Dem-tied Senate hopeful has funneled nearly $400k to his family, financial disclosures show

Dan Osborn, an “impartial” Senate hopeful from Nebraska with deep ties to Democrats, has been criticized for funneling a major quantity of marketing campaign funds to his members of the family, with almost $250,000 going to his spouse and her political consulting agency alone.

Each his failed 2024 bid and his present bid within the 2026 cycle have seen Osborn, his spouse, daughter and sister-in-law rake in additional than $370,000, in response to Federal Election Fee (FEC) filings reviewed by Fox Information Digital. The cash comes from each Osborn’s marketing campaign and its affiliated political motion committee, the Working Class Heroes Fund.

In July, Osborn, who defeated incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb. is attempting to oust is going through criticism over his FEC filings that confirmed his marketing campaign made six funds to his spouse Megan between April and June, totaling about $19,000. “Should you’re James Carville and also you’re working for workplace and also you rent your spouse Mary Matalin, that is one factor,” Perre Neilan, a Nebraska political strategist and former govt director of the Nebraska Republican Occasion, mentioned after the funds got here to mild. “However this one, I believe, this one stinks.”

Sanders-endorsed Senate candidate slammed for allegedly flip-flopping to ‘have it each methods’ on an essential challenge

In the meantime, a number of months later, it was found that Osborn had additionally funneled greater than $100,000 final yr to a shadowy political consulting agency co-owned by his spouse.

Dan Osborn, impartial candidate for U.S. Senate, speaks throughout a press convention on Wednesday, Could 15, 2024, at his residence in Omaha, Neb. ((Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald through AP))

See also  Trump silent on $100M Ukraine corruption scandal resignations

The FEC made it simpler for candidates to pay themselves in 2023, a transfer supposed to offer much less rich folks a neater likelihood to run.

Osborn, who has received the assist of Nebraska Democratic Occasion leaders and obtained marketing campaign cash from a number of Democratic campaigns, together with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., has not been the one candidate to profit. Nonetheless, whereas the funds are usually not unlawful, critics have criticized the shortage of political expertise of Osborn’s spouse, a former restaurant supervisor.

Throughout Osborn’s 2024 and 2026 campaigns, his spouse, who beforehand ran a sports activities bar in Omaha, in response to the Lincoln Journal Star, raised no less than $246,000 by cash straight from the marketing campaign and from the Working Class Heroes Fund, FEC filings reviewed by Fox Information Digital Present. The cash will go on to Megan in addition to to her Wyoming-based political consulting agency, which faces transparency points. Her ties solely got here to mild after Osborn filed an amended monetary disclosure after the press began asking questions.

When reached for remark, an Osborn marketing campaign spokesman referred Fox Information Digital to feedback Osborn made final yr to native Nebraska information outlet the Lincoln Journal Star.

Megan “has been instrumental in recruiting, making ready and supporting a number of working-class candidates in Nebraska and throughout the nation who share Dan’s imaginative and prescient to repair our damaged politics,” an Osborn marketing campaign spokesperson advised the Lincoln Journal Star in November.

“I work 40, 50, even 90 hours per week on the marketing campaign path,” Osborn added final yr when he got here beneath hearth over the difficulty. “Megan too. Most senators have hundreds of thousands, even billions. However we have discovered that it is almost unimaginable to run for Senate as a traditional one who has to pay the payments and put meals on the desk. That is why the Senate has change into a rustic membership stuffed with millionaires, and that is why lower than 2 p.c of our legislators are working class.”

TRUMP CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO ILHAN OMAR’S WEALTH, SAYS IT SHOULD START ‘NOW’

Osborn himself, a former steamfitter and industrial mechanic, has taken in a wage of about $120,000 from his marketing campaign, in response to monetary paperwork reviewed by Fox Information Digital.

Unbiased Dan Osborn talks to friends at a brewery in Beatrice, Neb., on July 30. (AP/Margery Beck)

In the meantime, Osborn’s daughter, Georgia, and Jodi, his sister-in-law, have additionally raked in hundreds from Osborn’s marketing campaign and political motion committee. Georgia, a part-time dancer who Osborn mentioned nonetheless wants assist paying her payments, obtained $4,200 for “help companies” from the then-dormant marketing campaign after Osborn’s first marketing campaign, and earlier than he launched his 2026 bid.

Osborn’s sister-in-law, Jodi, obtained $1,400 for “treasurer companies” in late 2025, in response to marketing campaign disclosures that additionally present her listed as treasurer of the Working Class Heroes Fund.

Dan Osborn is working for the second consecutive election to change into U.S. senator after shedding in an in depth race towards Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in 2024. (Leigh Vogel/Wire Picture and Invoice Clark/CQ-Roll Name, Inc through Getty Photos)

Along with questions on how Osborn pays his family members, critics of the candidate have additionally taken challenge along with his resolution to run as an impartial. Osborn has indicated he has no plans to work with both main social gathering if elected, saying on his web site that as an impartial he’s “uniquely positioned” to get issues finished in Congress.

Nonetheless, Osborn’s resolution to money in on the assist of the nationwide Democratic Occasion, together with through the use of the social gathering’s principal fundraising platform, ActBlue, has raised questions on how impartial he’ll actually be.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

In December, Osborn was criticized for hiring an anti-police operative who was seen at an anti-police occasion carrying severed pig heads, and the company that created Osborn’s advertisements, Battle Company, was additionally behind creating advertisements for Zohran Mamdani, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, and different Democrats. One of many firm’s leaders mentioned they have been struck by Osborn’s “overperformance” in 2024, main him to suspect “that Democrats should run loads of several types of campaigns.”

The consulting agency co-owned by Osborn’s spouse, Unbiased Campaigns, has additionally labored with Democratic candidates. FEC paperwork present that Nathan Sage, a Democrat working for Senate in Iowa, paid hundreds to Osborn’s spouse’s consulting agency.