Dan Osborn, the Nebraska "independent" mounting a challenge to Sen. Pete Ricketts, has directed more than $370,000 from his campaign coffers and affiliated PAC to his own family members, according to FEC filings reviewed by Fox News Digital. His wife alone has collected at least $246,000 across the 2024 and 2026 cycles.
For a man who brands himself as a working-class crusader against the millionaire's club in Washington, the Osborn household has done remarkably well off the donations of small-dollar supporters.
The payments span Osborn's two Senate campaigns and flow through both his campaign account and the Working Class Heroes Fund, his affiliated PAC. The biggest beneficiary is his wife, Megan Osborn, a former restaurant manager who once ran an Omaha sports pub. She received six payments totaling roughly $19,000 between April and June. Over $100,000 was funneled to a Wyoming-based political consulting firm she co-owns called Independent Campaigns.
That firm's existence only came to light after Osborn filed an amended financial disclosure, which happened after the press started asking questions. Transparency, apparently, is something the Osborn operation embraces only under duress.
The family enterprise doesn't stop with Megan. Osborn's daughter, Georgia, described as a part-time dancer, received $4,200 from the then-dormant campaign for "assistant services" during the gap between his failed 2024 bid and the launch of his 2026 run. His sister-in-law Jodi, who serves as treasurer of the Working Class Heroes Fund, picked up $1,400 for "treasurer services" at the end of 2025.
Osborn himself draws a salary of around $120,000 from his campaign. Add it all up, and the family takes from donor money north of $370,000 starts to look less like a grassroots operation and more like a family business.
Osborn's justification leans heavily on the idea that ordinary Americans can't afford to run for office without paying themselves. He told the Lincoln Journal Star:
"I work 40, 50 and even 90 hours per week on the campaign trail. Megan does too. Most Senators have millions, even billions. But we've learned that it's almost impossible to run for Senate as a regular person who needs to pay the bills and put food on the table. That's why the Senate has become a country club full of millionaires, and it's why less than 2 percent of our politicians come from the working class."
It's a compelling populist pitch. And in 2023, the FEC did make it easier for candidates to pay themselves, specifically to give less wealthy individuals a fair shot. Nobody begrudges a candidate a reasonable salary.
But there's a difference between a candidate drawing a living wage and routing a quarter-million dollars to a spouse through a consulting firm that nobody knew existed until reporters came knocking. Perre Neilan, a longtime Nebraska political strategist and former executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party, drew the distinction plainly:
"If you're James Carville, and you're running, and you hire your wife Mary Matalin, that's one thing. But this one, I think – this one stinks."
The Carville comparison is instructive. Mary Matalin was one of the most recognized political operatives in America. Megan Osborn managed a sports pub. Critics have flagged her lack of political experience, and the campaign's defense amounts to asserting she has been "instrumental in recruiting, preparing and supporting multiple working-class candidates." That may be true. But when the proof of your qualifications only surfaces in a damage-control statement to a newspaper, the claim carries less weight.
The payments to family members are only part of the picture. Osborn's "independent" branding deserves its own scrutiny. Consider the infrastructure surrounding his campaign:
One of Fight Agency's leaders said they were struck by Osborn's "overperformance" in 2024, leading him to conclude "that Democrats need to run a lot of different kinds of campaigns." That's a revealing admission. Not that independents need support. Democrats need to run different kinds of campaigns. Osborn, in this framing, isn't an independent at all. He's an alternative packaging strategy for the Democratic Party in a state where the Democratic brand can't win.
Osborn has indicated no plans to caucus with either party if elected. Given the donor infrastructure, the endorsements, and the consulting relationships, that claim requires a level of credulity most Nebraska voters shouldn't be expected to extend.
Megan Osborn's consulting firm, Independent Campaigns, isn't just servicing her husband's race. Nathan Sage, a Democrat running for Senate in Iowa, has also paid thousands to the firm, per FEC filings. The family business is expanding.
Meanwhile, Osborn's campaign made headlines in December for hiring a staffer described as "anti-cop" who was seen at an anti-police event featuring severed pig heads. The campaign has not been named as facing any legal action over the family payments, and no laws appear to have been broken. What's legal and what's right, however, are two different questions.
The 2023 FEC rule change was designed to remove barriers for working-class Americans who want to serve. It was not designed to transform a Senate campaign into a family employment program funded by donors who think they're supporting a populist insurgency. Every dollar that goes to Megan's consulting firm or Georgia's "assistant services" is a dollar that didn't go to voter outreach, advertising, or field operations.
Osborn lost to Sen. Deb Fischer in a tight race in 2024. He's back now, targeting Ricketts, and the Democratic machinery is once again propping up his "independent" run. The question isn't whether Osborn is legally entitled to pay his family from campaign funds. He probably is.
The question is whether a candidate who presents himself as the antidote to Washington's insider culture should be converting donor money into a family payroll while hiding his wife's consulting firm until journalists force the disclosure. Populism is a powerful thing. But it has to be real. When the working-class hero's family has pulled $370,000 from the campaign till, voters are entitled to wonder whose class interests are actually being served.