For the second time, an independent candidate with ties to Democrats has entered the U.S. Senate race in Nebraska.

Dan Osborn — Navy veteran, mechanic, and former union president — ran as an independent against Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in 2024.  With Democrats declining to field a candidate, most of their organization in the Cornhusker State — not to mention their national fundraising operation — weighed in for Osborn.

In the end, Fischer won by 54% to 46%. 

This time, Osborn is back and will face Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, a former governor who was appointed to the seat to fill a vacancy in 2023. Again, Osborn is running as an independent and it is considered a foregone conclusion that Democrats will decline to put up a candidate, thus giving tacit support to the Omaha resident. 

"Osborn's two main operatives are very active longtime Democratic operative and he solicits on Act Blue," Rep. Hal Daub, a former Omaha mayor and onetime Republican congressman, told Newsmax. "He suggests he will not caucus with either party if elected.  That is a real con. How does he think he can get an office assignment or a committee assignment? Neither [Senate] leader will trust him."

Daub added that he sees Osborn as "a typical panhandler, and honesty is obviously not a part of his ethical makeup. His encounter against Fischer has gone to his head or the left-wing Democrat funders have also been conned. Union and registered Democrat support west of Lincoln is nil and the bloom is off his rose and he is unmasked."  

In some ways, Osborn is a celebrity everyman candidate who caught people's imagination by being different. To find a precedent, one has to go back to Texas in 1996 and the improbable Senate candidacy of Victor Morales. A high school civics teacher, Morales took up the challenge of his students to become a candidate himself and sought the Democratic nomination for Senate.

Campaigning in a pickup truck, delighting audiences with quotes from "Casablanca" and other movies, Morales's slogan was "Porque no?" ("Why not?"). Incredibly, he defeated two sitting members of Congress in the Democratic primary and was suddenly a favorite of the national press — not to mention the first Senate nominee in Texas of either party of Hispanic heritage.

But Morales's everyman image eventually wore thin. Facing two-term Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, Morales' lack of knowledge of major issues became increasingly apparent. Having vowed not to accept any special interest money, he raised only $15,000 overall. Nevertheless, with solid support from Black and Hispanic voters, Morales received an impressive 44% of the vote against Gramm.

Many predicted he would have little trouble winning a lower office. But he was never able to recapture the magic of winning the Democratic primary and lost in bids for the House, the Senate, and the Texas Legislature.

"I think celebrity only works to introduce someone," said Henry Olsen, senior fellow at the Center for Ethics and Public Policy and author of an acclaimed book on Ronald Reagan and the blue-collar voter. "They have to earn it on their own after the initial glow. [Former Navy officer and prisoner of war] John McCain and [former TV actor] Ronald Reagan did that."

Whether Osborn's celebrity and everyman status will be more marketable the second time around or whether he goes the way of Victor Morales remains to be seen.