The flannel-clad populist from the Plains is back .

In 2024, Dan Osborn, an Omaha mechanic and union leader with no political experience, chased a long-shot dream of winning a Republican-held Senate seat in ruby-red Nebraska.

The race between Osborn, who ran as an independent, and Sen. Deb Fischer drew national attention and prompted big spending from both sides, turning the state into a late-breaking battleground. Osborn wound up losing by 7 points, a margin far closer than most observers had expected.

Now the 50-year-old is navigating a different set of political headwinds as he once again takes on a Republican senator, in this case, Pete Ricketts, a two-term former governor with enormous personal wealth and a powerful reach in Nebraska politics.

Ricketts is “a conservative Repub

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