Dan Osborn to Blair Voters: “Not Going To Caucus With The Democrats”

BLAIR, NEBRASKA (2024 October 30, Wednesday)
Don Harrold, Writer / Editor
blairtoday@mail.com – Facebook

I spoke with Dan Osborn today for a short interview. Dan’s office called me last week and scheduled an “in person” interview, but due to scheduling constraints and the weather, we spoke on the phone.

BLAIRTODAY: I’m curious what sort of connections you might have to folks here in Blair or Washington County? Do you have any business associates or know any of the civic leaders?

DAN OSBORN: No just that we beat Blair in district semi-finals to get to district finals in my senior year high school in basketball.

BLAIRTODAY: That was at Roncalli?

DAN OSBORN: Yeah…

BLAIRTODAY: Let’s talk about your campaign then. Most people are going to know you through your commercials, and they’re very effective, the ads are obviously very effective… You focus a lot on the honesty and the integrity of Deb Fisher. In fact, in one commercial you pull out a blow-torch and blow-torch the word “lies” into a tv screen. One of the things you hit her hard on is her a decision to stick around for more than two terms. Is that because of her backtracking on that issue or is that because you believe that term limits are important?

DAN OSBORN: I think term limits are important. You know, the fact remains she signed a promise and broke the promise. To me, that means something. If I promise something, I should – you should – hold me accountable to that promise. And, the fundamental difference between us would be that I’m not taking corporate PAC money; I’m not going to do their bidding, for example, four of her top 11 donors are class one railroads. Nebraska is a huge railroad state. She headed the transportation committee that allowed railroads to police their own safety, and now they have death factored in as acceptable into their safety program, and we’ve had five train derailments here in the state in the last three months. And, she consistently votes against the rail safety act that JD Vance co-sponsored. So, I feel like she even goes against her own party in favor of her donors.

BLAIRTODAY: In one of your ads you talk to conservative voters and you say you can understand why they’re disaffected because of the “lies” they’re told by Republicans. I assume you mean Deb Fisher there – or maybe you mean the party in general – but then you use the language “talked down to by Democrats.” I’m curious why you chose that language when it comes to Democrats; the reason I say that is because there aren’t any conservatives or Republicans I know that feel “talked down to”. They feel outright lied to by the democrat party. So, I’m curious why you chose that language.

DAN OSBORN: Yeah, I would say it’s because people like me who have worked 70 hours a week their whole adult life… You know, I get my news from five minutes… I was never very political up until the Kellogg Strike… But, you know I’d get my news from my drive time, to and from work, and I wouldn’t pay attention. But, you know the thing about politics is, even if you don’t pay attention to it, it’s paying attention to you. I’ve learned that recently. But, people just want to know that their paychecks are going to be protected. They want to know that if they work hard in this country, that they’re going to be able to get groceries, afford a house and some cars and Christmases, I mean that’s the American dream, and that’s dwindling away because my children are going to be one of the first generations collectively that aren’t going to do better than their parents. That’s a huge problem for me. By being talked down to, what I mean is, you know they’ll tell you you need to “respect people’s pronouns,” and most of those folks, they don’t they don’t care about that stuff, they just want to go to work, they don’t want to be told those kinds of things.

BLAIRTODAY: I do understand that. But, I just want to be clear, I mean, you do agree that Democrats have told some whoppers lately?

DAN OSBORN: Oh yeah…

BLAIRTODAY: …okay it’s both sides…

DAN OSBORN: It definitely is both sides, a hundred percent. You know that’s why I’ve been an independent my whole life because I’ve always thought politicians are lying to us for personal gain.

BLAIRTODAY: Why is the economy the way it is? Is it “Bidenomics”, was it something Trump did? Why are prices at the grocery store, to be honest, 50 percent, 100 percent higher on most things people buy?

DAN OSBORN: I think collectively, you, we can blame it on the overspending of the government. And, adding to the national debt, the Department of Defense is over 60 percent of our budget, and they’ve never passed an audit, and they have trillions of dollars of unaccounted for assets in both… and, they add billions to that every year. So, it’s all about accountability. I’m not suggesting that we cut defense spending of course not, and especially in the tumultuous globe that we live in now. What I’m suggesting is, we hold them to their budget, same with everybody, and then we need to go through our budgets and find out where we can trim the fat because that’s what happens when you’re spending too much money, you’ve got to reel it in. The second part of that is holding corporations accountable as well. Corporations like Kroger, that just, got in trouble for price gouging. They admitted it some somewhere upwards of a thousand percent on groceries like milk and eggs to enrich themselves. That’s where the liability needs to come in in terms of price gouging.

