Nebraska Democrats nominated a candidate who has promised to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate ― and that’s exactly the outcome they wanted.
The Associated Press called the primary for Cindy Burbank, a retired pharmacy technician, not long after polls closed on Tuesday night. Burbank, who ran with the party’s endorsement, won 89% of the vote and has promised to drop out of the race to clear the way for independent candidate Dan Osborn.
Her opponent was William Forbes, a pastor who supported President Donald Trump in the past. Forbes was seen as a GOP plant who hoped to win the nomination and pull votes away from Osborn to help incumbent GOP Sen. Pete Ricketts.
Osborn, a union mechanic who mixes conservative views on social issues with economic populism and has promised not to caucus with either party, is seen as the state’s best chance of ousting a Republican senator. Osborn has raised nearly $3.9 million for his campaign, and only lost to the state’s other GOP senator, Deb Fischer, by 7 percentage points, even as Trump won the state by 21 percentage points.
A Democratic poll released Tuesday found Osborn with a 46% to 42% edge over Ricketts, with 12% of voters undecided.
