Democratic operatives enlist Marc Elias to back independent Senate hopeful Dan Osborn in Nebraska

Nebraska Democrats have turned to Marc Elias, the former election attorney for Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris, to bolster Dan Osborn’s independent bid for the U.S. Senate. Court documents show Elias’s firm is suing to block the Nebraska Working People Party, a far-left third party, from appearing on the November ballot, while representing the state Democratic Party and the Working Families Party. This tactic mirrors similar maneuvers in other Senate contests, where Democrats have substituted independent candidates for their own nominees in states such as South Dakota and Idaho.

Osborn, who previously captured more than 46 percent of the vote as an independent, is funded through ActBlue and employs Fight Agency for his advertising, the same firm that has worked for progressive candidates like Zohran Mamdani and Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed. In the recent Democratic primary, winner Cindy Burbank announced she would withdraw to support Osborn’s campaign. The campaign’s latest FEC quarterly report lists $5.6 million in contributions.