Republican Deb Fischer Wins Nebraska Senate, AP Projects

Nebraska's tight senate race between Republican incumbent Deb Fischer and independent challenger Dan Osborn has likely ended in a victory for Fischer.

Polling prior to the election, Fisher held a 2.4 percent lead over Osborn, which falls within the margin of error. Ultimately, Fischer prevailed with the vote count going down to the wire.

The Associated Press called the race for Fischer just after midnight.

Osborn got a heavy boost from Lancaster County, where the state's capital Lincoln is located, while Fisher had widespread support across much of the rural counties. Around one million people cast their ballots.

FILE - This combination of images shows from left, Independent Nebraska Senate candidate Dan Osborn, left, in Omaha, Neb., on May 15, 2024, and opponent, Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., in Washington on March 14, 2023.... Nikos Frazier/Omaha World-Herald via AP, left; and AP Photo Alex Brandon, File

Nebraska has had a mixed representation in recent memory, with Democrats holding a senate seat as recently as 2013, at which point Democrat Ben Nelson retired and was replaced by Fischer, who held the seat over the following decade.

However, more recent races have seen the state drift farther right, with Republican Ben Sasse winning his seat in 2020 by 40 points and winning every county. Donald Trump won the state by 19 points over President Joe Biden, winning all but two counties in that election.

Osborn had registered as a Democrat until 2016, at which point he changed to Independent—a move that Fischer's campaign targeted throughout the cycle and challenged whether Osborn was a true independent.

Notably, Fischer accused Osborn of having billionaire Democrats backing him and argued that his policies aligned with Democratic policy proposals.

The victory will likely have little impact on the overall Senate picture that has developed over the course of Election Day, with the Republicans flipping two seats and pushing the Democrats back from the effective stalemate that gridlocked the Senate over the past few years.

Osborn insisted that if he did win the election, he would not beholden himself to either party, saying he would "consider caucusing with whoever has control, only if my idea fails, but certainly I want to create an independent caucus, a caucus that is going to benefit everyday people," according to ABC News.