A new Republican-aligned super PAC is spending heavily to stop an independent Senate candidate in Nebraska in a glaring sign the GOP is nervous about a seat it would normally hold without a fight.
The group began running attack ads against Democratic-endorsed candidate Dan Osborn last week, and according to ad-tracking firm AdImpact, it has reserved more airtime than any other advertiser in the race, reported the Wall Street Journal, and Republicans are also sending in reinforcements.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) campaigned in Nebraska on Sunday with Osborn's opponent, Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and the Journal reported that Kennedy said he didn't expect to have to campaign in such a red state this year.
Osborn, an industrial mechanic, nearly pulled off an upset in 2024, running as an independent with no Democrat in the race and finishing within 7 points of the winner. In the state's previous Senate race, Democrats had lost by nearly 40 points, and Democrats again stepped aside for him this year, and the state Democratic Party has endorsed him.
The Journal reported that voter unease with President Donald Trump and the GOP has made the political climate more favorable for Osborn this time.
The spending comes as Republicans try to capitalize on leaked recordings of Osborn's private remarks. In audio from this summer, first published by the Omaha World-Herald, Osborn said Trump supporters in a small Nebraska town backed the president because they wanted to feel like winners, "because their lives probably suck."
Other audio, reported by Politico and Fox News, captured him calling the border wall "a symbol of racism" and saying he needs 10 percent to 15 percent of Republican voters to win.
Jim Kessler, an executive vice president at the centrist Democratic group Third Way, told the Journal that the tapes give Republicans ammunition for their claim that Osborn is a Democrat in disguise.
"It's a proof point on the Republican side," Kessler said.
Osborn hasn't disputed the recordings. He told CNN that he "would apologize to those people that might be offended" and said he was trying to explain why voters are drawn to outsider candidates.
His campaign is leaning into his working-class profile against Ricketts, a former governor whose family made its fortune with the brokerage TD Ameritrade and controls the Chicago Cubs.
"Dan isn't a lifelong politician who's spent his whole life planning to run for office. That's what people like about him," a campaign spokesman said.
