Dan Osborn

Where Osborn stands

Grouped by topic by Vote Book; headings and quoted words are the candidate’s own, with the source under each one. “As reported” items are a news outlet’s description, not an exact quote.

Immigration & border

What does immigration reform look like to you?

To me, immigration reform looks like striking the right balance between safety and dignity. We must have a secure border. Without a border, we don’t have a country. However, the massive increase in ICE's budget has been wasteful spending without real accountability. We can spend all we want. We aren’t going to deport every undocumented immigrant. Congress needs to pass comprehensive immigration reform with real urgency. This includes E-Verify, securing the border, properly funding immigration courts, and creating an immigration system that allows for guest worker programs to help support American industries in places where there are not enough workers to fill all the jobs domestically. This is a problem that has existed for far too long.

Farms & rural

How do you envision the Senate and the Executive Branch working together to ensure effective governance while maintaining the necessary constitutional balances?

The Senate and the Executive Branch are two co-equal branches of government meant to keep each other in check. If elected, I will work to enact policy that restores that balance, like invoking the War Powers Act to pull us out of the war in Iran that drags on into its seventh month. Congress’s role, as established by Article I of the Constitution, is to make law. Article II mandates that the President execute that law, not make it. The legislative branch has given up its power to make laws to the executive. The result is a federal government that does not have checks and balances. That is dangerous and that needs to change.

Veterans & military

What principles should guide the Senate’s role in foreign policy, treaty ratification and national security?

The principles that should guide the Senate is one that puts America first while understanding we are actors in a global system and restrained coordination with the Executive. The President is the most important diplomat and the chief architect of America’s foreign policy agenda. It is important that America have a coherent and unified foreign policy agenda. But, when I signed on the dotted line for this country, I vowed to defend the constitution, and that will never change. The Constitution explicitly gave Congress, not the President, the power to declare war and the power to ratify treaties. Congress has to grow a spine and become a co-equal branch of government once again in all spaces including the foreign policy space.

Technology & AI

Do you think the Senate should regulate artificial intelligence, and if so, how?

Yes. AI will define the rest of the twenty-first century and will reshape society as we know it. We are in an AI arms race with foreign powers, and we must win that race. But, we must be careful about what we are willing to sacrifice in the pursuit of the race. We must protect our workers from greedy corporations who threaten to displace millions of workers to hoard even more wealth for themselves. And, we must protect our natural resources as well. The Ogallala Aquifer is depleting at six times the rate it’s being replenished. Data centers threaten to destroy our way of life if we fail to put reasonable guardrails on their deployment and construction. We can win this race without burning down the US to do it, and that’s what we need to do.