'There Is a Larger Network': Osborn Faces Scrutiny Over Web of Connections to Embattled Senate Nominee

by Matt Johnson and John Gage

(Picture credit Matt Johnson)

Dan Osborn, an Independent candidate for U.S. Senate, is facing questions about his connections to another U.S. Senate nominee following news of a rape allegation that broke this week.

On Monday, Graham Platner, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Maine, faced another allegation that he had abused a past girlfriend. Politico reported that Platner had broken into the home of Jenny Racicot, a woman he was dating in 2021, and raped her.

Platner had previously been accused of emotional abuse by another past girlfriend in a New York Times piece last month.

Republicans have criticized Osborn for his past connections with Platner through a mutual pair of operatives. Osborn and Platner were both recruited by Daniel Moraff and Leanne Fan, both of whom had previously worked for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders during his re-election campaign.

On Tuesday, the Nebraska Republican Party highlighted the connection, posting a partial clip of an interview from June that Platner gave to The Lever, a left-wing news outlet founded by a former speechwriter for Sanders’ presidential campaign.

In the interview, Platner said Moraff pitched him on running for Senate in Maine by first bringing up Osborn’s 2024 run against Fischer. “We work with Dan Osborn, and we are in Maine looking for someone to run for U.S. Senate,” Platner said Moraff had told him in their initial conversation.

The connections between Osborn and Platner run deeper, though.

In a video from an August 2025 Platner town hall obtained by The Plains Sentinel, the U.S. Senate nominee told attendees that he and Osborn are both part of a larger network. Platner’s remarks were in response to an audience member asking him about candidates in other states with whom Platner could “create a common message” with.

“Currently there are multiple other candidates running in other races, Dan Osborn, running in Nebraska,” Platner responded. “He is an Independent, union factory worker. He lost the last election by a [small] margin. And he had no right to because he was a nobody just like me, who came out of nowhere with no money and no support. And they built an apparatus that gave the Republican incumbent a real run for her money.”

Platner also mentioned failed Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Nathan Sage from Iowa. “There is a larger network I would say of people with similar beliefs throughout the country,” Platner said about himself, Osborn, and Sage.

Osborn Disavows Platner Connections

Osborn for his part has been quick to distance himself from Platner. In an appearance on NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert” in May, Osborn recoiled when placed on screen with Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, the mayor of New York City, and Platner.

“I’m not a Democrat, and I certainly don’t appreciate you putting my picture up with the New York guy and, I think, what is his name, Graham Platner. I’m my own person.”

Osborn, though, was not just recruited by the same people as Platner, but has also shared consultant ties.

Morris Katz, a political media consultant, was the brains behind the media campaign for Osborn’s near upset of U.S. Senator Deb Fischer, producing TV ads that GOP consultants have privately admitted were some of the best in the country for the 2024 cycle.

Katz, who has worked with the Platner campaign, told The New Yorker in an interview back in September that it only took a few minutes with Platner to know he was right to run for Senate. Katz has been using his firm, Fight Agency, to elevate candidates on the left, who are critical of the Democratic party for fighting for corporations over the working class.

Katz is not the only media consultant both candidates have shared.

On June 3, the New York Post reported that Joe Calvello—who now works as press secretary for Mamdani—received more than $50,000 for “communications consulting” from Platner’s campaign between October 1, 2025, and January 9, 2026, through his Wyoming-based LLC, Common Pheasant Consulting. Calvello served as Platner’s senior adviser and helped orchestrate the high-profile campaign rollout in August 2025.

According to the FEC, Calvello has also worked with the Osborn campaign, receiving $8,000 through both his official campaign committee and his associated PAC, the Working Class Heroes Fund. This PAC has recruited independent candidates to run for office, including Nate Powell in Washington’s 5th Congressional District, Mike Thurow in Wisconsin’s 6th Congressional District, and Bill Hill for Alaska’s at-large U.S. House seat.

The Plains Sentinel asked Osborn about the connection to the PAC and how it factored into his role as an Independent candidate.

“They’re going to try to tie me to somebody in New York, and they’re going to try to tie me to whoever. But the bottom line is, I want to heed the words of Abraham Lincoln: government by and for the people. I don’t work for the corporations and the one percent like my opponent does.”

Former Employee: ‘He Recruited Graham Platner’

Townhall, a conservative media site, released a video on Tuesday that claims to show an Osborn campaign employee saying that the Nebraska candidate recruited Platner.

“This is not really out there publicly, but he recruited Graham Platner,” a woman says in the video. “Dan, after the last election, he started a program to recruit working class candidates to run.”

The woman in the video said the candidates were recruited through Working Class Heroes Fund, which is a PAC that supports Osborn’s campaign.

In a statement to The Plains Sentinel, Osborn acknowledged the woman was a “former” staffer but said her statements were “false.”

“The woman in the video is a former staffer for our campaign. What she said is false, and she was not speaking on behalf of me or our campaign,” Osborn said. “I have never recruited or supported Graham Platner, full stop. Our politics have nothing in common, and clearly neither do our values. I haven’t spent five minutes thinking about the Maine Senate race and neither have most Nebraskans, but I do know that Graham Platner should not be a US Senator.”

Platner Taking Time to Reflect

Platner announced on Monday ahead of the news of the rape allegation that he would be “taking time to reflect on the best path forward.” The Maine candidate called the rape accusation against him “serious and false.” He is expected to drop out of the race ahead of the state’s July 13 deadline and the Democratic party would then have two weeks to pick a replacement.

Already, potential candidates have lined up to try and pursue Platner’s spot if he does end his campaign.

The Platner campaign has been scandal plagued throughout both his primary run and now as the general election cycle starts heating up. The candidate came under fire for having a Totenkopf tattoo, a Nazi-symbol that was used by Hitler’s SS officers.

Platner denied that he knew what the symbol meant when he got the tattoo and later said he was “very inebriated” when he got it. The candidate also received scrutiny over deleted Reddit posts that CNN uncovered where he described himself as a “communist” and downplayed sexual assault.

“In today’s current climate, when every whisper of a misplaced hand brings down a feature length film, anyone who actually thinks the military is purposefully covering up rape to save the career of some god damn [captain], is clearly both an idiot and junior enough in rank or life experience to think it matters,” he said in a post from 2013.

As Platner’s controversies have piled up, the recruitment efforts of Moraff and Fan have come under scrutiny. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month, the pair admitted their vetting process, for which they paid “a whole chunk of money,” did not turn up many of the controversies facing the candidate.

Moraff also said in the interview that he believed the Reddit posts should not have stopped Platner from becoming a U.S. senator. “I think if what the voters wanted were people who were grown in vats and had never done or said anything that they might regret their entire lives, we’d have a very different country,” he said. “Part of our thesis here is that people do not want their candidates grown in vats. They want people who are real human beings.”

The New York Post reported on Tuesday that Platner was being advised by Katz that he should not drop out unless he gets assurances that his replacement will share his left-wing agenda.

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

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.