Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts defeated independent challenger Dan Osborn in Nebraska’s U.S. Senate election to secure his first full six-year term, with The Associated Press calling the race at 3:27 a.m. EST on Wednesday. The victory keeps the seat in Republican hands through January 2033, even as Ohio election results and six other state races elsewhere delivered a Senate majority to Democrats.
According to statewide returns from the Nebraska Secretary of State, 1,269 of 1,322 precincts were fully reporting and 53 precincts were partially reporting as of 4:20 a.m. CT on Wednesday. Ricketts topped a five-candidate general election ballot that included Osborn, who qualified by petition as a registered nonpartisan, alongside Robin Richards of the Nebraska Working People Party, Mike Marvin of the Legal Marijuana Now Party, and Chuck Conboy of the America First Party.
Election night remarks from Ricketts and Osborn
Ricketts, 62, claimed victory before the race was formally projected while addressing supporters at his Tuesday night watch party in Omaha, according to the Nebraska Examiner. In his remarks, Ricketts criticized national groups that backed his opponent and sought to tie Osborn to left-wing politics.
“The Democrat Social America found out tonight that socialism does not work in Nebraska,” Ricketts told the crowd in Omaha. “They came here with their fake labels, their fake candidates, thinking that they could just come in here and fool Nebraskans … They had nothing but contempt for us, but we showed them that Nebraskans will not be fooled by the socialists.”
Ricketts also credited the staffers who followed Osborn on the campaign trail. “While we’re not going to go into the names of the people who were there tracking him, they played a pivotal role in this,” Ricketts said.
Osborn, an industrial mechanic, military veteran and former union leader, spoke to his supporters on Tuesday night and pointed to the financial disparity in the contest, saying, “Unfortunately, money won.” He also called on the incumbent senator to represent the working-class voters who backed his independent bid.
“Depending on how it turns out … I would just urge Sen. Ricketts to take care of the Coalition of the people here tonight,” Osborn said. “We might not have won this election tonight; we must continue to demand better from our government.”
How the 2026 Nebraska race took shape
As background to Wednesday’s result, Ricketts, a wealthy investor and former two-term Nebraska governor, first entered the Senate in 2023 when he was appointed to replace Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who resigned to become president of the University of Florida. Ricketts then won a 2024 special election over Omaha Democrat Preston Love Jr. to serve out the remainder of Sasse’s term.
For Osborn, the 2026 contest was his second straight run for the U.S. Senate as an independent after he challenged Nebraska’s other Republican senator, Deb Fischer, in the 2024 general election. Earlier in the 2026 cycle, Democrat Cindy Burbank won the Democratic Senate primary after campaigning on her plan to withdraw from the ballot so Osborn would have a clearer field against Ricketts with the backing of Democratic leaders. The race also drew third-party candidates and new political parties that prompted spoiler allegations and lawsuits ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
While Ricketts held onto his seat in Nebraska, Democrats flipped seven Senate seats held by Republicans in Maine, Ohio, South Carolina, Kansas, Texas, Iowa and North Carolina to win control of the chamber and complete a 2026 midterm sweep of Congress. Ricketts will begin his full six-year Senate term in January 2027 once the remaining precinct counts are finalized and certified.