Aaron Sanderford
LINCOLN — Nebraskans could face an unusual choice this November, between Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and a nonpartisan instead of a Democrat, barring an earthquake upset during a mismatched GOP primary election in May.
Omaha union leader Dan Osborn has raised $500,000 for his outside bid against Fischer, who has the most cash on hand of anyone in the Nebraska congressional delegation. The 2024 race has no Democratic candidate and only a last-minute Republican challenger, perennial candidate Arron Kowalski.
Fischer is seeking a third term despite saying during her first run for Congress that she would stop at two terms. She says she has learned the value of seniority from Senate leaders who demand D.C. experience to accomplish much in Congress’ more deliberative body.
New Examiner podcast
U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., and Dan Osborn, who is running as a nonpartisan candidate, discussed the Senate race as part of the Examiner’s new “Picking Corn” political podcast, which launched this month on most major podcast streaming platforms.
“I served under term limits in the Nebraska Legislature, but that’s not how the Senate works,” she told the Examiner. “Nebraska is at a disadvantage if we don’t have seniority.”
Fischer said her years on the Armed Services Committee and in the Senate GOP leadership ranks have benefited Nebraskans. She has helped press for federal funding for projects at Offutt Air Force Base, including flood repairs, levee improvements and a new runway.
She said her seniority helped persuade Senate colleagues to increase rural broadband’s role in a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that many in her party opposed, including former President Donald Trump. Osborn, Kowalski and others have criticized the bill as too costly.
“It’s a responsibility of the federal government…,” Fischer said about passing the infrastructure bill — which Trump sought while president but opposed once Joe Biden was elected. “Those are ways that we invest in the future of our state, and we invest in the future of our country.”
Fischer said a third term would help her continue focusing on national defense, agricultural policy, infrastructure needs and opposing a Democratic agenda.
Picking Corn Episode 1: U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb.
GOP primary opponent Kowalski
Most observers expect Fischer, a former Nebraska state senator and Valentine Community Schools board member, to advance in the May primary over Kowalski, a central Nebraska farmer.
Kowalski said he filed to ensure that Fischer had a Republican challenger. He lost similar long-shot bids in 2018 and 2020, when he challenged 3rd District Rep. Adrian Smith, earning 6% of the primary vote.
Kowalski did not raise the $5,000 needed to trigger requiring federal fundraising reports in either of those House bids or his current Senate campaign. He withdrew from a legislative race in 2022 before voting began.
Fischer, in the most recent reporting period through the end of December, listed $3.27 million in campaign cash on hand.
Kowalski calls her a “run-of-the-mill Republican.”
Kowalski said he considers himself a Teddy Roosevelt Republican who might seem out of step with some modern GOP voters. He said he is more prairie populist than populist.
He gets frustrated with “corporate Republicans” who care more about big business than the environment. He describes his worries about the future of Nebraska’s water and air.
“I think the wonders of our natural world are being basically destroyed for unmitigated consumption for the sake of consumption,” he said.
Social media accounts in Kowalski’s name have liked posts boosting progressives U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. He has liked posts calling attention to the suffering of Palestinian civilians. And he has liked some posts criticizing illegal immigration.
His campaign boils down to a three-part plan: First, he wants a new Homestead Act to build affordable housing in county seats nationwide to boost the rural population.
Second, he would fund building large greenhouse facilities in communities, so people could grow their food communally as freshwater supplies decrease nationally.
Third, he would bundle up plant matter after crops are harvested and submerge it in the Gulf of Mexico to sequester carbon underground and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
Osborn likely to reach ballot for general
The wild card in the Senate race is Osborn, who is running as a registered nonpartisan. He won’t appear on the primary election ballot and must petition his way onto the general election ballot. His campaign said Osborn expects to turn in the more than 4,000 signatures necessary long before the Sept. 1 deadline.
The oddity in the race is that it lacks a registered Democrat. Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb has said her party will decide in the coming weeks whether to back Osborn, which several insiders said is likely.
Osborn, asked whether he wants the Democratic Party’s support, said he wants more than just one party’s backing. He is also seeking the endorsements of several third parties.
On March 2, he spoke to the state convention of the Libertarian Party of Nebraska in Bellevue, on the same weekend the Nebraska Democratic Party’s State Central Committee met in Grand Island.
Political observers said his run could be a proof of concept for opposition candidates running as independents in states where the Democratic Party label might cost statewide candidates. The question is whether national Democrats will help fund his candidacy the way they did former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey’s first race against Fischer in 2012 or even Lincoln State Sen. Jane Raybould’s race against her in 2018.
