Nebraska
This independent candidate is worrying Republicans in deep-red Nebraska's Senate race
BEATRICE, Neb. — In the back room of a brewery in southeastern Nebraska, more than three dozen people crowded together this summer to hear from Dan Osborn, a former cereal plant worker and independent running for U.S. Senate.
The standing-room-only crowd in the small town of Beatrice was larger than Osborn expected, but it stood out for more than its size. Those attending ranged from supporters of former President Donald Trump wearing “Make America Great Again” hats to voters firmly backing Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
Osborn’s message to all of them was that America’s two-party system has let them down.
“There’s nobody like me in the United States Senate,” he told the crowd. “Right now, the Senate is a country club of millionaires that work for billionaires.”
Osborn has cobbled together a campaign in deeply conservative Nebraska that rejects both major political parties as part of a broken system. For a guy who held his first campaign news conferences out of the garage of his suburban Omaha home, he has surprised pundits by emerging as a serious challenger to two-term Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in what had been considered a safe Republican seat only months ago.
The contest has attracted $21 million in spending from outside groups, favoring Osborn, and even Fischer’s campaign acknowledges that the race is closer than expected. There is no Democratic candidate running, but a win for Osborn could disrupt Republican plans to reclaim a majority in the Senate. Osborn has said he won’t caucus with either party.
That hasn’t stopped Democrats from openly supporting him. During the first 16 days of October, after the national spotlight on him had intensified, Osborn raised more than $3 million, almost all of it from individuals and the bulk of it through Democrats’ Act Blue fundraising site, Federal Election Commission reports show. That was almost six times the $530,000 that Fischer raised.
Osborn has raised nearly $8 million total to Fischer’s $6.5 million, and with a little less than three weeks before the election, he had $1.1 million cash, twice what Fischer had.
Osborn has succeeded not only by rejecting political parties but through boots-on-the-ground campaigning across the state, backed by clever ads — in one he notes “I don’t even own a suit” — that contrast his working-class roots with a system where he says politicians “are bought and sold.”
Osborn is a U.S. Navy and Nebraska Army National Guard veteran and industrial mechanic who gained national recognition three years ago when he successfully led a labor strike at Kellogg’s cereal plants, winning higher wages and other benefits. That background shapes his view that working families are being steamrolled by a growing wealth gap, he says.
A win by Osborn would be a giant upset in a state where Republicans hold all statewide offices and all congressional districts.
Fischer is a rancher from Valentine, a town of 2,600 people in northern Nebraska about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northwest of Omaha. She was a little-known state legislator when she ran as an outsider in 2012, winning a competitive primary and then defeating Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic governor and U.S. senator. Her campaign ads that year showed her leaning up against fence posts and called her “sharp as barb wire, tougher than a cedar fence post.”
“Nebraskans support me because I’ve delivered results,” Fischer said this week, mentioning national defense and road projects as areas where she’s done right by her state. “I have a long, conservative record that’s helped build Nebraska and keep America strong.”
Fischer’s pollster, John Rogers of Torchlight Strategies, a longtime national Republican Party operative, argued recently that the apparent closeness of the race is a “mirage.” Her campaign expects that Osborn won’t be able to build a big enough margin in Democratic areas of Omaha, the state’s largest city, to overcome the votes Fischer will win in the vast rural areas.
The pollster also predicted that Trump’s endorsement of Fischer in September will pull Nebraska voters back into her corner in a state he is expected to win handily. “SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!” Trump posted on his Truth social media site.
Trump labeled Osborn as “Radical Left” and likened him to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who runs as an independent but caucuses with Democrats and has become a leading spokesman for liberals. Fischer and her supporters reinforce that message.
Still, Osborn has gotten national attention, complicated Republicans’ ambitions and buoyed calls to break up the nation’s two-party system. That has broad appeal in an era when disgust for politics keeps rising.
“At least as an independent, you’re an open book,” said Jim Jonas, who managed Greg Orman’s high-visibility independent U.S. Senate campaign in neighboring Kansas a decade ago. “You have the opportunity to go frame yourself, frame the race and run as a refreshing, different choice rather than the two broken parties.”
That’s exactly how Osborn is pitching himself.
“Congress is a complete misrepresentation of the demographics of our voters,” he told the crowd in Beatrice. “Less than 2% of our elected officials in both the House and Senate come from working-class people.”
Osborn has received donations from political action committees that back independents, like the Wyoming-based Way Back PAC, along with groups supporting Democratic candidates.
His independence hasn’t kept immigration from becoming a key issue, just as it has all over the country. Osborn has said the U.S. border with Mexico is too porous. But he also says he favors some form of amnesty for immigrants in the U.S. illegally for a long time if they’re working and have not committed violent crimes.
Just as Orman did in 2014, Osborn supports abortion rights. That could help him in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. Voters in seven states, including some conservative ones, have either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to restrict them in statewide votes over the past two years. Fischer has alleged that Osborn won’t support any restrictions.
But the core of Osborn’s appeal to his backers appears to be as a working-class everyman.
He is getting support from at least a dozen labor unions. Two weeks before the election, the national AFL-CIO brought in top officials to Omaha to lead a phone bank in support of Osborn. Around 30 union members and officials — including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler — worked the phones to secure support and donations for Osborn.
“His message of backing working families is really resonating with people,” Shuler said.
As she spoke, phone bank volunteers nearby shouted out donations of up to $3,000 and fresh promises of support from Nebraskans they were calling.
