Independent candidates are mounting Senate campaigns in at least four states President Trump carried handily two years ago, including Nebraska, Montana, Idaho and South Dakota—and Democrats are watching closely.
Dan Osborn, a 51-year-old Navy veteran, is running as an independent for Senate in Nebraska. At a campaign stop in North Platte in early September, Osborn courted voters frustrated with the Trump administration's economic policies.
Dan Morgan, a Democrat who runs a 15,000-acre ranch with 1,000 cows near Burwell, Nebraska, said he backs Osborn because Trump's tariff policies have upended his business. Morgan exports roughly half his cattle and said the uncertainty has damaged his three-year production cycle. "It's just hell," Morgan said.
Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, acknowledged the strategy: the party will not field its own Senate candidate in Nebraska but will work with independents who can appeal to rural voters hostile to the Democratic label. "If that means creating coalitions with independents in some of our states, then that's exactly what we need to do," Kleeb said.
Seth Bodnar, a former Green Beret and ex-president of the University of Montana, is running as an independent for Senate in Montana. He said voters are tired of partisan gridlock and wants to break the two-party stranglehold. "I'm going to have a jersey with an 'M' on it, and I'm going to work for Montana," Bodnar said.
Both candidates argue the two-party system has paralyzed Congress. Their campaigns come as Trump's approval ratings have declined and voters cite affordability as a top concern. Democrats see an opening: independents can win in red states where the party's brand is toxic, then caucus with Democrats in the Senate—potentially shifting control without having to field candidates who would lose badly.