Osborn says he hears from Republicans, Democrats and others who tell him they are frustrated with their political choices. He said many “feel like their voice doesn’t get heard.”
He criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision for overrunning the country’s politics with dark outside money. He wants Congress to press the high court with other ways to limit money in political races, and to require additional disclosure.
Osborn is known in Omaha for his work representing factory workers during the Kellogg’s strike in 2021. He helped them secure better pay and benefits without the plant closing.
At his campaign kickoff, he said he wants to lower taxes for working people and ensure that corporations and the wealthiest Americans “pay their fair share.”
He says that Fischer does their bidding and that she hasn’t done enough to get inflation under control, including her support for spending on the infrastructure bill, which Osborn said the country couldn’t afford.
“It’s millionaires and billionaires who … run our country,” Osborn told the Examiner. “It’s the big businesses, the monopolistic corporations funding them, so regular people like myself can’t afford to buy a senator.”
Osborn, who served in the Navy and National Guard, said he would focus a lot of his attention on waste in the defense budget. He said the era of “$500 toilet seats” has to end. He says he doesn’t know which party, if any, he would caucus with in the Senate.
Picking Corn Episode 2: Dan Osborn, nonpartisan
Stances on aid to Ukraine, Israel
Both Fischer and Osborn said the United States should send money and weapons to Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression in Europe and to Israel for its war with Hamas.
Fischer said that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not stop in Ukraine and that it’s false to believe that Americans can stay out of this fight, because the fight is coming to NATO countries.
She said Israel “has the right and the responsibility to defend their people, defend their country and eliminate terrorists.” They should have the resources to win, she said.
Asked what the United States should do to ease the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, she offered no specific answer. She said that Israel is working hard to avoid harming civilians but that Hamas makes it nearly impossible to do so by how it wages war.
Osborn said it is “important for our national security that Ukraine stay a sovereign state, a sovereign nation.” He hopes a diplomatic solution to the war might one day be found.
Of Israel, he said Hamas wants to eliminate the Jewish people and state. His goal would be to press leaders to find a more reasonable and reliable Palestinian partner.
Asked about specific goals in a third term, Fischer said she wants to continue her national security work, including modernizing U.S. nuclear weapons. And she wants to pass a new farm bill with a greater focus on crop insurance programs.
She said she and many farm-state colleagues are pushing to streamline disaster aid and crop insurance programs because farming and ranching is “a risky, risky business.” Her family still owns and runs a ranch near Valentine.
She defends her vote for the Trump tax cuts of 2017 from criticism that they gave most of the benefits to the wealthiest Americans. She says tax cuts helped people “across the board.”
She points to her work on the expanded child tax credit, a tax credit for companies offering paid family leave. She said she works to help businesses and families make and keep more money.
McConnell, Trump could be factors
Fischer’s critics on the right and left have described her as someone who has done the bidding of outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has criticized Trump.
Others point out Fischer’s criticism of Trump after the release of the Access Hollywood tapes. She called for Trump to quit the 2016 race after the “Access Hollywood” video leaked, with Trump discussing grabbing women by their genitals, but she later said she would vote for him.
This time, she was the first member of Nebraska’s congressional delegation to endorse Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, which eased some of the loudest local GOP criticisms.
Randall Adkins, a University of Nebraska at Omaha political scientist, says Fischer and other Republicans largely reflect the changing nature of the GOP electorate.
The party has moved from traditional GOP stances on taxes and spending toward a populism that emphasizes illegal immigration, anger and inflicting political pain on rival partisans.
Fischer has voted against potential bipartisan fixes in the Senate as not doing enough to secure the border, including a recent Senate measure that included changes Trump sought as president.
She has said during recent interviews that little progress would be made on related immigration issues until Republican concerns about reviving Trump-era policies like “Remain in Mexico” were addressed.
Fischer’s endorsement of Trump has ramped up Democratic criticism of her as a partisan who does little more than her party’s bidding. Kleeb has questioned whether Fischer can act without GOP approval.
Fischer, asked about the criticism by Osborn and Kowalski, has said she doesn’t know her opponents and won’t disparage them.
She calls herself as “a conservative Nebraska Republican.” She said she believes in limited government, peace through strength and making investments that help families.
She says Nebraskans know who she is.
“I don’t think there’s too many questions by Nebraskans on where I stand on issues,” she said. “Some people in public office, you think they’re one person and they’re elected and they turn out to be somebody else. That has not been the case with me.”