Osborn Blasts Ricketts' PAC Support, Defends His Own

by Matt Johnson

OMAHA — Dan Osborn, the independent candidate for U.S. Senate in Nebraska, held a press conference outside his campaign office in Omaha on Monday afternoon, where he sharply criticized Anthropic, a Silicon Valley AI company and rival to OpenAI (the creator of ChatGPT), for donating $20 million to the super PAC-supporting group Public First Action.

Records show the group is running $250,000 in ads in support of his Republican opponent, Senator Pete Ricketts.

“This is Citizens United in practice,” Osborn said. “When billionaires can flood the airwaves with millions in ads, they drown out regular voters’ voices. These super PACs don’t have to tell you where the money comes from, either. This super PAC can hide their donor list.”

Osborn used the donation to position himself as a candidate for average Nebraskans rather than billionaires. “I’m funded by 17,000 Nebraskans at an average donation of $43. No tech billionaire gets to tell me what to do. That’s going to be the difference,” Osborn said.

The Plains Sentinel asked Osborn about his own PAC support. Osborn has received support from Working Class Heroes, an independent expenditure group, as well as past support from tech billionaire Reid Hoffman, who contributed to PACs affiliated with Osborn’s 2024 campaign.

Osborn denied any involvement with the PACs. “That PAC is separate from the candidate. That’s the problem with politics, right? You have an independent expenditure that, by FEC rules, you can’t coordinate with. I’ve stepped away from that PAC as a candidate. I can’t solicit to it. All I can do is basically know about it.”

Aside from The Plains Sentinel, no other media outlets were present at the event. However, two protesters stood on the sidewalk with handmade signs reading “Dan Osborn Takes Epstein $$” and “Dan Osborn (Heart)’s Epstein Dems.” The signs referenced Osborn’s recent cancellation of a Washington, D.C., fundraiser co-hosted by Dana Chasin, a prominent Democratic operative whose name surfaced in recently released Jeffrey Epstein documents.

In a statement to The Plains Sentinel, Ricketts spokesman Will Coup said Osborn was being hypocritical in his stance towards support from Super PACs.

“He’s pretending to stand against SuperPAC spending, despite receiving nearly $20 million in SuperPAC support – including $3.85 million from Chuck Schumer,” Coup said. “Fake Dan Osborn can try to change the subject, but Nebraskans can see that his whole campaign is an act.”

In the race so far, according to end-of-year 2025 Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, Osborn has raised a little over $2.1 million, compared with a little over $3.5 million for incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts. In his 2024 race against Sen. Deb Fischer, Osborn raised and spent nearly $15 million and came within about 6.7 percentage points of defeating the incumbent Republican.

— Matt Johnson is a freelance reporter with The Plains Sentinel.

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)