Dan Osborn, the Democratic Party–backed impartial working for Senate in Nebraska, has spent half of his marketing campaign courting voters vital of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
He has sharply condemned the president’s techniques, criticizing the use of masked brokers, saying that immigrant labor is important to Nebraska’s economic system and that federal raids on factories and eating places are hurting enterprise homeowners.
Complicating that message is Osborn’s function as a labor chief throughout a bitter strike 5 years in the past at an Omaha Kellogg’s cereal plant. In the midst of the strike, Osborn and his union labored to alert federal immigration authorities to allegations that Kellogg’s changed putting workers with undocumented immigrants.
“Kellogg’s bringing in replacement workers, we have it on good authority that they’re replacing us with a good percentage of undocumented workers,” Osborn said in December 2021 on a pro-union podcast. “We have been in contact with Homeland Security and ICE. We’ve made our claims. I hope they do the right thing and investigate our claims.”
Osborn supplied no proof within the interview that Kellogg’s was using undocumented workers, and NCS couldn’t independently confirm the allegation. While reporting on the time documented Kellogg’s use of non permanent alternative labor, no public reporting recognized any of these workers as undocumented, and NCS’s assessment of the document discovered no proof supporting the declare. Kellogg’s didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Osborn’s marketing campaign now says he by no means personally contacted ICE or DHS. Instead, Osborn known as the native sheriff’s division to ask how such allegations needs to be reported, the marketing campaign mentioned in a press release to NCS. He then handed that steering to his group, the marketing campaign mentioned, whereas others contacted federal authorities on their very own “in their individual capacity.”
A spokesperson for ICE declined to affirm or deny whether or not the company acquired any tip related to the Kellogg’s strike, citing a coverage of not figuring out individuals who report suspected immigration violations.
Less than two weeks after Osborn’s podcast look, workers ratified a brand new contract and the 77-day strike got here to an finish.
Osborn has constructed his political id as a pro-labor populist impartial — a Navy veteran and former union president who misplaced however overperformed in a 2024 Senate run and is now counting on a coalition that relies upon closely on Democratic voters who, polling exhibits, have grown sharply hostile to ICE.
Osborn’s feedback from 2021 may complicate that effort, particularly as immigration enforcement has turn out to be one of probably the most polarizing points in American politics — and as Osborn makes an attempt a balancing act that few candidates have managed.
His impartial model is dependent upon holding collectively Trump voters drawn to his financial populism and Democrats who anchor his coalition, and no subject strains that coalition greater than immigration.
On the path Osborn has tried to occupy the center, pairing robust border language with sympathy for longtime undocumented residents.
He has mentioned he needs longtime undocumented immigrants to have a path to citizenship, that immigrant labor is essential to filling Nebraska’s open jobs, and that undocumented immigrants ought to give you the chance to get Social Security playing cards as half of their course of of turning into authorized immigrants. He says he helps immigration reform, however solely when the border is safe with a wall.
Osborn’s additionally been unsparing in some of his criticism of Trump’s immigration techniques.
“I mentioned that it’s hurting businesses, but it’s also not humanly decent,” Osborn mentioned on The Bulwark podcast in August 2025. “We’re seeing factories, get raided, meat cutters get raided. We’re seeing people not showing up to work at restaurants. We are seeing business owners get hurt by this immigration policy. So the economic conservative side of me is extremely worried about that.”
A 2025 Pew Research Center survey underscores the political pressure round ICE for Democratic-backed candidates like Osborn: whereas 72% of Republicans considered ICE favorably, Democrats overwhelmingly considered the company negatively, with simply 13% expressing a positive opinion and 78% viewing it unfavorably.
A tense labor standoff with Kellogg’s
Osborn’s 2021 feedback got here within the midst of what was then a tense standoff between Kellogg’s and the labor union Osborn was main on the time.
Roughly 1,400 Kellogg’s workers throughout 4 US vegetation walked off the job over wages, advantages and the corporate’s two-tier employment system, which paid newer hires decrease wages and supplied fewer advantages than longtime “legacy” workers. As the strike dragged on, Kellogg’s threatened to completely replace putting workers and continued working vegetation with alternative labor.
At the time, Osborn was serving as president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers Local 50G. The strike ended after 77 days, when workers ratified a brand new contract on December 21, 2021, that raised wages for workers and created a path for newer workers to transfer into legacy positions. “It will be difficult to go back. There is a lot of tarnished relationships that we will work diligently to repair,” mentioned Osborn on the time.”
Asked by NCS about his efforts to alert authorities to Kellogg’s alternative workers , Osborn’s marketing campaign sought to draw a distinction between the candidate and others concerned within the strike, saying he personally by no means contacted federal immigration authorities.
“Dan contacted the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department to inquire about the proper procedures for how to investigate and report that the company was replacing their striking workers with undocumented workers. He passed the information from the Sheriff’s office along to members of his team,” his marketing campaign informed NCS. “Many of the individuals who raised the concerns about Kellogg’s replacing the striking workers with undocumented workers contacted DHS and ICE in their individual capacity. Dan never contacted DHS and ICE himself.”
The Nebraska Democratic Party’s resolution not to area its personal Senate candidate and as a substitute again Osborn stems largely from his unexpectedly strong 2024 Senate run, when, working as an impartial, he misplaced to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer by roughly 7 factors in a state Donald Trump carried by about 20 factors.
During that marketing campaign, Osborn continuously blended harder border rhetoric with requires broader immigration reform. In marketing campaign supplies, he argued that “illegal immigration creates a pool of cheap labor with no rights and is detrimental to every American worker,” whereas additionally emphasizing the financial significance of authorized immigration.
Osborn’s marketing campaign casts the Kellogg’s episode in those self same phrases, as a battle towards company energy moderately than towards immigrants.
“When we were on strike against Kellogg’s, we received reports that they may be bringing undocumented labor as our permanent replacements, and members of the community stood up to protect these local union jobs and hold corporate power accountable,” Osborn mentioned in a press release. “There’s a reason why we haven’t had real immigration reform in this country: mega-corporations who use Citizens United to fund career politicians in DC are benefitting from our broken immigration system by exploiting undocumented immigrants to create a cheap pool of labor, driving down wages to boost their own profits while undercutting American workers.”
Osborn now’s mounting a second straight Senate run, this time towards Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts — a former governor and Trump endorsee.
In a September 2024 campaign ad, Osborn declared: “I’m where President Trump is on corruption, China, the border. If Trump needs help building the wall — well, I’m pretty handy.” He additionally mentioned: “Social security to illegals? Who would be for that?”
At the identical time, Osborn additionally spoke sympathetically about long-term undocumented immigrants already dwelling within the United States.
“These people are our friends. They’re our neighbors. A lot of them have been here 30 years or more, and I think it’s time they get into Social Security already,” Osborn said throughout a 2024 interview, whereas additionally arguing Nebraska may “certainly use immigrant labor” to assist fill open jobs.