Osborn was a featured speaker at the Young Democrats of America’s Winter Summit in December 2021 as he led strike against Kellogg’s
Dan Osborn, the Independent Nebraska Senate candidate endorsed by Democrats, ducked out of a picket line in 2021 to address a far-left convention of young Democrats that featured a land acknowledgment, calls for amnesty for illegal immigrants, and a resolution to let prostitutes form a labor union.
Osborn, who claims to be a lifelong Independent with an aversion to partisan politics, is challenging GOP senator Pete Ricketts in a surprisingly competitive race in deep red Nebraska. At the time of the outlandish 2021 Young Democrats conference, Osborn was leading a 77-day union strike against a Kellogg’s plant in Omaha.
Osborn was a featured guest speaker at the Young Democrats of America’s Winter Digital Summit on Dec. 4, 2021, where he updated the activists on the status of his ongoing Kellogg’s strike, which he initiated two months prior. During the same summit, the young Democrats held a national committee meeting, which opened with a land acknowledgment and a formal reading of an affirmative action statement before it voted to approve its 2021 policy platform, which called for a host of far-left policies including abolishing ICE, amnesty for illegal immigrants, a carbon tax to fund a Green New Deal, abolishing voter ID laws, and Medicare for All.
The Young Democrats of America describes itself as the “official youth arm of the Democratic Party.” Osborn spoke before the group’s labor caucus, which in 2021 led the organization’s fight for the “right for gig-economy and sex workers to form, join, and participate in labor unions.”
A recording or transcript of Osborn’s speech at the group’s 2021 Winter Digital Summit is not available. Still, his speech appears to have struck a chord with the Young Democrats of America, which passed a resolution during the summit to stand in solidarity with Osborn’s union in its strike against Kellogg’s. The resolution also contained a line reaffirming its support of its pro-sex worker labor policy platform.
Today, Osborn frames Kellogg’s strike as the defining event that prompted his entry into electoral politics. His campaign biography touts that, if elected, he “will be the only US Senator with a union card in my wallet.” But union leaders have long broken bread with elements of the far left, something that may not sit well with some red state voters.
Osborn is effectively the Democratic nominee after the winner of the Democratic Senate primary in the state withdrew from the race and Nebraska’s Democratic Party endorsed Osborn—who made a strong if unsuccessful Senate run in 2024—soon afterward. Still, he has maintained his Independent bona fides, promising he won’t caucus with either party if elected and that his independence will let him work with Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.
But behind the scenes, Osborn can speak more like the youth activists he addressed at the Young Democrats of America’s Winter Summit in 2021. In leaked audio recordings from this summer, Osborn can be heard denigrating supporters of President Donald Trump, saying their lives “probably suck.” In another recording, Osborn called the border wall a “symbol of racism,” despite running campaign ads during his 2024 campaign showing him wielding a blowtorch and offering to help Trump construct his southern border wall.
Other undercover audio obtained by Townhall shows Osborn saying at a campaign event that he can be a voice for the LGBTQ community and illegal immigrants in the Senate, but only after winning his election by framing himself as a moderate to Nebraska’s Republican-dominated electorate.
“The state is made up of 50 percent Republicans, 26 percent Democrat, 24 percent independents,” Osborn said, according to Townhall. “So my win numbers, mathematically, I have to get probably 10 to 15 percent of Republicans to win this race. How am I going to do that by f***ing saying, ‘Oh, I love trans people, and they should be able to play in sports!’ F**k no, Jane, that’s not how I win.”
“I can go and I can be the voice for LGBTQ and immigration and all of these issues. Then I lose the election,” Osborn added. “It feels good in the moment. At the end of the day, I’m gonna win this election. And then I’ll be the Senator for six years and everybody else can f-off.”
Osborn spoke before the Young Democrats of America during a critical juncture of his Kellogg’s strike. The day after his speech, the union voted overwhelmingly to reject a proposed deal from Kellogg’s to end the strike.
The strike ended a few weeks later on Dec. 21, 2021, when Osborn’s union ratified a five-year labor deal with Kellogg’s. It was a pyrrhic victory for Osborn and his union. Kellogg’s announced in August 2024 plans to shut down the Omaha plant. By August 2026, the plant was fully decommissioned, and more than 450 workers had lost their jobs.
An Osborn campaign spokesman said Osborn’s participation as a featured speaker in the Young Democrats of America summit shouldn’t be interpreted as an endorsement of its policy positions.
“Dan’s strike update was not an endorsement of any resolutions passed by YDA. Dan is not a member of the Democratic Party, nor does he endorse its party platform, or that of any of its affiliates,” the spokesman told the Washington Free Beacon. “The update occurred around the same time as Dan’s receipt of a letter from Governor Ricketts in support of the Kellogg’s workers and their strike.”
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