Dan Osborn, the Independent Senate Candidate Who Could Tip Nebraska

The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. When you look at the current makeup of Congress, and the Senate in particular, Democrats have got a big numbers problem. For a generation or more they've been concentrating in big urban areas, leaving more rural states trending heavily Republican.

Now we often hear that Democrats are fighting to be competitive in parts of the country where they've already been counted out, but that's easier said than done. With partisanship so high in the country, That means winning over voters who are not just skeptical, but hostile. Right now, it's a government for the 1% and the corporations, and I think we're fed up. Dan Osborne of Nebraska would probably be a dream candidate for the Democrats.

He's a blue-collar mechanic in the food processing industry, he's a union leader, an economic populist, and a veteran of the Navy and the Army National Guard. But Osborne isn't a Democrat, and he doesn't want to associate with either party. He's running as an independent, which is not an easy choice for him because it makes fundraising and generally running a campaign a great deal harder. And yet polls are showing that Dan Osborne is running neck and neck with Pete Ricketts. the Republican incumbent in a very Republican state.

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