Dan Osborn, the self described independent running for the U.S. Senate in Nebraska, faces another round of damaging disclosures as leaked recordings and past controversies pile onto his campaign. The material challenges the political image Osborn has presented to Nebraska voters.
Osborn has been accused of concealing his actual beliefs while attempting to persuade voters that he stands apart from the major parties. Previous leaked videos and audio reportedly captured him discussing how he planned to win votes before advancing a radical left agenda in Congress.
Osborn also admitted that he is aligned with the Democrat Party. Now, newly released audio contains racist and sexually graphic language attributed directly to the Senate candidate.
The recording includes explicit adult language. “Fat chicks and/or black c**k,” Osborn said. “Big black c**k.”
Another statement from Osborn took a similarly ugly turn. He said, “The brown people are coming up here to kill us and rape us.”
The audio is only one controversy surrounding Osborn’s Senate campaign. A 2021 lawsuit involving Kellogg’s named Osborn personally during strikes that he led while serving as president of the local union.
The lawsuit named three defendants: the union, its Omaha local chapter, and Osborn. Kellogg’s alleged that union members under Osborn’s leadership threatened workers’ lives, followed workers home, used racial slurs, and threatened workers’ families.
The allegations included a threat that a worker’s wife and young children would be assaulted “including sexually,” according to the lawsuit. A judge granted Kellogg’s a temporary restraining order.
That order was dropped in December 2021 after the union ratified a new contract and the strike ended. The legal episode nevertheless adds another serious complication to a campaign already dealing with repeated questions about Osborn’s judgment and conduct.
Osborn, who has been married since 2002, was also connected to the 2015 Ashley Madison data breach. Ashley Madison was described as a website created for married people seeking affairs.
Inside married Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn’s wild backstory, involving ‘gay porn,’ Ashley Madison, and a ‘gothic exotic dancer daughter’ https://t.co/lVlCXvolYw https://t.co/yKuv7VWnTi
— Daily Mail US (@Daily_MailUS) October 1, 2024 [1]
An email associated with Osborn’s birthdate and home address appeared in the breach. Osborn’s campaign denied that he had ever used the website and said the email was a “shared corporate account” used by “multiple people.”
The campaign did not explain why Osborn’s birthdate and home address were connected to an account that it said was shared among several people. The public did not learn that his information appeared in the breach until 2024.
That same year, reporters uncovered an X account labeled “Dan Osborn President BCTGM 50G.” The account had liked hardcore gay pornography and images of naked women between 2020 and 2021.
Among the material liked by the account was an explicit video showing Black men performing sex acts. Osborn’s campaign again responded that the account had been used by “multiple people.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee later incorporated the account’s likes into a digital advertisement titled “Dirty Dan.” The ad gave Republicans another opening to focus attention on the candidate’s growing collection of personal controversies.
Osborn’s explanations have repeatedly placed responsibility on unnamed other people, whether involving the Ashley Madison email or the X account. The newly released recording presents a tougher problem because the comments are delivered in Osborn’s own voice.
The audio follows numerous other leaked files that have already complicated Osborn’s attempt to present himself to Nebraska voters. This time, the material features Osborn using racist language and sexually graphic comments while his campaign is already under pressure from the lawsuit and account controversies.
Taken together, the recording, the 2021 lawsuit, the Ashley Madison breach, and the explicit social media activity have left Osborn answering questions on several fronts. His campaign’s familiar explanation that other people were responsible will face an even harder sell when the latest evidence is his own recorded voice.