Deb Fischer’s Senate record: Putting corporate donors over Nebraska families
The Republican incumbent has taken millions of dollars from corporations as she voted with their interests.
During her 12 years in the U.S. Senate, Nebraska Republican Deb Fischer has not done much legislating. Her voting record has largely mirrored the positions of her corporate donors, who have given her millions of dollars in campaign contributions.
Fischer, who has authored just six bills that became law over the course of her Senate career, is running for a third term in the Nov. 5 election. Polls show her neck and neck with her opponent, independent candidate and labor leader Dan Osborn.
One of Osborn’s campaign ads shows a Fischer look-alike wearing a blazer decorated with the names of her large corporate donors. “She’s taken so much corporate cash, she should wear patches like NASCAR,” Osborn tells viewers. “If you want someone who works for them, vote for Deb. If you want someone who works for you, consider me. I’m Dan Osborn. I approved this message, because the only thing on the back of my jacket is Nebraska.”
According to data from OpenSecrets, Fischer has accepted more than $730,000 in campaign cash since 2011 from securities and investment interests, $560,000 from the insurance industry, $530,000 from lobbyists, $529,000 from oil and gas companies, $357,000 from commercial banks, and $313,000 from railroads.
One of Fischer’s top campaign donors is Union Pacific: She and her Nebraska Sandhills leadership political action committee have received at least $89,000 from the railroad company’s corporate PAC and tens of thousands more from its executives. In 2017, she proposed a bill that would have allowed the industry to self-regulate. The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART) union called the bill disturbing.
After a Union Pacific freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in southeast Nebraska in June, Osborn endorsed new freight train safety regulations; Fischer has thus far not signed on as a backer of the bipartisan Railway Safety Act. Her Senate office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Nebraska Independent.
Fischer voted for the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which slashed tax rates for large corporations and the wealthiest Americans while providing minimal tax relief or even tax hikes for working Nebraskans.
She voted in 2021 against gradually raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour and in 2014 against a $10.10 hourly minimum wage.
Fischer repeatedly proposed bills that would have weakened the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created after the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers from unfair banking practices.
She voted against a 2015 amendment to the annual federal budget to eliminate tax benefits for companies that move jobs overseas and against one to guarantee paid sick leave for all workers.
Fischer also accepted tens of thousands of dollars from defense industry contractors and lobbyists as she voted to increase military budgets. Often those donations came within weeks of her votes for military authorization bills.
According to the AFL-CIO’s legislative scorecard, Fischer voted with working families 0% of the time in 2023 and just 16% of the time during her entire time in the Senate. The Nebraska State AFL-CIO endorsed Osborn during an event with the candidate in March. “Osborn has proven that he will fight to ensure that workers have a voice in the workplace, protect, and strengthen labor standards and expand employment protections,” union spokesperson Lori J. Meyers said. “Our affiliates believe that Dan Osborn is the right person to represent working people in the U.S. Senate.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents the interests of large corporations, endorsed Fischer in May, calling her a “pro-business champion.”
“Sen. Fischer embodies what’s wrong with Washington,” Osborn campaign communications director Dustin Wahl told the Nebraska Independent. “She puts her biggest donors over the interests of her state. She runs for a third term after promising to only serve two. She acts like she is entitled to her Senate seat, refusing to debate or hold town halls where voters and the press can hold her accountable. Nebraskans deserve a senator who listens to them and speaks for them, and that’s what they will get in Dan Osborn.”
