Nebraska Democrat secures Senate primary landslide — but still plans to drop out

The winner of Nebraska’s Democratic Party U.S. Senate primary race on Tuesday came away with a landslide victory, despite her plans to drop out of the race before the November general election in a scheme to clear a path for a yet another candidate to take on Republican incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts in the deep-red state.

Cindy Burbank defeated Democrat opponent William Forbes, receiving 89% of the vote, after accusing Forbes of being a plant for Ricketts.

'I have no expectations of being able to win in November.'

“Pete Ricketts, who is running for reelection, is putting in a candidate loyal to him in the DEMOCRATIC primary — to split the vote against him, so he wins easily. He’s running an anti-abortion activist named Bill Forbes, who has posted in support of Pete Ricketts!” Burbank’s campaign website states.

Independent Dan Osborn is also challenging Ricketts in November and appears to be Burbank's preferred candidate.

Burbank claimed that Ricketts “knows he’s losing to Dan Osborn and this is his plan to cheat his way to victory.” She argued that Osborn “deserves a fair shot against Ricketts” in the upcoming general election.

The Nebraska Democratic Party, which originally planned not to field a nominee, similarly claimed that Forbes was a Ricketts “spoiler and fake Democratic candidate.” The party stated that its strategy was to secure Burbank’s victory and then have her withdraw from the race to allow Osborn to compete against Ricketts “one-on-one.”

After Burbank won Tuesday’s primary, she reconfirmed to the New York Times that she plans to drop out.

“I don’t want to split the ballot,” Burbank wrote. “I have no expectations of being able to win in November.”

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Pete Ricketts. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Forbes, who denied being a spoiler candidate, argued that he has been “a Democrat my entire life.” He referred to Burbank as a “self-admitted placeholder and a disloyal hack being used as a tool to sabotage the Democratic primary and clear the path for another insider.”

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Dan Osborn. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

Ricketts won Tuesday’s Republican primary, securing roughly 82% of the vote.

A Democrat-aligned Tavern Research poll indicated that Osborn has the highest chance of beating Ricketts in a one-on-one election. Among those surveyed, 47% stated they would vote for Osborn, while 42% selected Ricketts. However, in a race against Burbank, Ricketts led, receiving 48% of the vote compared to Burbank’s 39%.

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