Independent Senate Hopefuls Gain Steam as Voters Tire of Both Parties

What happened

Independent candidates are making a serious run at the US Senate in states Donald Trump carried comfortably. Four independents are on Senate ballots in states Trump won handily: Nebraska, Montana, Idaho and South Dakota. Their pitch is blunt: both parties have failed ordinary voters, and an outsider can do better.

In Nebraska, Dan Osborn, 51, a Navy veteran and mechanic who first drew attention leading a 2021 strike at a Kellogg's plant, is challenging Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts. Osborn came within seven points of Sen. Deb Fischer two years ago, and he has since toured all 93 Nebraska counties with a populist message aimed at money in politics.

In Montana, Seth Bodnar, a former Green Beret and former president of the University of Montana, is running as an independent and says he would not join either party's caucus if elected. That sets him apart from the Senate's two current independents, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, who both caucus with the Democrats.

The campaigns are drawing on frustration over affordability and a sense that Washington is not listening. Rancher Dan Morgan of Burwell, Nebraska, a Democrat in a heavily Republican area, backs Osborn. Morgan runs a 15,000-acre ranch with 1,000 cows and one of the largest privately owned Wagyu herds in the country, and says tariffs and retaliatory tariffs have made planning hard for a business where raising beef takes three years. Exports make up about half his sales. With no Democrat in the Nebraska Senate race, Morgan says Osborn is his choice.

Why it matters

The Senate map makes these races matter beyond their states. Control of the chamber could hinge on a handful of seats, and an independent who owes neither party could hold real leverage in a closely divided Senate. Bodnar has made that argument himself, saying an independent bloc could work with either side. [Rural voters are weighing similar questions in other battlegrounds](/article/ohio-rural-voters-decide-senate-control).

The races also expose a split inside the Democratic Party. In Nebraska, state party chair Jane Kleeb, who is also a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, has been open about backing Osborn. The party ran a primary candidate who intended to step aside to clear his path, a move that drew a lawsuit aimed at forcing the party to replace the primary winner who dropped out. Kleeb calls the strategy coalition-building and part of a longer effort to rebuild the party's standing in Nebraska.

Montana is messier. Former Gov. Brian Schweitzer argues Bodnar would be leading if he had run as a Democrat, and former Sen. Jon Tester and former Gov. Steve Bullock have endorsed him. But the Democratic nominee, Alani Bankhead, is still in the race. University of Montana professor Rob Saldin says many Montana Democrats want a candidate who can rebuild the party, raise money and help candidates down the ballot for years, work he says an independent critic of both parties would not do. Bankhead says she faced pressure to quit before the August deadline, including what she called "white gloved politicians" nudging her to step aside, and she told Montana PBS she was offered a Democratic National Committee job if she dropped out. The DNC denies that, and Bankhead says no one from the DNC told her directly to leave the race.

Voters are divided too. Lifelong Republican Sue McNeil of Loup County backs Osborn and dislikes the Ricketts campaign's "Democrat Dan" label, pointing to the war with Iran and fuel costs. She says she recently paid $159 to fill her pickup. Other conservatives are unmoved: Rich Sherbeck of Ansley calls Osborn a fraud and a Democrat, and Casey Stengel, a Republican voter who met Osborn in Thedford, left skeptical that one person could fix the problems he described. [Democrats are testing similar long-shot openings elsewhere in deep-red America](/article/democrats-see-opening-deep-red-arkansas-midterms).

What it means for the US

For American voters, these races test whether the two-party system still fits the mood of the country. If independents win in states where one party usually dominates, it would signal that party loyalty is weaker than Washington assumes, and that candidates who campaign on prices, jobs and distrust of big money can break through without a party machine.

For Congress itself, the stakes are practical. A senator who caucuses with neither party could decide close votes on spending, trade and confirmations, and could force both parties to negotiate rather than count on a bloc. That is exactly the leverage Bodnar is promising Montana voters, and the reason some Democrats hope Osborn can help deny Republicans a majority even though he is not one of theirs.

What happens next

Both campaigns run through Election Day on November 3, with the Montana Democratic split and the Nebraska party lawsuit still shaping the field. The NPR report cited no current poll numbers for either race, so the clearest public measure of Osborn's strength remains his seven-point loss to Fischer in 2024. [Here is how the 2026 midterms will decide control of Congress](/article/us-midterm-elections-2026-explained).

Watch whether national money and attention follow these independents in the final days, and whether Montana Democrats rally behind Bankhead or keep drifting toward Bodnar. The outcome in either state could become the template, or the warning, for independent campaigns in 2028.