A complaint filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission accuses a political action committee tied to Nebraska U.S. Senate candidate Dan Osborn of possibly violating campaign finance laws. Osborn’s campaign and the PAC called the allegations “bogus” and “frivolous.”
The complaint was filed by Jeffery Davis, the chairman of the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Davis, a Republican, was appointed to the commission in 2016, and reappointed in 2021, by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is now seeking reelection to the U.S. Senate—a race in which Osborn is a candidate.
During a press conference at the State Capitol Tuesday, Davis was emphatic that he filed the complaint in his capacity as a private citizen and it “has nothing to do with any other organization that I may or may not be associated with.”
Dan Osborn, Independent Candidate for U.S. Senate (Photo: Osborn for Senate)
The complaint alleges that the Working Class Heroes Fund (WCHF)—a hybrid PAC founded by Osborn in 2024 after his loss to incumbent U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer—improperly used funds to pay 23 individuals who were also working for Osborn’s campaign.
Davis said he began preparing the complaint “within the last six to eight weeks” when the topic was brought to his attention. All contributions in question were made between July and December of 2025.
Hybrid PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited funds for independent expenditures while also making direct, limited contributions to candidates. These committees must maintain two separate bank accounts: a “hard money” account able to donate to candidates, and a “soft money” account able to raise unlimited funds but barred from helping campaigns directly.
According to publicly available FEC filings, eight employees and 15 paid interns were allegedly paid by both the campaign and the WCHF. While filings indicate the payments came from the PAC’s soft money account, they do not show whether the work performed constituted coordinated support for the campaign.
KLIN News asked Davis Tuesday if he was aware of any evidence that Osborn’s campaign coordinated or directed WCHF in these expenditures.
“No,” he said. “That’s for the FEC to find out. I don’t have subpoena power. I can’t dig into their bank accounts. There’s just a striking comparison when you sit these two filings side by side.”
As possible evidence of impropriety, the complaint also points to shared staff between WCHF and Osborn for Senate, similar total payments from both entities (around $100K each), overlapping timelines, and an apparent lack of other independent expenditures from WCHF. These factors in and of themselves are not proof of a violation.
The complaint does not include internal communications, payroll records, or other direct evidence showing coordination between the campaign and the PAC, instead relying on overlapping staffing and financial patterns.
U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) | Courtesy Photo
“There’s no complex opposition research here, no gotcha, no clever digging around,” Davis said. “[Osborn’s] PAC took money from dark money nonprofits and used that money to subsidize his own campaign’s payroll, while telling voters he was fighting the very system he was allegedly exploiting.”
In response to the filing, a spokesperson for the Osborn campaign called it a “nuisance complaint deployed for political purposes.”
“This bogus complaint from Ricketts’ cronies is only further proof that the billionaire class is desperate to keep working people out of D.C. Baseless distractions like this aren’t going to slow Dan’s momentum. He’s tied with Pete Ricketts in four straight polls, because Nebraskans are ready to take down the billionaire political bosses who have controlled our politics for far too long,” they said.
In a statement, a spokesperson for WCHF said, “This frivolous complaint was filed by an appointee of Pete Ricketts when he was governor, and raises serious questions about corruption and collusion between billionaire Pete Ricketts and government employees intervening on his behalf.”
Asked to respond to the appearance of political motivation in this complaint, given Davis’ and Ricketts’ connection, Davis said:
“All the information that’s presented in this complaint comes from Osborn’s own filings, not from the Ricketts campaign, not from anybody else. Yes, when Pete Ricketts was governor, he appointed me to the commission, but I’m not doing this in my role as a commissioner, I’m not doing this with any affiliation with the Ricketts’ campaign. I’m able to keep those things separate, and I think Nebraska voters are able to do that too.”
During Tuesday’s press conference, Davis stood at a podium with a sign reading “Paid for by Nebraskans Against Dark Money.” The group has little digital footprint, other than a website of the same name, focused on Osborn and the complaint.
The same Osborn spokesperson asked, “The real question to ask is who is funding Nebraskans Against Dark Money?”
Davis also made clear that his complaint was merely calling for an FEC investigation into this matter. The FEC is expected to review the complaint and determine whether there is “reason to believe” a violation occurred before deciding whether to investigate further.
The full FEC complaint can be read below.