Emulating Dan Osborne, Nebraska Independent Targets Corporate Greed in US House Run | Common Dreams

May 14, 2026

As the winner of the Democratic US Senate primary in Nebraska mulls dropping out to boost Independent Dan Osborn, another congressional candidate not tied to either major political party launched a campaign for the state’s 1st Congressional District on Thursday.

Joining incumbent GOP Rep. Mike Flood and Democratic primary winner Chris Backemeyer is Austin Ahlman, a 28-year-old investigative journalist, anti-monopolist, and self-described “insurgent Independent running in NE-01 to fight for the little guy.”

Ahlman’s launch video shares some struggles his family has faced—his parents working at the Tyson Foods meatpacking plant in Norfolk that closed in 2006, his dad’s cancer battle, and his mom’s suicide—and his work in journalism, “uncovering corruption among Democrats and Republicans, and taking on the corporations that are destroying our way of life.”