Democrats Back Independent Candidates Against Republican Senate Incumbents in Alaska, Nebraska and Other Red States
Democratic leaders are pursuing a new strategy in several Republican-leaning states in this year's midterm elections: looking past their own party's nominees and backing independent challengers against Republican Senate incumbents, according to Politico Playbook and Associated Press reporting. The Democratic National Committee and some allies in Washington are quietly supporting the approach.
In Nebraska, independent candidate and former union leader Dan Osborn is challenging Republican Senator Pete Ricketts. Osborn ran as an independent in 2024 and lost to Republican Senator Deb Fischer by about seven percentage points. This year, Democratic primary winner Cindy Burbank said a major priority of her campaign was ensuring no Democrat appeared on the fall ballot to draw support from Osborn, and she planned to withdraw after the primary; state Democratic chair Jane Kleeb confirmed the plan.
A similar realignment unfolded in Idaho, where Democratic nominee David Roth withdrew on August 28, clearing the way for independent Todd Achilles, a former Democratic state representative, to challenge Senator Jim Risch, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. Roth said party leaders' advocacy for another candidate made campaigning and fundraising extraordinarily difficult. In Alaska, independent challenger Bill Hill is running against Republican Representative Nick Begich, in a state where President Trump has campaigned for the Republican incumbents, and independent Senate candidates are also running in South Dakota and Montana. Republicans have criticized the maneuver, arguing the independent label obscures where the candidates would stand in a closely divided Senate; the independents' supporters counter that independence from both major parties is precisely the point of their candidacies.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
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