Over the past few decades, the states have become a far more partisan environment at the federal level. Republican majority states, many of which once had a fondness for voting for Democrats in the U.S. Senate, have solidified into voting almost exclusively for Republicans. Not surprisingly, this changeover has occurred because the national Democrats have been consistently pushing very unpopular social issues for the voters in these usually rather conservative states.
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The precursor to this strategy occurred in 2014, in Kansas. That year, the three-term KS Republican Senator, Pat Roberts, was seeking his fourth term. Roberts was accused of “going Washington D.C.”– he no longer had a Kansas home address – and his campaigning was initially very lethargic. As a result, in the primary, a conservative commentator embarrassed him by only losing narrowly.
Enter “Independent” candidate Greg Orman. Orman was a wealthy “pro-abortion rights, pro-comprehensive immigration reform” leftist who had run once before as a Democrat, and had donated to many Democrats, including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. In 2014, Orman ran as a registered independent. Orman was able to self-fund, and his polling numbers were solid, prompting the Democrat candidate to resign from the ballot a month before the general.
What followed was a battle between the two parties to keep the Democrats from fielding a candidate, which was eventually won by the Democrats (leaving their nominee off the ballot). Orman’s ads focused on his opposition to Washington D.C., partisan fighting, but were “incredibly vague…mention[ing] no issues at all…(and is) professionally produced.”
In the final week of the 2014 race, then-Vice President Joe Biden jumped the gun and admitted Orman was a stalking horse for the Democrats.
In 2024, the Democrats/leftists themselves initiated a similar op. Dan Osborn, a former Democrat, who was a Navy veteran and labor leader, ran as an independent against Republican Sen. Deb Fischer of Nebraska. Osborn was pushed as a candidate by the unions and other left-leaning groups. There was no Democrat on the ballot, but Osborn specifically declined their offered nomination. He raised a respectable amount of money, campaigned as a man opposed to partisan gamesmanship, and kept it close in the polling, eventually losing by only 53 percent to 46.5 percent. Osborn, as Orman had done before, did much better against the Republican than the registered Democrats had done in years past.
Post-2024, the Democrats have decided to go all in with this strategy. As Politico has reported:
Democrats are so distraught that they are looking for answers in unusual places. In Nebraska, independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn lost, but performed better than Harris by 14 percentage points. The mechanic’s TV ads blasted “millionaires run by billionaires” and talked positively about Trump’s border wall.
In 2026, there are a total of five left-leaning independents running for Senate. This includes Dan Osborn in Nebraska, running for the other seat, who has supposedly “inspired” the others.
- Idaho = Republican Sen. Jim Risch is being challenged by independent Theodore B. "Todd" Achilles. Achilles is a former Democrat state representative. PPP, a left-leaning polling firm, is promoting polling that shows Achilles competitive.
- Mississippi = Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is being challenged by independent Ty Pinkins. Pinkins is a U.S. Army veteran and the son of Mississippi farmers, who unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat for the Senate in 2024.
- Montana = Republican Sen. Steve Daines initiated his own trick to retire on the last day of filing and make his favored candidate the likely GOP nominee, Kurt Alme, the U.S. Attorney for Montana. Alme, however, is being challenged by independent Seth Bodnar, a former Green Beret and President of the University of Montana, who seems to have the backing of the last Democrat Senator, Jon Tester. Tester reportedly texted his support for Bodnar and stated that “(e)very race I ran as Montana Senator and U.S. Senator it was about distancing myself from the Democratic Party….During my last two races the democratic Party was poison in my attempts to get re-elected.”
- Nebraska= Independent Dan Osborn is running again for Senate, this time challenging incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts. Both parties are currently fighting over which Democrat “plant” – i.e., which fake candidate – can win the Democrat nomination. If the fake Osborn plant wins, she is rumored to be prepared to stand down from the race. If the fake Ricketts’ plant is victorious, he is rumored to stay in the race to divert Democrat votes from Osborn.
- South Dakota = Sen. Mike Rounds is being challenged by independent Brian Bengs. Bengs is an enlisted U.S. Navy veteran and retired U.S. Air Force officer, who previously taught law and policy topics at the U.S. Air Force Academy and other schools. Bengs was also the 2022 Democrat candidate for the Senate.
To paraphrase something Pres. Donald Trump once said about politics in 2017, "We'll (Just Have to) See What Happens." Maybe their strategy will work in 2026.
https://redstate.com/adam-turner/2026/03/29/the-democrats-shifty-new-trick-the-indy-imitation-game-n2200749
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