Former union leader Dan Osborn, the Nebraska independent candidate for U.S. senate, paid his wife tens of thousands of dollars in salary in the weeks before launching his latest political campaign, records show.
The Osborn for Senate Exploratory Committee paid Megan Osborn $18,848 for “salary” and another $2,603 in travel reimbursements between April 17 and June 27, according to campaign disclosures filed this week. Osborn, who ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Deb Fischer (R.) last year, launched his sophomore try on July 8 against Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, merging the exploratory with his formal campaign.
Though campaigns are allowed to pay salaries to candidates and their family members as long as payments represent “fair market value” for “bona fide services,” ethics watchdogs and many members of Congress have criticized the practice.
The nature of Megan Osborn’s work for the campaign is unclear, and she appears to have no previous experience working on political campaigns. According to Osborn’s financial disclosure last year, Megan Osborn worked at a sports bar in Omaha, where she earned at least $1,000 in wages. Osborn made $96,000 in wages from two companies.
Osborn’s team did not respond to a request for comment about his wife’s role on the campaign.
Lawmakers of both parties have proposed legislation to prevent candidates from funneling cash to their spouses. “Regardless of political party, we should all be able to agree that running for political office shouldn’t be part of a family enrichment scheme,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R., Wisc.), a co-sponsor of one such bill, said in 2023.
That bill was based on legislation proposed in 2007 by then-Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.), now a member of the Senate, who called it “an important step forward in restoring the public’s confidence that elected officials are working in the public’s interest and not their own.”
The Osborn campaign also paid Megan Osborn last cycle, though the payments so far this year already match what she was paid in 2024. According to campaign records, the Osborn campaign paid Megan Osborn $18,000 from June 4, 2024, to Dec. 4, 2024, for “scheduling services” and around $4,000 more in reimbursements for travel and other expenses.
Osborn himself pocketed a salary of $7,100 each month of the campaign last year, an expense he defended as necessary to replace wages lost from his regular job.
Though Osborn is running as an Independent, he has received significant backing from Democrats, leading to allegations that he is misleading voters about his true party affiliation.
Osborn says he will not caucus with either party if elected, but he received significant support last year from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), whose super PAC gave nearly $4 million to a group that backed Osborn. Schumer said in an interview last October that he was hopeful that Osborn would win his race, and thus flip a GOP-held seat. Osborn quickly distanced himself from Schumer’s remarks, saying he had never met the Democratic leader.
But there are many other signs that Osborn harbors Democratic sympathies. His campaign treasurers, who also run a pro-Osborn group called “Conservatives for Osborn,” previously worked for the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign and the DNC. And Osborn’s campaign uses the Democratic fundraising juggernaut ActBlue to process campaign contributions.
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