Dan Osborn says he won't caucus with either party if Nebraska sends him to the U.S. Senate. His donor list tells a different story. A review of first-quarter 2026 campaign finance filings by Fox News Digital found that the self-described independent candidate continues to pull money from left-wing activists, Democratic-aligned political action committees, and the party's favorite online fundraising platform, with no prominent Republican donors in sight.
Osborn, a labor union leader running for the seat a second time after losing in 2024, faces a November matchup against Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts if Ricketts clears a May 12 primary. The question hanging over the race is whether Nebraska voters will take Osborn's independence pledge at face value, or follow the money.
Fox News Digital reported that Osborn received funds through ActBlue, the dominant Democratic small-dollar platform, along with thousands of dollars from PACs affiliated with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., former Democratic Rep. Ron Kind, and the defunct 2024 Senate campaign of Missouri Democrat Lucas Kunce.
Two individual donors stand out. Rory Gates, the son of Bill and Melinda Gates, gave $7,000 in the first quarter. Sean Eldridge, founder and president of Stand Up America, also donated $7,000. Stand Up America was established in 2016 to oppose Donald Trump and states on its website that "American democracy is rooted in a history of systemic racism, classism, and sexism, which continues to this day."
Osborn also received funds from Wendy Schmidt, whom Fox News Digital described as a Democratic megadonor. OpenSecrets data cited in the report shows Schmidt has given nearly $10 million in support of Democrats, and nothing to Republicans.
Not a single prominent Republican donor appeared in Osborn's Q1 filings, Fox News Digital reported. Meanwhile, his affiliated "Conservatives for Osborn" PAC received zero donations during the same period and sat on just $68 in cash-on-hand.
Sixty-eight dollars. That's the entire war chest of the committee supposedly proving Osborn draws from the right. It wouldn't cover a yard sign order.
The money is only part of the picture. The infrastructure around Osborn's campaign reads like a roster of progressive political talent. Fight Agency, which Fox News Digital reported is helping Osborn with his digital effort, was founded by Democratic Party strategists, including consultants who worked on Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and winning Senate bids for Pennsylvania's John Fetterman and Arizona's Ruben Gallego.
Fight Agency's client list, as reported, includes New York City socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Sanders, and progressive Rep. Greg Casar. These are not moderates hedging their bets on a bipartisan long shot. They are fixtures of the Democratic left.
Osborn's hybrid PAC, the Working Class Heroes Fund, uses an ad-buying firm whose clients include Rep. Jasmine Crockett, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and what Fox News Digital described as "many other Democrats or Democrat-affiliated groups." When every vendor, every consultant, and every check traces back to one side of the aisle, the "independent" label starts to look like a marketing decision rather than a governing philosophy. The pattern is familiar, dark money has poured into other races where the left's real intentions were dressed up in nonpartisan packaging.
Osborn's campaign website strikes a studiously neutral tone. On his "Where I Stand" page, he writes: "As an independent, I'll be uniquely positioned to bring together a majority to get it done." He adds: "I believe we all have more in common with each other than we do with the partisans who run Washington."
But audio from a town hall last year, published by The Plains-Sentinel, a local Nebraska digital news outlet, captured a less diplomatic moment. Osborn told the audience: "If what I'm trying to do isn't working, there's only one party I would caucus with." When pressed on which party, he replied: "Not Pete Ricketts's party."
That's about as clear as a candidate can get without filling out the paperwork. The promise of independence comes with a built-in escape hatch, and that hatch opens in only one direction.
Leaders of the Nebraska Democratic Party have endorsed Osborn, Fox News Digital noted. That endorsement makes strategic sense if party leaders believe Osborn would ultimately align with their caucus. It makes no sense at all if they genuinely expected him to remain unaffiliated.
Nebraska Republican Party Chairwoman Mary Jane Truemper told Fox News Digital that the contradictions speak for themselves. She pointed to Osborn's relationships with Washington Democrats while he campaigns on an anti-billionaire message, even as he cashes checks from the Gates family heir and a donor who has funneled nearly $10 million to Democrats.
"So far, we have seen Dan Osborn cozy up to elite Washington Democrats, including those affiliated with Jeffrey Epstein, such as Bob Kerrey, while preaching an 'anti-billionaire' message. If those contradictory actions tell us anything, it's that he will not keep his promise of not caucusing with either party. Nebraskans value transparency and reliability in our representatives. We have yet to see either from Dan Osborn."
Truemper's reference to Bob Kerrey and Epstein adds a sharper edge to the criticism, though the claim is her characterization and was not independently detailed in the report. What the filings do show, without any spin required, is a candidate whose financial support comes overwhelmingly, and arguably exclusively, from the left.
National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesperson Nick Puglia was more blunt. He told Fox News Digital that Osborn is a "Fake Independent" propped up by the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Accountability for how campaign dollars flow is a recurring concern, watchdog groups have filed complaints against prominent Democrats over alleged misuse of campaign funds in other races.
"Dan Osborn is a Fake Independent backed by radical leftists like Elizabeth Warren and Zohran Mamdani's advisors. It's no surprise Osborn's campaign is being bankrolled by even more Democrats and ActBlue donors."
Fox News Digital reported that it reached out to the Osborn campaign for comment but did not receive a response. Silence from a candidate who promises transparency is its own kind of answer.
Osborn's strategy isn't new. Running as an independent in a red state lets a candidate sidestep the Democratic brand, which is toxic in much of rural America, while still drawing on the party's donor base, consultant class, and organizational muscle. The label changes. The money doesn't.
In Osborn's case, the gap between branding and reality is wide enough to drive a combine through. His digital team comes from the firm that elected Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani. His PAC's ad buyers work for the DCCC. His top individual donors are progressive activists and heirs to Democratic mega-fortunes. His "conservative" PAC is functionally dead. And when he thought the microphone wouldn't follow him, he told a room full of Nebraskans exactly which party he'd join. Voters elsewhere have seen similar maneuvers, candidates ducking scrutiny while counting on party infrastructure to carry them through.
Fox News Digital's review of the Q1 filings also noted that Osborn spread his money out in support of other Democrats running for Congress. That detail alone undercuts the independence pitch. An independent who funds Democrats is a Democrat who doesn't want the yard sign.
Nebraska is a state that went heavily for Donald Trump. Osborn's bet is that enough voters will look past the donor rolls, the consultant pedigree, the PAC connections, and the town hall audio, and trust the word "independent" on the ballot. The question for those voters is straightforward: when every dollar, every operative, and every endorsement points left, what exactly is independent about this campaign? It's a question that has surfaced in other contexts too, Democratic officials have faced scrutiny for saying one thing publicly while their records told a different story.
Ricketts still has to survive his May 12 primary before the general election battle begins. But the Senate math makes Nebraska a target. Every seat matters in a closely divided chamber, and a nominally independent senator who caucuses with Democrats, even quietly, even conditionally, could tip the balance on judicial confirmations, committee assignments, and floor votes.
Osborn's own words at that town hall acknowledged the possibility. "If what I'm trying to do isn't working, there's only one party I would caucus with." The conditional framing gives him deniability. The destination he named does not.
Nebraska voters deserve to know who is funding their candidates and why. The filings are public. The connections are documented. The "Conservatives for Osborn" PAC has $68 and no donors. The rest of the ledger belongs to the left.
Labels are cheap. Donor rolls don't lie.
