, said Radcliffe once gave him valuable advice on how to tap into a state health care fund to help close a monumental $1 billion shortfall in the budget.
“He was extremely helpful in many instances,” Stinner said. “I’m going to miss him.”
Part of the place
U.S. Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., a former speaker of the Legislature, said “people probably think we were too close to Walt as a lobbyist.”
“But he was bigger than a lobbyist,” Flood said. “He was just part of the fabric of the Legislature.”
A graduate of UNL and the NU College of Law, Radcliffe liked to point out that he worked only a couple of miles from where he grew up.
His first jobs at the Capitol were as a legislative page and a proofreader. He later served as an assistant clerk of the Legislature and as legal counsel to the Judiciary and Banking Committees, and as chief legal counsel in the clerk’s office.
Radcliffe’s lobbying career began in 1977 as a partner with former State Sen. David Tews. He purchased the firm a couple of years later, which became Radcliffe and Associates before the latest name change.
He continued to lobby this spring, though his trips to his bench — which for a time had its own Twitter account — became less frequent.
“He was a people person. That job was his lifeblood,” said Korby Gilbertson, a long-time associate at the firm. “We always knew he’d work until he couldn’t, because that’s what he did.”
Known for NU advocacy
His firm long represented the University of Nebraska, fighting for its programs and funding. But Radcliffe also represented liquor, tobacco and gambling clients because, Gilbertson said, he “wasn’t afraid of a good battle.”
In addition, Radcliffe also lobbied free-of-charge for entities opposed to the death penalty, and, his friends said, was genuinely interested in helping the state, and its institutions, do well.
Moore said that Radcliffe’s greatest skill as a lobbyist was his ability to boil down complicated subjects into simple terms. He worked long hours and was a good listener and storyteller, he said, who didn’t seek to “poach” clients from other lobbyists and was very clear where his clients stood.
”He was a man of integrity,” Moore said. “That’s why people respected him, and why he got so many things passed.”
Former Gov. Dave Heineman described Radcliffe as “very professional, very knowledgeable and a very straightforward lobbyist.”
“I enjoyed working with him,” Heineman said.
Petition work got him in trouble
Radcliffe briefly got in trouble in 1986, when he was indicted for hiring and paying petition circulators seeking to get an issue on the statewide ballot to allow a state lottery. But the charge was dismissed on appeal. Paying petition circulators is now legal and commonplace in the state.
Radcliffe received a liver transplant in 1999, but in recent years battled other health issues. Gilbertson said he entered hospice care on Thursday morning after battling an infection for several days. He died hours later from kidney failure and other health issues.
Flood said he spent many hours in Radcliffe’s office across the street from the Capitol as a young state senator and later as speaker, listening and learning about past lawmakers and speakers.
“It wasn’t like he was telling me what to do in a certain situation, but he’d say, ‘We had this same problem, and this is what a past speaker did,’ and how it worked or didn’t work,” Flood said.
“While he was an advocate, he wanted the Legislature to look good, too.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
At first, Nebraska playing in a bowl in late December in New York City sounded like a form of punishment rather than a reward for a successful season.
It’s true, playing in a balmy Florida, Arizona or California might be more appealing. But consider this: NU is playing at noon this Saturday. That’s great day and time for a college football game.
As a result, I believe a lot of people are going to be able to watch the game. TV viewers aren’t going to care a rip about the cold. Most football fans think forty degrees is ideal football weather.
Playing in Florida does have some advantages, but three early bowl games that were played in Florida weren’t seen by many people. Why?
Bad dates and times.
Boca Raton Bowl (Boca Raton, FL)
Wednesday, December 18th 5:30pm (EST)
Western Kentucky vs James Madison
Staffdna Cure Bowl (Orlando, FL)
Friday, December 20th 12:00pm (EST)
Ohio vs Jackson State
Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl (Tampa, FL)
Friday December 20th 3:30 pm (EST)
Tulane vs Florida
Raise your hands if you watched any of those games.
I didn’t think so.
My point is, playing in a cold clime in late December is not necessarily a bad thing. The Pinstripe Bowl matchup between Nebraska and Boston College should be a TV ratings success.
The Pinstripe Bowl Matchup
To win the game, NU is going to have to:
1.) Stop the Eagles’ running game and make them one dimensional,
2.) Move the chains consistently on offense.
3.) Be able to pass on BC’s defense (BC is 111th pass defense)
4.) Win the turnover battle (NU ranks 66th while BC is 21st)
If the Huskers are able to do those things, they will come back to Lincoln with another bowl trophy to add to its collection.
What’s a stake: Win the game and NU ends the season with a winning record-its first since 2016. Lose the game and NU limps into ’25 with a 6-7 record.
You may contact me at: HuskerDan@cox.net
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Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.
Gov. Jim Pillen (R-NE) will undergo a rib fixation procedure on Thursday after a horse bucked him off on Sunday.
Pillen, 68, will need to be under anesthesia while doctors install metal plates to stabilize his seven broken ribs. Lt. Gov. Joe Kelly will take on the role of acting governor during the surgery.
“Based on the Governor’s health profile and active lifestyle, his doctors consider him an ideal candidate for this procedure. Nebraska Medicine has emerged as a national leader in rib fixation operations,” the governor’s office wrote in a statement.
The governor was riding a new horse with his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter when he fell. In addition to his rib fractures, he suffered a partially collapsed lung, lacerations on his spleen and kidney, and a minor vertebrae fracture.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Gov. Pillen remains grateful for the exceptional care he is receiving by the team at Nebraska Medicine and thanks Nebraskans for their outpouring of support to him and his family during this time,” Pillen’s office wrote.
This surgery will result in Pillen remaining in the hospital for a few days following his surgery. He is prepared to continue to work from his hospital bed.
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