Chuck Schumer has an uphill battle ahead of him if he hopes to remain Senate Majority Leader come 2025.
The GOP had multiple ripe pickup opportunities on the Senate map this cycle.
And Chuck Schumer’s best chance to flip a seat just got busted.
Is Nebraska in danger of turning blue?
In 2016, Donald Trump trounced Hillary Clinton by 25-points in Nebraska.
In 2020, Cornhusker State voters gave the 45th President of the United States a 19-point victory over Joe Biden.
In the 2022 Midterms, GOP candidate Jim Pillen won the governorship by 23.5-points over his Democrat opponent.
Nebraska’s entire Congressional Delegation is made up of Republicans.
The point is, the Cornhusker State is deep red.
However, the dark red state of Nebraska may have been the Democrat Party’s best opportunity to hold on to control of the U.S. Senate.
If Trump wins the White House, the GOP would have needed a net gain of one senate seat to take control of the Upper Chamber, they’d have needed two if Kamala Harris wins a promotion.
West Virginia seemed all but signed, sealed, and delivered for Republicans, and Montana wasn’t far away.
Republicans also had realistic pickup opportunities in: Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Arizona – with outside shots in New Mexico and Virginia.
Meanwhile, Democrats have desperately tried to take out America-First Senators Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Rick Scott in Missouri, Texas, and Florida, respectively.
Polling showed their efforts largely failing before Election Day.
Deb Fischer vs. Dan Osborn
But an independent candidate was getting the job done where Democrats couldn’t.
Dan Osborn ran as an independent against Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE).
Fischer won her races in 2012 and 2018 by 15.5-points and 20-points, respectively.
But Osborn’s independent schtick seemed to be sticking with some voters.
The union fat cat Osborn ran as a blue-collar conservative – when nothing could be further from the truth.
However, his message had him within striking distance of the incumbent.
Real Clear Politics recently downgraded the race – that had been considered safe – from likely Republican to lean Republican.
Meanwhile, FiveThirtyEight’s aggregate of polling had Fischer up by just a single point against Osborn at one point.
But as Election Day quickly approached, Osborn’s momentum was at risk thanks to his own words.
Dan Osborn: “I am willing to sell my vote for low five figures”
In politics, it’s often believed that politicians sell their votes to the highest bidder.
Nebraskans saw that play out during the first term of the Barack Obama White House, with then-Cornhusker Senator Democrat Ben Nelson and the infamous “Cornhusker Kickback,” which led to Nelson becoming the deciding vote, passing ObamaCare.
But Osborn is taking the phrase way too literally.
The Washington Examiner reported in October that Osborn hosted a campaign fundraising landing page where he said his vote was for sale for five-figures.
“While Senator Deb Fischer has taken millions of dollars in corporate PAC funds,” the page read. “I am willing to sell my vote for low five figures, max.”
The starling admission was found by The Washington Examiner utilizing the online Wayback Machine software.
According to the report, the archived version was live from April to September.
It has since been deleted.
A socialist wolf in conservative sheep clothing
Voters are looking for authenticity and honesty from politicians, but Osborn’s outright admitting his vote is for sale to the highest bidder is more destructive than Monty Brewster in Brewster’s Millions.
However, maybe it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.
Osborn is not as he seems.
While he ran as a good ‘ole boy with family values – Osborn is a socialist.
As the Washington Free Beacon recently reported, “Osborn is a big fan of Bernie Sanders” and his former finance director “wrote the blueprint on how to achieve ‘socialism in our lifetime.’”
Osborn’s campaign also received money from organizations funded by billionaire socialist George Soros.
And according to The Washington Examiner Nebraska radical leftist Reid Hoffman – founder of LinkedIn – established a Super PAC, Railroaders for Public Safety, that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars flooding Nebraska’s airwaves with lies about Senator Fischer.