BLAIRTODAY: That’s one of Kamala Harris’s talking points: that she’s going to rein in what she calls “price gouging.” But grocery stores, as you know, are extremely – their margins are very small. Kroger notwithstanding, I don’t know of any examples of price gouging at the grocery store, not locally for sure. Are you suggesting price gouging is happening?

DAN OSBORN: I can tell you one. Years ago I worked at Kellogg’s. Years ago, they announced they were going to raise the price of every one of their products by 25 cents to cover the price of shipping at the last gas crunch. Fair enough. But, when dead of winter came and people aren’t driving anymore and the gas prices fall back down that quarter didn’t fall back off. Instead, what they did is they had me and my maintenance team go and retrofit all of the packing equipment, at the second biggest cold-food manufacturing plant in the world to run smaller bags, put it in smaller cartons and sell it to you for the same price.

BLAIRTODAY: Are you in favor of what Kamala Harris is suggesting to create some sort of board or some sort of oversight agency to stop “price gouging?”

DAN OSBORN: I do have a libertarian streak where I think a smaller government is a better government. Maybe it’s something as simple as requiring boards to have consumers like us sit in the board meeting so if they’re going to screw us, they’ve got to do it to our face. And, then they can go talk to the media. But, as far as what she’s suggesting, yeah I don’t think government should be meddling too much into corporations.

BLAIRTODAY: I want to move on to Donald Trump, and away from Kamala Harris. Donald Trump could be the president…

DAN OSBORN: …yes sir…

BLAIRTODAY: The “October Surprise” this year is that the media, and the left, and the democrats in general are pulling out the “Nazi” stuff. Trump is “Hitler”, a “fascist”, and we’re told that supporters of Trump are Nazis and “garbage” – Biden came out and said that. How do you feel about Trump? Is he Hitler? Are his supporters Nazis? And, if he becomes president could you work with him?

DAN OSBORN: Yeah, of course I could work with them. Well, I’ve been called a “communist” – so, I actually had to look that word up. You know these words get thrown around so much and people are so sick of it – the name-calling; you know, they call me names… I’ve never once called Fisher a name. I refuse to get into anything like that. So, yeah, I had to look up the word and luckily I am not a “communist”. So, that’s good. But, yeah I think people are just sick of that.

BLAIRTODAY: I just want to be clear. Do you believe Donald Trump is a fascist like Hitler and his supporters are Nazis?

DAN OSBORN: No, I do not.

BLAIRTODAY: What is the most important issue you believe, right now, for voters in Washington County? What should people know about you to vote for you? This is a very “red” town, county, state… What would you say to folks who think that you’re a Democrat in independent clothing?

DAN OSBORN: I’ve been a registered independent from the time you can vote, you can look up the details but secondly, you know, I’m a “worker for the workers,” that’s basically what I represent. I’m not taking corporate money; I’m not going to do their bidding. I’m not going to have a party boss; I’m not going to caucus with the Democrats. You can print all that. Because, I want to challenge the system. This is why all those attacks are coming against me right now, because I am challenging the status quo, and the status quo does not like to be challenged. There’s a lot of money coming from a lot of places to attack me right now, because, you know, it’s all about control. And, with an Osborn victory, I feel like they’ll lose a little bit of control. By that, I mean the establishment in general, the two-party system.

BLAIRTODAY: You know, the last comment you made – I must admit was the most clear comment I’ve heard you make on this. It should answer anyone. “Not Going To Caucus With The Democrats.” That’s pretty powerful. So, just anecdotally here in town, there’s lots of yards with Trump and Osborn signs in the same yard. I’m just curious your take on that. Have you seen that?

DAN OSBORN: I love it! It’s all around Nebraska. And you know if I lose… you know, what is it? Six days or five days now? It’s all flying by now. If I lose, at least I’ve accomplished some unity with neighbors. Because, I’ve seen my name with Harris signs, I’ve seen it with Trump signs, and that means a lot to me. I’m humbled by that, that we were able to accomplish that.

Dan Osborn, a former Kellogg’s maintenance worker turned political candidate, is running as an independent for U.S. Senate in Nebraska against incumbent Republican Deb Fischer. His political awakening came during the Kellogg’s strike, following years of 70-hour work weeks with little interest in politics. Osborn positions himself as a “worker for the workers” who refuses corporate PAC money and pledges not to caucus with Democrats if elected. His campaign, marked by aggressive ads including one where he blowtorches the word “lies” into a TV screen, focuses on challenging the two-party system, promoting government accountability, and advocating for railroad safety reform. A self-described candidate with a “libertarian streak” who favors smaller government, Osborn takes pride in seeing his campaign signs appearing alongside both Trump and Harris signs in Nebraska yards, viewing it as evidence that his independent message resonates across the political spectrum. Find out more about Dan Osborn at https://osbornforsenate.com/