This independent candidate is worrying Republicans in deep-red Nebraska's Senate race

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This independent candidate is worrying Republicans in deep-red Nebraska's Senate race

2024-10-26 12:29 Last Updated At：12:41

BEATRICE, Neb. (AP) — In the back room of a brewery in southeastern Nebraska, more than three dozen people crowded together this summer to hear from Dan Osborn, a former cereal plant worker and independent running for U.S. Senate.

The standing-room-only crowd in the small town of Beatrice was larger than Osborn expected, but it stood out for more than its size. Those attending ranged from supporters of former President Donald Trump wearing “Make America Great Again” hats to voters firmly backing Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.

Osborn’s message to all of them was that America’s two-party system has let them down.

“There’s nobody like me in the United States Senate,” he told the crowd. “Right now, the Senate is a country club of millionaires that work for billionaires.”

Osborn has cobbled together a campaign in deeply conservative Nebraska that rejects both major political parties as part of a broken system. For a guy who held his first campaign news conferences out of the garage of his suburban Omaha home, he has surprised pundits by emerging as a serious challenger to two-term Republican Sen. Deb Fischer in what had been considered a safe Republican seat only months ago.

The contest has attracted $21 million in spending from outside groups, favoring Osborn, and even Fischer's campaign acknowledges that the race is closer than expected. There is no Democratic candidate running, but a win for Osborn could disrupt Republican plans to reclaim a majority in the Senate. Osborn has said he won't caucus with either party.

That hasn't stopped Democrats from openly supporting him. During the first 16 days of October, after the national spotlight on him had intensified, Osborn raised more than $3 million, almost all of it from individuals and the bulk of it through Democrats’ Act Blue fundraising site, Federal Election Commission reports show. That was almost six times the $530,000 that Fischer raised.

Osborn has raised nearly $8 million total to Fischer’s $6.5 million, and with a little less than three weeks before the election, he had $1.1 million cash, twice what Fischer had.

Osborn has succeeded not only by rejecting political parties but through boots-on-the-ground campaigning across the state, backed by clever ads — in one he notes “I don't even own a suit” — that contrast his working-class roots with a system where he says politicians "are bought and sold.”

Osborn is a U.S. Navy and Nebraska Army National Guard veteran and industrial mechanic who gained national recognition three years ago when he successfully led a labor strike at Kellogg’s cereal plants, winning higher wages and other benefits. That background shapes his view that working families are being steamrolled by a growing wealth gap, he says.

A win by Osborn would be a giant upset in a state where Republicans hold all statewide offices and all congressional districts.

Fischer is a rancher from Valentine, a town of 2,600 people in northern Nebraska about 300 miles (483 kilometers) northwest of Omaha. She was a little-known state legislator when she ran as an outsider in 2012, winning a competitive primary and then defeating Bob Kerrey, a former Democratic governor and U.S. senator. Her campaign ads that year showed her leaning up against fence posts and called her “sharp as barb wire, tougher than a cedar fence post.”

“Nebraskans support me because I’ve delivered results,” Fischer said this week, mentioning national defense and road projects as areas where she's done right by her state. “I have a long, conservative record that’s helped build Nebraska and keep America strong.”

Fischer's pollster, John Rogers of Torchlight Strategies, a longtime national Republican Party operative, argued recently that the apparent closeness of the race is a “mirage.” Her campaign expects that Osborn won’t be able to build a big enough margin in Democratic areas of Omaha, the state’s largest city, to overcome the votes Fischer will win in the vast rural areas.

The pollster also predicted that Trump’s endorsement of Fischer in September will pull Nebraska voters back into her corner in a state he is expected to win handily. “SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!” Trump posted on his Truth social media site.

Trump labeled Osborn as “Radical Left” and likened him to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who runs as an independent but caucuses with Democrats and has become a leading spokesman for liberals. Fischer and her supporters reinforce that message.

Still, Osborn has gotten national attention, complicated Republicans’ ambitions and buoyed calls to break up the nation’s two-party system. That has broad appeal in an era when disgust for politics keeps rising.

