OMAHA, Neb.— Marine Corps veteran Gunner Arellano is a Donald Trump man — he voted for the president three times — but, he said, he won’t be casting a ballot for Sen.
Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., in November.Dan Osborn, an independent who has the backing of the state’s Democratic Party, is “more for the people” than Ricketts, Arellano, a 35-year-old tobacconist, said in an interview at the S.G.Roi cigar shop in downtown Omaha late last month.
While Arellano is familiar with Ricketts, a former two-term governor who ranks high on the list of wealthiest senators, he said that the senator isn’t present enough.“All those politicians, they want to come around when it’s election time, right?” he said.“Come down on a Wednesday in the middle of your term, you know.”Add to Google'Dear Donald': Battleground district voters share their messages to Trump06:04Arellano said he’ll vote for Osborn, and voters like him are the reason that Democrats in Nebraska and at the national level hope they might be able to swipe a Senate seat in this heavily Republican state.
They’re even more optimistic about flipping the state’s Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, where Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris won in 2024 and Republican Rep.Don Bacon is retiring.In that year, Osborn surprised many political observers by running a competitive campaign against Sen.
Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who ended up winning by a little more than 6 percentage points while Trump took the state by 20 points.The latter margin is one reason, along with Ricketts’ record of winning statewide races at the gubernatorial and Senate levels, that Republicans are confident they can keep the seat.Omaha was the last in an eight-stop, five-state tour that NBC News reporters took through battleground congressional districts — and states with competitive Senate races — along Interstate 80 in late August.
Democrats need a net gain of four Senate seats to take control of the chamber nex...