Nebraska’s Osborn outraises Ricketts in Q1 of Nebraska U.S. Senate race

LINCOLN — Registered nonpartisan U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn outraised incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts, a former two-term governor, by roughly $200,000 in the first quarter. 

But Ricketts remains ahead in the total raised and campaign cash on hand.

Osborn’s campaign raised $1.2 million in the first three months of the year, while Ricketts raised roughly $1 million for his campaign. Ricketts also has raised six-figure amounts using other PACs and committees that can be used for campaigning or campaign-adjacent activities.  

To date for this election cycle, Ricketts has raised $4.2 million, and Osborn $3.3 million. Osborn has $939,146 cash on hand. Ricketts has $1.6 million, including from his Ricketts Victory Committee, a joint fundraising committee that invests in candidates and PACs for Ricketts and other conservative candidates.

That committee raised $895,856 this quarter, according to the latest federal fundraising reports, but some of the money has transferred to his official campaign account and his separate leadership PAC, American Excellence PAC, according to the Ricketts campaign.  

The Ricketts Victory Committee last quarter shared funds with the Ricketts campaign, American Excellence PAC and the National Republican Senate Committee, which invests outside funds in Senate races in Nebraska and elsewhere. The American Excellence PAC supports other candidates and raised $190,596 this quarter.

The dog days of Nebraska’s 2026 Senate campaign are marching on as Osborn gathers signatures to reach the general election ballot and waits to see whether the less-funded Democratic primary in May might give him a one-on-one shot against Ricketts. Osborn, who has built a brand around working-class populism, is trying to do better in 2026 than his six percentage point loss in 2024 to Republican U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer. 

Osborn campaign manager John Dolan, in a statement, said the latest fundraising numbers showed that Osborn has “the resources necessary to win in November.” 

“We continue to see a groundswell of grassroots support for Dan,” Dolan said. “Nebraskans are sick and tired of do-nothing politicians like Pete Ricketts and believe that the only way to fix Washington is to elect a mechanic.”

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Osborn, a former labor leader in Omaha, received many of his campaign’s smaller individual donations from people living in California and New York. Nebraska was next. Osborn’s highest-dollar individual donors were from Nebraska. 

Ricketts received most of his large donations from Nebraska, with the next-largest amounts coming from donors in California and New York.

Many business political action committees backed Ricketts. He received $3,000 each from Walmart Inc.’s PAC for Responsible Government. Ricketts also received $5,000 from Google LCC’s NetPAC and another $5,000 from Microsoft Corporation’s Stakeholders Voluntary PAC. 

Much of Osborn’s support from PACs came from unions, including $5,000 from the American Postal Workers Union Committee. He also received $2,500 from his own PAC, Working Class Heroes Fund. 

In the first quarter, the Osborn campaign spent $10,000 on fundraising consulting from Chraca Friedman Group and $17,500 on digital advertising from Helix Campaigns. Ricketts paid Axiom Strategies $39,000 for political consulting and $13,750 for direct mail.

Osborn has faced criticism from Ricketts’ campaign and Ricketts-aligned outside groups about paying himself, his wife, Megan and other extended family members from campaign funds while he’s away from work to run. He also faces FEC complaints filed by people and a conservative group questioning some of the payments. The Osborn campaign has denied any wrongdoing and calls the complaints “baseless.”

This quarter, for instance, Osborn’s campaign paid him $2,479.05 in salary. His campaign paid his wife $15,878.97 in salary, fundraising reports indicate. This year, the Osborn campaign announced that Megan would step away from a third-party consulting firm she ran and become a full-time campaign staffer. 

The Ricketts campaign has hammered the issue for months. Will Coup, a Ricketts campaign spokesperson, said the latest report raises continued questions about Osborn’s fundraising and whether it skirts the law. It is legal for candidates to pay themselves and family members for helping on campaigns, but it often comes at a political price. 

Osborn has repeatedly criticized Ricketts for his influence on state politics through his own money, his family’s money and for representing the wealthy.

Ricketts, in a statment, said he is proud that Nebraska remains the top-contributing state to his campaign. 

“Nebraskans know I will always put our state first …This is a campaign powered by Nebraskans, for Nebraskans,” Ricketts said. 

The other four Republicans running against Ricketts in the May 12 primary election have not filed campaign fundraising reports. Federal law requires congressional candidates to file campaign finance paperwork once a campaign has raised or spent $5,000 on a race.

Early voting has already started. Nebraska’s primary election is May 12. The general election is Nov. 3.

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