“At least as an independent, you’re an open book,” said Jim Jonas, who managed Greg Orman's high-visibility independent U.S. Senate campaign in neighboring Kansas a decade ago. “You have the opportunity to go frame yourself, frame the race and run as a refreshing, different choice rather than the two broken parties.”

That’s exactly how Osborn is pitching himself.

“Congress is a complete misrepresentation of the demographics of our voters,” he told the crowd in Beatrice. “Less than 2% of our elected officials in both the House and Senate come from working-class people.”

Osborn has received donations from political action committees that back independents, like the Wyoming-based Way Back PAC, along with groups supporting Democratic candidates.

His independence hasn't kept immigration from becoming a key issue, just as it has all over the country. Osborn has said the U.S. border with Mexico is too porous. But he also says he favors some form of amnesty for immigrants in the U.S. illegally for a long time if they’re working and have not committed violent crimes.

Just as Orman did in 2014, Osborn supports abortion rights. That could help him in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. Voters in seven states, including some conservative ones, have either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to restrict them in statewide votes over the past two years. Fischer has alleged that Osborn won't support any restrictions.

But the core of Osborn’s appeal to his backers appears to be as a working-class everyman.

He is getting support from at least a dozen labor unions. Two weeks before the election, the national AFL-CIO brought in top officials to Omaha to lead a phone bank in support of Osborn. Around 30 union members and officials — including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler — worked the phones to secure support and donations for Osborn.

“His message of backing working families is really resonating with people,” Shuler said.

As she spoke, phone bank volunteers nearby shouted out donations of up to $3,000 and fresh promises of support from Nebraskans they were calling.

“People now are so cynical about politics," Shuler said. "And he’s getting traction with those people because he’s one of them.”

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.

Trump leaves Michigan rallygoers waiting in the cold for hours to tape Joe Rogan podcast

2024-10-26 12:32 Last Updated At：12:41

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Many of Donald Trump’s supporters left a Michigan rally before he arrived Friday night after the former president kept them waiting for three hours to tape a popular podcast interview.

Those who remained at the outdoor rally on an airport tarmac huddled in the cold as they waited for the former president to touch down in the battleground state.

Trump apologized to the crowd for the delay, which he blamed on an interview with Joe Rogan, the nation’s most listened-to podcaster and an influential voice with younger male voters Trump is aggressively courting.

The interview, taped in Austin, Texas, was released Friday night and ran a whopping three hours, with Trump telling many familiar stories from his rallies and other interviews but also engaging with Rogan on topics like the existence of UFOs.

Democrat Kamala Harris was also in Texas Friday for an appearance with superstar Beyoncé in Houston at an event highlighting the conservative state's abortion ban, which was enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Three of the justices who voted to overturn Roe were nominated by Trump.

Minutes before Trump's Michigan rally was scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, his spokesman posted on the social media platform X that Trump was just leaving Texas, more than two hours away by air. Trump recorded a video from his plane urging his supporters to stay, noting it was Friday night and promising, “We’re going to have a good time tonight.”

Trump eventually took the stage at the Traverse City airport, where temperatures dipped to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The crowd erupted into cheers as video screens showed Trump’s plane arriving and then him walking off his plane and down the steps.

“I am so sorry,” he said. “We got so tied up, and I figured you wouldn’t mind too much because we’re trying to win.”

Attendees who hadn't left bundled up, some covered by blankets, as they waited for him to land. The crowd sounded and looked disengaged as North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon tried to kill time onstage. Hats were thrown to attendees.

Among those who stuck around at Trump’s rally were John and Cheryl Sowash, who live in Traverse City, and arrived at the airport at 4 p.m.

“Things happen,” said John. “He spoke to a lot more people talking to Joe Rogan than he did here.”

Indeed, Cheryl said she was worried about Trump, who had missed speaking to a larger crowd.

“He’s gonna be disappointed, because there were twice as many people here. He missed it,” she said.

