Dan Osborn, independent candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks during a news conference announcing he will not accept any party or political endorsements, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at his Omaha, Neb. home. (Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
OSBORN TO BE WILD
Dan Osborn was talking to voters in a Nebraska bar when an ad came on the TV, accusing the Independent candidate for Senate of being a “dangerous Trojan horse” for Kamala Harris’s policies. Everyone in the bar laughed, Osborn recalled.
- Democrats are fighting tooth-and-nail to keep control of the Senate, but Nebraska isn’t one of the states they ever thought would be in play. And it’s not — for the left. Independent candidate Dan Osborn, a mechanic, Navy veteran, and labor organizer, turned down an endorsement from the state’s Democratic Party, pissing them off. But there are signs that Osborn is giving the incumbent, Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE), a closer race than anyone was expecting: A recent poll shows him barely ahead of Fischer, several internal polls from the Independent’s campaign have him within the margin of error. Republicans are beginning to panic, evidenced by a GOP super PAC devoting nearly $480,000 to running ads against Osborn. Fischer’s ads try to paint the first-time politician — who spearheaded a two-month strike against Kellogg’s in 2021 — as nothing more than a left-wing hack.
- When the “Trojan horse” ad came on, “I’m standing right there in front of them, and they can see two with their own eyes that it’s false. Especially claiming that I support abortion up to nine months. Nobody does, I’ve never met one single person that does,” Osborn told What A Day. As for why he turned down the Democratic endorsement: “I’m not going to be beholden to a party boss. I’m not going to be beholden to a corporation. I want to be beholden to the people of Nebraska the way the framers of the Constitution set this whole thing up. It’s pretty simple.”
- That is a pretty simple way of putting it, but there’s more strategy than Osborn lets on. In Nebraska, there are no elected Democrats in Congress or in statewide office, so keeping his distance from the left could be his best chance at a major upset. That, and running NASCAR-themed ads painting Fischer as a wealthy politician who doesn’t give her constituents the time of day, accompanied by twangy blues rock tunes.
Several of Osborn’s policies could be characterized as progressive, but they’re rooted in a belief that the government should play a small role in people’s everyday lives.
- On the economy, Osborn aligns with Harris’s rhetoric: “The middle-class and small businesses shoulder our tax burden. That’s not right. We can cut middle-class and small business tax rates,” his website reads. He wants to legalize weed, stop giving subsidies to pharmaceutical companies, and raise the federal minimum wage to $12 per hour to match Nebraska’s. One of his core policy proposals is imposing term limits in Congress. He’s also in favor of keeping the government out of citizens’ private lives: Osborn believes abortion should be a decision between a woman and her doctor. He’s also a gun rights advocate.
- Asked how he differs from Democrats: “We need to do something on the border. I’m all about protecting individual liberty, stopping government overreach, [I’m] for the Second Amendment,” Osborn said. “I suppose you could blame both sides for the border. This is not a new issue, but the fact still remains that a tremendous amount of drugs and undocumented workers are flowing through the ports of entry, and we’ve got to secure that.”
- Fischer, who is running for a third term, has already received a coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump. That holds tremendous weight in the state, where all but two counties voted for Trump (beating Biden by nearly 200,000 votes) in 2020. Spokespeople for Fischer didn’t respond to What A Day’s request for comment.
No matter how close some of the polls are, Osborn faces a tough fight. But his campaign — win or lose — is an example of how MAGA candidates can be challenged, even in the most conservative strongholds in America.
VANCE’S PR APOCALYPSE
Sen. JD Vance’s (R-OH) past criticism of his new boss is well-documented, but he would always defend it by saying that he was impressed by Trump’s work as president. Well… newly unearthed Twitter DMs from 2020 are making that argument void.
“Trump has just so thoroughly failed to deliver on his economic populism (excepting a disjointed China policy),” Vance wrote in February of that year, per the Washington Post. In June, he predicted that “Trump will probably lose.” Well, he was right about that! Vance’s campaign is claiming that the senator was blaming Republicans in Congress for thwarting Trump’s agenda.
It’s the latest example of the Trump campaign either failing to vet their veep candidate or not believing his comments would be detrimental to the ticket if made public.
On Thursday, independent journalist Ken Klippenstein published a Trump campaign memo, allegedly leaked by Iranian hackers, showing the campaign’s vetting of Vance. As the Bulwark points out, Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment — which enraged scores of American women including Taylor Swift — wasn’t flagged in the document. Great work, guys!
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- Donald Trump at a recent rally, after referencing Kamala Harris’s experience working at the fast food chain
NEWS NEWS NEWS
At least 40 people were killed in three states as Category 4 Hurricane Helene ripped through the southeastern United States. More than four million people were also left without power, while winds reached up to 140mph.
In a speech to the U.N. General Assembly this morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue striking Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. His remarks came hours after he also said Israel “shares the aims” of the U.S. and allies, which want Israel and Hezbollah to reach a ceasefire to negotiate peace. But the conflict is escalating, and Israel targeted Hezbollah’s leader in a major bombing on Friday.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams pleaded not guilty to federal bribery charges on Friday. You can always count on the New York Post to come up with a good/bad pun and, boy, did they deliver with Friday’s cover that read “Grand Theft Ottoman.”
Actress Maggie Smith, known for her roles in “Downton Abbey” and as Professor McGonagall in the “Harry Potter” movies, died at 89 years old.
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