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FIRST ON FOX – When Nebraska Democrats gather in Omaha on Friday for a gala headlined by the former president Joe Bidenthey will be greeted by a blitz of mobile billboard advertising that will link the Senate candidate to some highly recognizable – and polarizing – rising figures in the Democratic Party.
The re-election campaign of Sen. Pete Ricketts, a Republican, is using mobile billboards with bright neon graphics portraying his rival, independent candidate Dan Osborne, as a “fake independent” and representative of the far-left future of the Democratic Party, along with New York's elected socialist mayor Zohran Mamdani and controversial Maine candidate Graham Platner.
“The Nebraska Democratic brand is too toxic to nominate a candidate under a party label.” Ricketts Campaign Communications director Will Cope told Fox News Digital. “Even though fake Dan Osborne doesn’t have a D next to his name, he still espouses the party’s most extreme left-wing beliefs.”
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Dan Osborne (left), an independent candidate for U.S. Senate from Nebraska, is tied in the re-election campaign of Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani (center) and Graham Platner (right), a U.S. Senate candidate from Maine. (Sophie Park/Getty Images)
Biden will speak at Nebraska Democratic Party Ben Nelson 2025 Gala in Downtown Omaha. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn were also invited as speakers.
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Omaha is considered a “blue dot” in Republican Nebraska. Nebraska is one of two states that allocates electoral votes by congressional district, and Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, which includes Omaha, typically votes for the Democratic presidential candidate.
Although the district voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, Republican Rep. Don Bacon nonetheless won re-election to his U.S. House seat in the same district. Bacon will not run for re-election in 2026.
Although Osborne is running as an independent, Chairwoman Jane Kleeb confirmed that the Nebraska Democratic Party is “supportive” of his attempt to unseat Ricketts, a two-term senator and former governor of Nebraska.
The re-election campaign of Senator Pete Ricketts, Republican of Nebraska, launched mobile billboards in Omaha, Nebraska on Friday, November 7, 2025, linking independent candidate Dan Osborne to the Democrats. (Ricketts Campaign)
“Nebraska Democrats proudly support Dan Osborne,” will be the message on one of the three mobile billboards.
Ricketts' campaign called Osborne a “fake” independent, another message that will be on display in downtown Omaha on Friday.
“Osborne’s campaign even employs the same people who ran socialist Zohran Mamdani’s campaign in New York. Communist, socialist and fake independent candidate: this is the best the Democratic Party has to offer,” Koop told Fox News Digital.
Mamdani and Osbourne share 28-year-old media strategist Morris Katz Vanity Fair reports.
Katz is also the company's media strategist. Graham Platnercontroversial candidate running for US Senate in Maine next year.
Senator Pete Ricketts, Republican of Nebraska, will arrive on Capitol Hill on Thursday, September 21, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Between 2020 and 2021, Platner made and has since deleted posts on Reddit calling himself a “communist,” something he recently said he was “joking” about.
Platner faced calls to quit his career Senate raceand one campaign manager resigned after facing backlash for photographs showing he had a tattoo resembling the Totenkopf used by Hitler's SS paramilitaries.
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An image of Platner with “communist” written across his face will be featured on one of the mobile billboards, along with “fake 'independent'” on Osborne and “socialist” on Mamdani, above a slogan describing “the future of the Democratic Party.”
Osborne, a union leader who last year ran as an independent against Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer, is now seeking his second straight run to unseat a Republican incumbent in the U.S. Senate.
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Fox News Digital has reached out to Nebraska Democrats Biden, Platner and Mamdani for comment.
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagström contributed to this report.
