Election 2026

Can Nebraska's Dan Osborn Win Over Libertarians?

Dan Osborn discusses breaking with both parties, opposing the Iran war, and how he plans to win over Trump voters.

Zach Weissmueller | 10.5.2026 11:00 AM

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Can Nebraska's Dan Osborn Win Over Libertarians?

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Dan Osborn is running to become Nebraska's next U.S. Senator, and he's doing it from outside the two-party system. As an independent challenging the incumbent Republican senator and former Gov. Pete Ricketts, RealClear Polling rates Osborn's race as a "toss up." Osborn, a former industrial mechanic, union leader, and Navy veteran, has cast himself as a populist outsider taking down the "billionaire Epstein class." Republicans say he's just a left-wing Democrat in disguise. 

In today's episode, Reason Interview guest host Zach Weissmueller asks what led Osborn to, in his words, "reject the notion of a two-party system altogether" and run as an independent. Osborn defends his "independent" label and distances himself from establishment Democrats and the "Democratic Socialist agenda," which he calls "too extreme." He also says he hopes to ally with libertarian Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) to rein in mass surveillance and legalize hemp farms, and he explains why he opposes some, but not all, tariffs. Other topics include how Osborn plans to balance the budget without touching entitlements, his concerns about data centers, his views on the Second Amendment and immigration, and his plan to enact mandatory age caps for federal lawmakers, Supreme Court justices, and executive branch officials.

0:00—Introduction

0:50—Why is Osborn running as an independent?

2:02—Where does Osborn break from Democrats?

4:08—Osborn responds to leaked border wall comments.

6:05—Democratic Socialists of America

7:53—Where will Osborn work with Republicans?

10:20—Ending the surveillance state

11:26—Protecting Second Amendment rights

14:10—The Iran war and War Powers Resolution

17:17—The national debt and spending cuts

20:56—Tariff policies

24:47—Data centers

26:27—Age limits on elected officials

28:08—A message for Donald Trump voters

Producer: Paul Alexander

Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript. Check all quotes against the audio for accuracy.

Zach Weissmueller: Dan Osborn, thank you for coming on the show.

Dan Osborn: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

You've got a legitimate shot of being Nebraska's next senator, running as an independent. And looking at your platform, it does look like several of your positions don't fit cleanly in a partisan or ideological block, which is what's interesting to me and hopefully some of our audience. So tell me, first of all, why run as an Independent?

Yeah, as the sign says behind me, we call it nonpartisan in Nebraska, your party registration. And I've been a registered nonpartisan or independent since the time I could register to vote. I've never believed in the fact that I have to accept a set of values and principles and reject the other side to be a part of a party. I kind of reject the notion of the two-party system altogether. I think George Washington, the very first independent, he warned us in his farewell address of the two parties and where it could lead and I think we're there. I think we're stuck in a two-party doom loop. Neither side wants either side to have a win and they're not working for the people. That's what I want to change, I wanna change the game.

And your opponent in the race, a Republican, has said that this whole independent thing is fake, that you're just an undercover Democrat. And there was a recent article in UnHerd that described you and several others as "Potemkin Democrats", they say, "MAGA-coded candidates who actually turn out to be conventional liberals behind closed doors". So, how do you respond to this idea that this is just a strategy to run Democrats with different branding in states where they're unpopular? 

Where would you say you differ most from your standard Democrat?

Yeah, well, I would have to start by saying that I was recruited by railroaders in central Nebraska, North Platte specifically. They have the largest rail yard in the world to run against Deb Fisher in 2024 because she takes corporate money from the railroads and does their bidding. And she headed the transportation committee that allowed railroads to police their own safety, and now they have death factored in as acceptable. So that's why I got into politics altogether. I was not, I am not an operative. I'm a mechanic. I was also a sailor and in the Nebraska Army National Guard. That's who I am. And that's who I've always been. And you know, I'm doing this, again, to give a voice to the people. But, you know what makes me not a Democrat? Well, I would say— I'd say Joe Biden and Harris failed on the border. I'm a staunch Second Amendment supporter. You know, I suppose the list goes on and on, but again, I think really it's about the money in politics and getting the money out of politics because right now we're stuck in another war in the Middle East and the defense contractors and AIPAC, people like that, are the ones funding my opponent's campaign. And of course, he's gonna rubber stamp another war.

You mentioned immigration is one issue where you're differentiated from the Democratic Party. There was a Politico report on a leaked tape from July where you seem to call, according to the reporting, the border wall, "a symbol of racism" that "does nothing." Do you stand by those comments?

Well, it comes from a place of…the fact that there's no border wall of Canada. And you can put up a wall. And like I said, it's more symbolic than anything because you can put a 30-foot wall up and they're just gonna sell 31-foot ladders, right? One side of the wall says, "closed", the other side says, "now hiring". It's about holding the companies like the meat packers that - you know - exploit the labor, pay them next to nothing, and enrich themselves and funnel money into campaigns so they can keep doing it. There's got to be accountability there. The wall is a piece of it, but I think it definitely doesn't go far enough.

So what is your preferred immigration policy if you had........

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