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U.S. Sen.
Pete Ricketts speaks during the Republican election night watch party at the Beardmore Event Center in Bellevue on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Sen.
Pete Ricketts' reelection bid Thursday in a social media post that came more than 18 months before Nebraskans will return to the polls for the 2026 midterms. Trump said Ricketts, the state's former governor, is "doing a terrific job for the People of Nebraska!" in a Thursday evening post to Truth Social, the platform he founded in 2022. The president praised Ricketts' work on agricultural issues, immigration, crime, taxes and economic issues and sought to draw a contrast between Ricketts and Dan Osborn, the former union leader who is mulling a challenge to Ricketts in 2026 after running a closer-than-expected race against Republican Sen.
Deb Fischer last year. "Pete is one of the strongest senators in the country on border security, whereas his potential opponent, Dan Osborn, is a radical left open border extremist, who will put our country, and safety, LAST," the president wrote. "Pete, on the other hand, will ALWAYS put Nebraska, and America, FIRST.
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"Senator Pete Ricketts has my complete and total endorsement for re-election — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!" Trump's early endorsement of Ricketts came days after Osborn, who came within 7% of unseating Fischer last year in a state where Trump won by more than 20 points, launched an exploratory committee for a potential challenge to the incumbent last week. Dan Osborn, 2024 Nebraska Senate candidate And the president's post came the same day a poll commissioned by Osborn's exploratory committee showed the U.S.
Navy veteran trailing Ricketts by 1% in the hypothetical Senate matchup. The poll, which showed Ricketts leading Osborn 46% to 45% with a 4.6% margin of error, indicated Ricketts is almost universally known by state voters but is also unpopular.
Less than 40% of respondents viewed him favorably. Less than two-thirds of Republicans surveyed (62%) had a favorable opinion of Ricketts, while 89% viewed Trump favorably, according to the poll. Jessica Flanagain, a longtime campaign adviser to Ricketts, cast doubt on this month's poll, pointing to Osborn-funded surveys from last year's election that showed him leading Fischer by margins as high as six points in a race he lost by 6.
7%. “The last time Dan Osborn tried to use fake polling to get media attention, he lost — and the polling was off by 13 points," Flanagain said in a statement. "Senator Ricketts earned the most votes in state history last November because he has a proven track record of lowering taxes, making government more efficient, and defending our values.
" Osborn, meanwhile, called the poll "encouraging" and said it "matches the frustration I hear everyday from people across Nebraska: People are pissed off." He linked Ricketts to billionaire Elon Musk and his controversial Department of Government Efficiency, which Ricketts has defended . "They are working to destroy the programs that so many Nebraskans rely on — truck drivers, teachers, nurses, seniors, and yeah, even mechanics," said Osborn, a 50-year-old steamfitter and former industrial mechanic.
"And while they destroy critical programs regular people rely on, Ricketts and Musk are using their money and power to rig the system so it only works for them." Trump's endorsement reflects how serious Republicans are taking Osborn with still more than year to go before the midterms. The president did not endorse Fischer until September — after polls had shown Osborn within striking distance.
After Osborn launched his exploratory committee last week, every Republican in Nebraska's congressional delegation took to social media to endorse Ricketts and attack his potential challenger. Osborn has publicly mulled another run for office in the months since his nonpartisan bid to unseat Fischer fell short but proved surprisingly competitive across Nebraska, a reliably red state that has not sent a non-Republican to the Senate since 2006. A former labor leader who led a 77-day strike at the Kellogg's cereal plant in Omaha in 2021, Osborn cast himself as "a voice for the working-class people" and made a last-minute bid for Trump voters, airing ads featuring testimonials from Trump voters backing Osborn and one that featured Osborn indicating he could personally help Trump build a wall at the U.
S.-Mexico border. Trump, meanwhile, called Osborn "a Democrat in disguise" in an ad for Fischer's campaign.
Download the new Journal Star News Mobile App Top Journal Star photos for April 2025 Cows graze in the fields below as Sandhill Cranes take flight at sunrise along the Platte River on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Kearney. The Cranes eat corn from the grain fields and then sleep on the sandbars. The largest congregation of sandhill cranes occurs from February to early April along the Platte River in Nebraska.
Gretna East senior Sonora DeFini scores against Lincoln Southwest with a header during a high school soccer game on Monday, April 7, 2025, at Beechner Athletic Complex. Halsey, a Great Horned Owl, looks through a kaleidoscope of mirrors on display on Saturday, April 5, 2025, at Indian Center Inc in Lincoln. Lincoln Southwest's Sole Jones (center) competes against other athletes in heat one of the girls 400m during a track and field invitational at Union Bank Stadium on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Lincoln.
A bee covered in pollen buzzes from flower to flower on Sunday, April 6, 2025, at the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln. Jarrek Renshaw, a lead mechanic, works on an engine in a testing area at Duncan Aviation on Wednesday. Duncan is expanding its engine overhaul facility, which will allow it to test engines for Canadian aerospace manufacturer Pratt & Whitney.
University of Kansas students Remi Ward (left) and Jess Judd test out their concrete canoe Friday at Holmes Lake. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Engineering hosted a competition in which college students from across the region used their own concrete mixes to design and build canoes -- some more than 20 feet long and weighing more than 300 pounds. The canoes were tested for buoyancy and raced at Holmes Lakes.
The event was part of the American Society of Civil Engineers' Mid-America Student Symposium hosted by UNL from Thursday through Saturday. Rutgers’ Yomar Carreras (left) slides into home as Nebraska’s Will Jesske tags him out on Sunday at Haymarket Park. An early voter drops off her ballot at a drop box at the Lancaster County Election Commission Office, 601 N.
46th St., on Friday in Lincoln. The primary election is Tuesday.
Sandhill Cranes excitedly dance with one another as they begin to stir along the sandbars on the Platte River the morning of Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Kearney. Hundreds of thousands of Sandhill Cranes have been converging on the Platte Basin for their annual migration to their northern breeding grounds. Every spring, as sandhill cranes are migrating to their breeding grounds, cranes without partners will start pairing up.
During this time, the cranes perform dancing displays. Although the dancing is most common in the breeding season, the cranes can dance all year long. Sometimes the dance involves wing-flapping, bowing, and jumping.
Nebraska defensive line coach Terry Bradden talks to players during a team practice on Tuesday, April 8, 2025, at Hawks Championship Center. Jacob Huebert, president of the Liberty Justice Center, argues at the Nebraska Supreme Court in a case over the city's ban on guns in public places on Thursday, April 3, 2025, at the Capitol. Gov.
Jim Pillen (right) greets World War II veterans Clare Sward (from left) and Jay Cawley on Tuesday in Lincoln. Lincoln Pius X's Tatum Heimes (from left) and Ana Patera look on as Gretna East's Lily Frederick (far right) celebrates a goal with teammate Madi Shelburne during a high school soccer game on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Lincoln. Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or awegley@journalstar.
com . On Twitter @andrewwegley Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. State government reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
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