Dark money giant strikes out in Nebraska race

Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is registered under a section of the IRS code called 501(c)(4) that allows “social welfare” groups to avoid disclosing their donors, spent over $800,000 supporting groups allied with Dan Osborn, who ran as an independent in Nebraska, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

The funding was split between Retire Career Politicians and Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety, a pair of political action committees that supported Osborn and opposed Fischer through TV advertising buys, filings show. Retire Career Politicians spent $16 million, while Nebraska Railroaders for Public Safety poured far less, $1.2 million, into the race.

The unsuccessful spending spree underscores how money, in many ways, made little difference in certain races in the 2024 elections. Vice President Kamala Harris plowed through a historic $1 billion in her unsuccessful bid against Donald Trump, the former president who is now president-elect after a landslide Election Day victory.

Osborn got trounced handily in the Nebraska Senate race by Fischer, an incumbent who Osborn sought to frame as an out-of-touch Washington, D.C., insider who is part of the “Swamp.”

Throughout the Nebraska Senate race, Osborn sought to distance himself rhetorically from the Democratic Party. But in practice, his campaign was run by left-wing operatives and Democratic megadonors funded his campaign. Osborn, the Washington Examiner reported in September, privately praised Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), one of the four independents caucusing with Democrats.

The Washington Examiner also reported that Osborn’s campaign paid a progressive firm for marketing that has a track record of mocking people of Christian faith.

“No matter how much the media and the Democrats wanted it to happen, Nebraskans still vote for candidates who share their values,” Fischer said on Tuesday evening.

“To my fellow Nebraskans, I am grateful for your trust, and I am humbled by your faith in me. I will never betray that faith, and I won’t ever break that trust,” Fischer said.

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Sixteen Thirty Fund, the nonprofit group that supported Osborn-allied PACs, is part of a web of Democratic-allied groups managed by a consulting firm in Washington, D.C., called Arabella Advisors.

The firm is influential in the nation’s capital, though also outside of it, where the groups it manages sponsor pop-up projects that are not required under IRS law to disclose their donors or file financial disclosures.