Dan Osborn, Independent Senate Candidate, Launches PAC

Dan Osborn, an independent, blue-collar populist who ran an unusually competitive campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska, launched a new political action committee, the Working Class Heroes Fund, on Tuesday.

In keeping with Osborn’s unique profile, the Working Class Heroes Fund, which debuts the same day Osborn returns to his union steamfitter job, would not function like just any other PAC.

A hybrid PAC capable of both coordinating with candidates and spending unlimited sums independently, Osborn’s group is dedicated not only to supporting working-class candidates and organizing working-class voters, but also to advancing what he sees as working-class issues and contributing to union strike funds.

“I got it started for the exact same reasons that I decided to run for U.S. Senate: Working-class people don’t have a seat at the table,” Osborn told HuffPost on Monday. “We certainly have enough lawyers and business execs at the table. That’s what I want to change.”

To that end, the PAC would help, he said, “working-class people that want to run for office, that maybe don’t think it’s possible, or they don’t have the funding, or just get nurses and teachers and bus drivers involved in our politics.”

Candidates from all political parties would be eligible for an endorsement from the Working Class Heroes Fund. Osborn’s one nonnegotiable condition for an endorsement from the Working Class Heroes Fund is that candidates swear off donations from corporate PACs.

Endorsees must “be a part of wanting to change campaign finance reform and ending Citizens United, those kinds of things,” said Osborn, referring to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision legalizing unlimited corporate and union donations in federal elections. “Until we do those things, we’re just going to keep getting more of the same, which is the corruption that we see.”

Osborn, a former union industrial mechanic who began a steamfitter’s apprenticeship after getting fired from a Kellogg’s plant where he had led a strike in 2021, mounted one of the most novel congressional campaigns in recent memory. A registered independent, Osborn declined to say how he planned to vote in the presidential election, rejected the endorsement of the state Democratic Party and promised not to caucus with either party.

While Osborn, a U.S. Navy veteran, fell short of ousting Fischer, he forced national Republican groups to spend millions in a solid red state. He ultimately lost by less than 7 percentage points but outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris in Nebraska by nearly 14 points.

That has made Osborn a potential case study for Democrats and liberal groups who might consider recruiting political independents to challenge other Republican incumbents in deep red states. His candidacy has been a source of particular excitement among labor activists and class-oriented leftists who have long insisted that economic populism can help win elections in unlikely places.

But Osborn’s success may be difficult to replicate. He ran in a state just red enough that it was initially off of the two parties’ radars, managed to take a complacent incumbent by surprise and came by his nonpartisan populism honestly.

“What makes the whole thing work is Dan Osborn — it’s fucking real. It’s authentic,” said Morris Katz, the consultant who oversaw Osborn’s television advertising program after several years working mostly for Democratic candidates. “It’s credible because of who he is, because of his family, because of his career.”

Osborn’s advertising campaign played a critical role in introducing him to the public as a pro-union, anti-corruption warrior who disdains both parties.

Inside the campaign, Osborn had spoken often about how Fischer should wear the names of her corporate backers on her clothing, like a race car driver, according to Katz. One of Osborn’s first campaign ads featured fictional Fischer doing just that, hammering the theme that Fischer was a creature of Washington, while Osborn would prioritize Nebraskans. “If you want someone who works for them, vote for Deb. If you want someone who works for you, consider me,” he said before turning around to reveal the state of Nebraska emblazoned on his jacket.

Fischer and her allies hurt Osborn by highlighting Osborn’s past positive comments about Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Republican Donald Trump’s endorsement of Fischer in a state where the once and future president remains very popular. They also claimed that “Democrat Dan” Osborn wanted to provide undocumented immigrants Social Security benefits.

In response, Osborn proved willing to do what many Democrats would not, not only rebutting the Republican charges against him, but in the final week, also depicting himself as a truer ally to Trump than Fischer. “I’m where President Trump is on corruption, China, the border. If Trump needs help building the wall — well, I’m pretty handy,” he says in an ad while wearing a welder’s mask.

Another spot featured several Nebraskans explaining why they were planning to vote for Trump and Osborn, as well as quotes from Fischer in 2016 calling on Trump to withdraw from the race. “Deb Fischer has more in common with Hillary Clinton than with Donald Trump,” a woman said in the ad.

A national Republican strategist critiqued the Osborn campaign for failing to get that message out sooner. “He clearly figured out he has to be the Trump candidate,” said the strategist, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “These are Republican states, so you’re going to have to be a Republican to some extent.”

Osborn has not morphed into an anti-Trump Democrat in the two weeks since he lost his race.

In fact, for a first-time candidate, he has learned a thing or two about remaining on message. He declined to comment on Trump’s election one way or another when asked about it Monday.

“I’m still digesting my loss,” Osborn said.

“The people of Nebraska would have been so much better having somebody like me that could approach issues objectively based off of my life experience … versus somebody like Fischer, who approaches issues based off of who’s given her money and who she owes,” he added. “So as far as top of the ticket goes, I don’t know.”

Asked whether he is considering challenging Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican reelected in an Omaha-area seat Harris carried, Osborn declined to rule it out while also noting that there are gubernatorial and Senate races in two years time as well, and a mayoral contest in Omaha this coming year.

“The first thing I’ve got to do is go back to work tomorrow and start paying my bills, but I’m leaving everything on the table as an option,” he said Monday.

In the meantime, Osborn sees the lengths to which Fischer and the groups supporting her went to attack him as evidence that his mission is more essential than ever.

“The establishment does not like to be challenged — and that goes for both sides,” he said. “They want the status quo to remain the same, because the same people are going to the bank and cashing their checks and laughing as the rest of us are struggling to survive.”