Cindy Burbank won Nebraska's Democratic Senate primary, NBC News projects, in a result that may have been designed with her potential exit in mind. Burbank defeated pastor William Forbes to secure the party's nomination, though she has signaled willingness to abandon the race if polling shows she cannot prevail in November.
The path forward remains unusual. Burbank said in a recent interview that she would drop out "when and if the time comes that I cannot win in November," timing her decision to remove her name from the ballot if necessary. She plans to base that judgment on polling data, she explained, denying suggestions that she ran primarily as a spoiler candidate meant to block others.
What makes this race distinctive is the presence of independent Dan Osborn, a steamfitter and former union organizer who came closer than any Democrat has in two decades to winning statewide office. Osborn lost his 2024 Senate bid against GOP incumbent Deb Fischer by 7 points, a surprisingly narrow margin in a state Trump carried by 20 points. He has already begun preparing another challenge, this time against Republican Pete Ricketts, who easily won his own primary and is running for his first full term after winning a special election in 2024.
The Nebraska Democratic Party had declined to nominate anyone for this race, hoping to create space for Osborn to face Ricketts without a third candidate splitting the vote. That strategy fractured when William Forbes, a pastor with ties to Trump, filed as a Democrat at the last minute. Democrats accused him of being a Republican plant designed to muddy the primary and siphon votes from Osborn in the general election. Forbes denied the allegation during an interview with CNN.
Burbank, a pharmacy technician, entered the race shortly before the filing deadline after hearing about Republican efforts to place a Democratic candidate on the ballot. She said unnamed individuals from previous campaigns encouraged her to run, though she clarified they had no connection to Nebraska Democratic Party chair Jane Kleeb or Osborn's team.
The Democratic Party nonetheless backed Burbank over Forbes in the primary, with Kleeb describing Forbes as a "Ricketts plant." Burbank has been publicly complimentary of Osborn, writing on her campaign website that "he deserves a fair shot against Ricketts." When pressed on that language, she acknowledged that "for me to stay on the ballot and take votes away from Osborn, it's not fair."
Osborn has cultivated an independent political identity. He has stressed he would not caucus with either party if elected. Republicans have nonetheless attacked him as a Democrat in disguise, pointing to private praise he once gave Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In 2024, Osborn cast his presidential ballot for United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, bypassing both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Trump has already endorsed Ricketts, who is using his campaign to tout tax cuts. Democrats have not won a statewide Senate race in Nebraska since 2006, making the path forward challenging regardless of Osborn's candidacy.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "This is what happens when one party tries to engineer its way out of relevance: a nominee openly admitting she might bail out, an independent getting all the oxygen, and the Republican sitting pretty. Nebraska Democrats are betting Osborn can do what the party cannot."
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