Kellogg Fired a Union Leader for Watching Netflix at Work. Now He’s Running for Senate
Five minutes with the former union leader about making a career change and what he wants to accomplish if he’s elected.
Dan Osborn, a 48-year-old labor-leader-turned-political-novice, is running as an independent against two-term incumbent Nebraska Republican Senator Deb Fischer. Third-party races are always long shots and this one is no different: While Osborn had raised $158,000 by the end of 2023, according to his campaign, that’s only a fraction of the $4 million that Fischer has, according to OpenSecrets. Still, one November poll found him leading Fischer 40% to 38% — despite 59% of voters having never heard of him. There are no announced Democratic challengers.
Before jumping into the senatorial race, Osborn was a union leader at Kellogg Co. who helped organize a 1,400-worker strike across multiple cereal plants in 2021. (Kellogg has since split into two companies: Kellanova and WK Kellogg Co.) With support from President Joe Biden and Nebraska’s other Republican Senator Pete Ricketts, who was the state's governor at the time, the strike ended with raises and improved benefits.