U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn meets with prospective voters at a Big Red Keno in west Lincoln on Oct. 20, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
OMAHA — Dan Osborn, the former Nebraska nonpartisan U.S. Senate candidate, announced a political action committee Tuesday aimed at boosting working-class candidates for Congress like him.
He designed his Working Class Heroes Fund as a hybrid PAC that blends a super PAC that can take donations with fewer limits and a separate account for independent expenditures.
The arrangement often allows donors to give more upfront and let a PAC’s leaders steer the money to where it is needed when it is needed, following federal election law.
Some have criticized such groups as political pass-throughs that empower larger donors to mask their influence by filtering money through smaller groups to candidates and causes.
Wants more blue-collar candidates
Osborn said in a statement that his aim is to empower more plumbers, carpenters, teachers, nurses and factory workers to run for office, with an emphasis on members of labor unions.