A former union mechanic running as an independent is tied in the polls against a billionaire incumbent in Nebraska's Senate race, in a story about money's grip on politics.

• Dan Osborne, a steamfitter and former Kellogg's union mechanic, is running as an independent against Republican Senator Pete Ricketts, whose family fortune comes from TD Ameritrade.
• Independent polling shows the race statistically tied even after Ricketts outspent Osborne by millions, since Osborne refuses corporate PAC and foreign-lobby money and is funded by over 30,000 small donors.
• Osborne is campaigning on corporate concentration squeezing both workers and consumers — citing how four meatpacking giants now take most of the profit that used to go to cattle ranchers, and how a Tyson plant closure cost thousands of jobs in a small town.
• He argues voters on the right and left actually agree on most issues once the conversation moves past media-driven tribalism, especially on tariffs hurting farmers and corporate power rigging the economy.
• Both candidates were noted to have taken money tied to foreign lobbying interests, which the campaign is framing as a bigger problem than party labels.

Outlook: The Nebraska Senate race is shaping up as a test of whether a well-funded, small-donor independent campaign can beat a billionaire-backed incumbent in a red state.