Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts declared victory over registered nonpartisan Dan Osborn in Nebraska's U.S. Senate race, delivering a late-night victory speech even though ballots were still being tallied across the state. Ricketts declared victory Tuesday night, before the Associated Press had officially called the contest.
According to the Nebraska Examiner, Ricketts declared victory Tuesday even as results from the race were still coming in. By 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, the outlet reported, a winner had not yet been called by the Associated Press and only 78 percent of votes had been counted. At that point, Ricketts held a 34,000-vote lead over Osborn, 49.6 percent to 44.4 percent, per the newspaper's tally. The race was called in Ricketts's favor and he delivered a late-night victory speech, according to the Lincoln Journal Star.
Other outlets painted a similarly unsettled but Ricketts-favoring picture overnight. Decision Desk HQ projected that Ricketts had defeated Osborn, keeping the seat under Republican control, as reported by The Hill. That outlet put Ricketts at about 49 percent and Osborn just over 45 percent with 41 percent of the vote reported as of early Wednesday — a different snapshot than the Nebraska Examiner's, reflecting how fluid the count remained through the night.
Conflicting Snapshots as Ballots Kept Coming
With ballots still being counted, the race had not yet been called by the Associated Press, though Ricketts held a lead.
Osborn himself was candid about his odds as the night wore on. Speaking to the Nebraska Examiner, he said there was a “5% chance” he could win, depending on the next batch of votes expected from more urban areas of the state. The former union leader appeared to have improved on his performance compared to his 2024 challenge of Sen. Deb Fischer, according to the same report — though accounts of that earlier margin differ: the Nebraska Examiner said he lost by 6 percentage points, while The Hill reported he came within 7 percentage points of Fischer.
Minor-Party Candidates Draw Notable Share
Preliminary results also showed candidates from two newly formed political parties pulling a combined 6 percent of the vote, per the Nebraska Examiner's reporting. Working People Party candidate Robin Richards received 2.6 percent, America First Party's Chuck Conboy got 1.2 percent, and Legal Marijuana NOW's Mike Marvin — who had suspended his campaign but remained on the ballot — took 2.2 percent.
The contest drew national attention and tens of millions of dollars into Nebraska, as noted by the Lincoln Journal Star, which also described Ricketts as prevailing over Osborn and securing his first full six-year term in the Senate. President Trump, who backed Ricketts, visited the state as part of a broader red-state campaign push in the weeks ahead of the election, The Hill reported.
A Rematch Years in the Making
Ricketts first arrived in the Senate after winning the 2024 race to fill out the remainder of former Sen. Ben Sasse's term, The Hill noted. That same cycle, Fischer secured her own third term by defeating Osborn, as KETV reported at the time, with Fischer saying afterward that she believed her seniority would let her “deliver a lot more for the state of Nebraska.” Osborn's second straight statewide bid against a Republican incumbent again tested whether a nonpartisan, union-backed challenger could break through in a deep-red state — a question that, as vote counting continued into Wednesday, remained tied to ballots still being processed across Nebraska's counties.