“People now are so cynical about politics,” Shuler said. “And he’s getting traction with those people because he’s one of them.”
Nebraska
Breaking down Initiative 434, aimed at putting Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban into constitution
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – This Election Day, Nebraskans will have the opportunity to weigh in on two historic and conflicting ballot measures regarding abortion access in the state.
VOTER’S GUIDE: 2024 Nebraska General Election
Initiative 434 aims to put the existing 12-week abortion ban into the state’s constitution, while Initiative 439 is trying expand abortion access up to the point of fetal viability. This is the first time that Nebraska is having two competing ballot measures.
“There’s nothing about these that can be reconciled. So whichever one of these gets the most votes is likely to become the initiative that gets adopted into the Nebraska constitution,” Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen said in April.
The Nebraska Legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban in 2023, and Initiative 434 would enshrine that into the state’s constitution but allow for abortion when necessitated by a medical emergency or when the pregnancy stems from sexual assault or incest.
Protect Women and Children is campaigning for Initiative 434.
“Initiative 434 protects laws that require parental consent before a girl under 18 can get an abortion, allowing parents to be their for our daughters. This is just common sense,” Rebecca Schwend, who supports 434, said.
Hannah Dumais, a field organizer campaigning for the conflicting Initiative 439, said the current ban is hurting women across the state.
“I personally was a woman who ended up miscarrying at 16.5 weeks and I started to miscarry, and I was sent home and had to wait until I was hemorrhaging and almost dead before I had to come back. And so I know the type of impact that it has on women from a personal standpoint,” Dumais said.
Advocates of 434 look to this as a moral necessity.
“Abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent child. That is not healthcare. How can it be called healthcare when the procedure ends in death,” Kate Leising who supports 434 said.
The initiatives will be the last thing you see on your ballot, and 434 is the first of six to vote on.
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Copyright 2024 KOLN. All rights reserved.
Nebraska
Dylan Raiola believes criticism of Nebraska OC Marcus Satterfield is ‘unfair’
After suffering two losses in a row, there has been mounting criticism of the Nebraska Cornhuskers offense and specifically offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield. However, freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola believes that criticism is unfair.
While being asked about the offense’s lack of explosive plays, Raiola shared that he’s confident the Cornhuskers can find more big plays. He also took the time to point out that he feels Satterfield is giving them opportunities but the issue has been execution.
“I feel confident. I think it’s just a matter of execution, now,” Dylan Raiola said. “You know, Coach Satt gives us the plays to go do it and as players we have to go out there and execute it. I know Coach Satt’s getting a lot of heat right now on his plays that he’s calling and I think that’s unfair to him.”
The numbers on offense haven’t been great for Nebraska this season. It’s been three weeks since the Cornhuskers scored more than 17 points in a game and Nebraska only scored more than 30 points twice, both of which were non-conference games.
For the season, Nebraska is 93rd in the country in total offense, averaging 358.1 yards per game. Then, the Cornhuskers are 96th in scoring offense this season, averaging 24 points per game.
“He can’t go out there and make plays and do everything that he’s coaching us to do,” Raiola said. “So, as players and as the quarterback of this offense, I take the responsibility for that and for us to go out there and execute. That’s not his fault. Yeah, I think we can push the ball down the field and I think we will.”
That relationship between Dylan Raiola and Marcus Satterfield is, of course, vital to the Cornhuskers moving forward. Still a freshman, Raiola is growing as a quarterback and that growth is largely going to be thanks to the work that Satterfield does.
For the season, Raiola has completed 66.1 percent of his passes for 1,744 yards and nine touchdowns to go with seven interceptions. That’s 218 passing yards per game. However, in Nebraska’s last three games, Raiola hasn’t thrown a touchdown and has four interceptions. Twice in those three games, he’s thrown for less than 200 yards in the game.
Nebraska is currently 5-3, looking to snap a two-game losing streak and get to bowl eligibility for the season. If they do, it would be the program’s first time getting to a bowl since 2016. Standing in Nebraska’s way is a UCLA team coming off its first Big Ten win.
Nebraska
Bold Predictions: Nebraska vs. UCLA
Matt Rhule, Dylan Raiola and Nebraska football return to the field for one of the Huskers’ most important games of the season as they seek bowl eligibility vs. UCLA on Saturday.
The Huskers (5-3 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) were reeling coming off a 56-7 loss at Indiana but rebounded in a significant way last week to nearly pull off a road upset of No. 4 Ohio State in a 21-17 loss.
Now, Nebraska returns to Lincoln for its first home game since a 14-7 win over Rutgers on Oct. 5 as it hosts the struggling Bruins (2-5, 1-4) at 2:30 p.m. CT this Saturday on Big Ten Network.
UCLA faced a daunting schedule to open the season but ended a five-game losing streak to No. 13 Indiana, No. 16 LSU (road), No. 1 Oregon, at No. 3 Penn State (road) and unranked Minnesota* with a 35-32 win at Rutgers two weeks ago before hitting a bye week.
Inside Nebraska publisher Zack Carpenter, staff writer Steve Marik and recruiting analyst Tim Verghese give their takes and projections on how they envision things playing out between the Huskers and Bruins in the latest edition of Bold Predictions.
*All rankings are current. Indiana was unranked, LSU was ranked No. 16, Oregon was ranked No. 8, and Penn State was ranked No. 7 at the time of those games.
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