On Sept. 23, Nebraska "independent" Senate candidate Dan Osborn was thrown a private Washington, D.C., fundraiser cohosted by an Anthropic lobbyist. The next day, Osborn declared at a press conference that he would "never" accept contributions from AI companies and accused his Republican opponent of being a shill for Anthropic.

Osborn's private Sept. 23 campaign fundraising event, first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, was hosted by a trio of AI industry lobbyists led by Amy Tejral, who represents Anthropic—which is paying her firm $60,000 a month—and lobbies on behalf of the company on AI safety issues. Attendees of the fundraiser were asked to pay as much as $8,500 a head to be a "champion" for Osborn.

Tejral is a partner of her firm, Avenue Solutions, which touts its "well-established relationships with Democratic Members and their staff on Capitol Hill," making her a natural fit to raise money for Osborn, who is effectively the Democratic nominee in deep-red Nebraska after the winner of the party's primary withdrew and Nebraska's Democratic Party endorsed him.

Osborn is seeking to unseat GOP incumbent Pete Ricketts in a race that's considered surprisingly competitive.

Less than 24 hours after he rubbed shoulders with Anthropic's lobbyist at his private fundraiser, Osborn hosted a televised press conference outside the U.S. Capitol where he accused Ricketts of taking "massive donations from AI donors like Anthropic's super PAC." Osborn proclaimed he would never stoop so low.

"Pete Ricketts takes MASSIVE donations from AI companies," Osborn said. "I don't and never will."

Pete Ricketts takes MASSIVE donations from AI companies. I don’t and never will. pic.twitter.com/Al89NhOahX

— Dan Osborn (@osbornforne) September 26, 2026

It's a line Osborn has maintained throughout the final stretch of his campaign. In a recent ad, Osborn said both major parties have been "bought" by big tech billionaires who want to build data centers to make themselves trillionaires. "But I'm an independent; they can't buy me," Osborn said in the ad.

At the same press conference, Osborn took shots at the AI industry for insisting that "they should be the ones regulating themselves" as they create products that Osborn says pose a "real threat to our way of life."

"That's a joke," Osborn said. "They're in it for money and have already shown us that they'll put us in the unemployment line if it stuffs their wallets. And we know we can't trust them because they've built massive hyperscale data centers in our communities paid for by our tax dollars, which steal our water and hijack our power grids."

His private fundraiser the day prior, however, was hosted by several AI-industry lobbyists advocating for those same policies in Congress. Tejral, the Anthropic lobbyist who headed the Osborn fundraiser host committee, has lobbied both houses of Congress for the AI giant on "issues relating to safety, development and use of artificial intelligence," as well as issues related to AI "wellbeing" initiatives (some Anthropic officials have argued that its AI products "might well be conscious" and that humanity's use of the tool could amount to "enslavement"). Tejral also has deep ties to Nebraska.

The Osborn fundraising host committee also included Barry LaSala, Microsoft's former liaison to Senate Democrats, and Bill Ghent, both of whom lobbied Congress on behalf of DataRobot, an AI company that specializes in developing agents, in 2020 and 2021 on issues related to "artificial intelligence" and "algorithm bias."

Osborn's private embrace of AI lobbyists just hours before he denounced the industry on the campaign trail is the latest example of hypocrisy from the self-proclaimed independent candidate, whose campaign has been dogged by allegations he's a Democrat in disguise posing as a moderate for political expediency.

Osborn claims he's a lifelong independent who won't caucus with either party, but during his unsuccessful 2024 Senate run he told the New York Times he was a Democrat until 2016. In the final hours of that campaign, Osborn claimed he was a steadfast ally of President Donald Trump on securing the border, going so far as to release a TV ad showing him wielding a blowtorch and offering to personally assist in helping construct a southern border wall. Now, Osborn says the border wall is a "symbol of racism" and has denigrated Trump supporters, saying their lives "probably suck."

Osborn's inconsistent messaging on the campaign trail appears to be deliberate. Undercover audio obtained by Townhall in September shows Osborn discussing how he has no choice but to frame himself as a moderate to appeal to Nebraska's Republican-dominated electorate.

"The state is made up of 50 percent Republicans, 26 percent Democrat, 24 percent independents," Osborn said in the recording. "So my win numbers, mathematically, I have to get probably 10 to 15 percent of Republicans to win this race."

"I can go and I can be the voice for LGBTQ and immigration and all of these issues. Then I lose the election," Osborn added. "It feels good in the moment. At the end of the day, I'm gonna win this election. And then I'll be the Senator for six years and everybody else can f-off."

The Osborn campaign did not return a request for comment.