Dan Osborn, the "independent" candidate for Senate in Nebraska, is a darling of the Left this campaign cycle. He's everything they think a man's man should be: blue collar, veteran, wears jeans and work boots, and, by golly, he's an independent thinker.
His schtick fell short back in 2024 when he tried and failed to unseat the Republican incumbent, Deb Fischer. Osborn had gained the Left's attention after he led a 600-person strike against a Kellogg's factory back in 2021 and got the cereal company to raise wages and improve benefits. That factory has since closed and put those 600 workers out of work, so, good job, Dan Osborn?
This resume has apparently made him good Senate candidate material, at least to the far-left, so Osborn threw his baseball hat – he's a regular guy! – back into the ring to challenge Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts in the 2026 midterms.
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Osborn has been embraced by Democrat donors, who've helped to fill his campaign coffers, but has insisted all along that he's not one of them. His campaign website puts it this way: "Navy man. Mechanic. Independent."
Well, "independent" Dan Osborn let the mask slip in a recent, and quite hilarious, livestream with other low-T Democrat candidates, including radicals James Talarico and Scott Colom (Texas and Mississippi Senate candidates, respectively).
When asked by host Craig Kaplan if – wink, wink, nudge, nudge – his "substantive policies" were all that different from other Democrats running for the U.S. Senate, Osborn basically responded, "Heck, no, they're not! And what's more, I'm a raging socialist!"
Oh.
Just look at them.
Fake Independent Dan Osborn appears alongside radical Democrats James Talarico and Scott Colom.⁰
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 6, 2026
Osborn confirms that his policies would be “consistent” with socialists Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and Troy Jackson. pic.twitter.com/XE6Foow6S0
KAPLAN: Your substantive policies are not a whole lot different than ... other Senators running as Democrats. I mean, I suspect that you agree with maybe even Bernie Sanders on a lot of stuff. Or Elizabeth Warren. Or Troy Jackson, who is going to be running in Maine.
But, you're running as an independent. What does that sell? Give us some of the thinking there. And is it that they brand – the Democratic brand – is just so rotten in Nebraska that the label just makes it impossible? And, if not, why do we think you're going to be able to change that because the policies are going to be consistent?
OSBORN: Yeah, well, I mean, it's, uh, especially, you know, Nebraska – over 50 percent of Nebraska is registered Republican. And, you know, really what it boils down to is they're not ready to vote for a Democrat
And there you have it.
Dan Osborn clearly thinks Nebraska voters are too stupid to see through his act. He is so convinced that cosplaying in denim shirts and cowboy boots is going to convince working-class Trump voters that he's one of them that he's perfectly comfortable admitting that on a podcast.
If he succeeds in fooling enough of them, he will turn around and stab those voters in the back and help advance the very agenda Nebraskans have repeatedly rejected.
The work boots might be real, but the independence is not. Dan Osborn is nothing more than a radical socialist Democrat.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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