Dan Osborn, a former labor leader and steamfitter from Nebraska who won an unexpectedly close independent race for a Senate seat last year, declared on Tuesday that he would seek reelection to the Senate in 2026.
In an interview, Mr. Osborn stated that he would strive to make a clear distinction between his working-class upbringing and the characteristics of the incumbent Republican senator, Pete Ricketts, who is the heir to billions of dollars his father earned in the financial services sector.
According to Mr. Osborn, the primary distinction will be between the Omaha C.E.O. and the Omaha shop floor employee.
Mr. Ricketts is a formidable opponent for Mr. Osborn, 50. Since Brad Ashford, a Democrat who had previously been a Republican, won one term in the House in 2014, Republicans have taken control of both the House and the Senate in Nebraska.
Like Senator Deb Fischer last year, when Mr. Osborn, running a populist campaign, outperformed Vice President Kamala Harris in the state by 13 percentage points, Mr. Ricketts, 60, who has spent tens of millions of dollars on campaigns for himself and other Republicans in Nebraska, is unlikely to be taken aback by Mr. Osborn. Mr. Osborn lost by 6.6 percentage points to Ms. Fisher.
In a campaign ad, Mr. Osborn labels Mr. Ricketts Wall Street Pete, accuses him of ignoring Nebraska’s working class, and denigrates him as someone who inherited billions from his father. “Goodbye, Pete,” says Mr. Osborn.
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