Veteran Dem Operatives Behind ‘Conservative’ Group Supporting Nebraska Independent Dan Osborn
9th July 2025
Dan Osborn, the independent Nebraska Senate candidate who presents himself as a centrist, has two longtime Democratic Party operatives serving as treasurers for both his campaign and a “conservative” political committee that the campaign has launched to reach voters in the deep-red state.
Osborn, whose campaign website bills him as a “lifelong Independent,” launched his campaign Tuesday to unseat Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, just months after losing to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer. In addition to its normal campaign committee, Osborn’s team formed an “authorized committee” called Conservatives for Osborn to back his new bid. But a review of the organization shows the name is misleading.
Brandon Philipczyk and James Vihstadt, who serve as treasurers of both the Osborn campaign and Conservatives for Osborn, have worked for years in Democratic politics. Philipczyk, a principal at the firm Bison Strategies, served as director of operations in Nevada for the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 and national coordinated operations director for the Democratic National Committee until 2017, according to his LinkedIn profile. He also held roles with the Florida Democratic Party and Mike Bloomberg’s Democratic presidential primary campaign in 2020. Vihstadt is a delegate for the Nebraska Democratic Party and has donated exclusively to Democratic political candidates over the years.