His interview with Rogan created another opportunity for the Republican nominee to highlight the hypermasculine tone that has defined much of his 2024 White House bid. Trump has made masculinity a central theme of his campaign, appearing on podcasts targeting young male voters and tapping surrogates who sometimes use crude language.

Throughout the lengthy conversation, Trump told familiar stories but occasionally dropped new color and nuance.

Rogan pressed Trump on whether he’s “completely committed” to bringing Robert F. Kennedy Jr. into his administration.

“Oh, I completely am,” Trump responded, but added he and Kennedy disagree on environmental policies. He said he’ll tell Kennedy to “focus on health, do whatever you want.”

Kennedy has been instrumental in spreading skepticism about vaccines, rejecting the overwhelming consensus among scientists that the benefits of inoculation outweigh the rare risk of side effects.

Trump again seemed to entertain the idea of eliminating federal income taxes, telling Rogan, “Yeah, sure why not?” when asked by the podcast host if he was serious about it.

He also repeated at length his grievances about the 2020 election but said, "If I win, this will be my last election.”

Trump said he’s “never been a believer” in theories about extraterrestrial life visiting Earth. He said he is asked constantly about what the U.S. government knows about “the people coming from space.” He said as president he was told “a lot” but he dodged Rogan’s entreaties to discuss alien life in detail.

And he criticized federal subsidies aiming to significantly boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, one of President Joe Biden’s signature achievements. Chipmakers have credited the legislation for enabling billions of dollars in new factories, including in battleground state Arizona.

He also ripped Taiwan, the self-governing island democracy that has long been aligned with the U.S.

“You know, Taiwan, they stole our chip business,” Trump told Rogan. “OK. They want us to protect and they want protection. They don’t pay us money for the protection, you know? The mob makes you pay money, right?”

Trump called Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose Beijing government considers Taiwan a breakaway province, a “brilliant guy, whether you like it or not.”

The podcaster is known for his hours-long interviews on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which is listed as No. 1 in the United States, according to Spotify’s charts. He calls women “chicks” and once laughed as a comedian friend described repeatedly coercing young female comics into sex.

Rogan and Trump have a complicated relationship. Rogan had previously said that he declined to host Trump on his podcast before because he did not want to help him.

Earlier this year, Trump criticized Rogan after the podcaster said that Kennedy, then a candidate, was the only person running for president who made sense to him. Kennedy has since suspended his bid, endorsed Trump and joined him on the campaign trail.

In Michigan and at an earlier press conference in Texas, Trump repeatedly mocked his opponent’s rally in Houston. “Kamala is at a dance party with Beyoncé,” he told the Michigan crowd.

He used his trip to Texas, his second stop in a border state in two days, to escalate his already dark and apocalyptic rhetoric against illegal immigration.

“We’re like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want,” Trump told supporters Friday in Austin. Trump has continued to push the unfounded idea that foreign governments actively send criminals to the U.S.

Harris said the remark is “just another example of how he really belittles our country.”

“The president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are, and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who is constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” Harris told reporters in Houston before her event.

As the temperature in Michigan dropped Friday night and many in the crowd streamed out, Trump suggested that his campaign advisers have urged him not to repeat his past statements about being the “protector” of women.

The former president mimicked advice he said he was getting: “‘Sir, please don’t say you’re going to protect women.’” But he said he planned to keep saying it. “I mean, that’s our job.”

That too was a response of sorts to the Harris event, which was focused on protecting reproductive rights and included a string of women talking about having their health threatened by strict abortion restrictions.

Trump’s rally was also interrupted twice by audience members needing medical attention. After the second incident, Trump asked organizers to play the song Ave Maria to fill the time.

That was reminiscent of a recent Trump rally in Pennsylvania when medical attention being required in the audience caused Trump to sway to that and other songs for nearly 40 minutes.

This time, though, he continued speaking after “Ave Maria” ended.

Weissert reported from Washington and Cooper from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York, Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Melissa Perez Winder in Traverse City, Michigan, contributed to this report.

This independent candidate is worrying Republicans in deep-red Nebraska's Senate race

ENT

This independent candidate is worrying Republicans in deep-red Nebraska's Senate race

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