From the New York Times:
…Another option for Democrats is to avoid fielding a candidate altogether — and to back an independent candidate instead. That strategy made recent races more competitive in Alaska, Utah and Nebraska, though Republicans ultimately prevailed.
In Nebraska, Mr. Osborn is exploring a second independent run on a populist message. A Navy veteran and mechanic, he far outperformed former Vice President Kamala Harris and forced Republicans to spend millions of dollars to keep the seat last year. Mr. Osborn reported several big donations from national Democrats after the election.
Paul Rieckhoff, who runs the group Independent Veterans of America, predicted that as many as five independent Senate candidates in the mold of Mr. Osborn could run in 2026, though he acknowledged that Mr. Osborn would probably have “much more of a hill to climb” as a second-time candidate.
“He doesn’t get a second bite at that,” Joanna Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Senate Republicans, said of Mr. Osborn’s attempts to run as an independent.
Last week, an independent candidate, Brian Bengs, entered the South Dakota Senate race after losing heavily as a Democrat in 2022. That year, he said in an interview, he met many voters who agreed with him only to add that they would never vote for him.
“They ruled out any possibility of supporting me,” he said, “because the letter D was beside my name.”
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