Nebraska's competitive Senate race has put economic class in sharp focus, with Republican Senator Pete Ricketts and independent challenger Dan Osborn offering starkly different financial profiles.
Ricketts, an heir to the TD Ameritrade fortune, holds an estimated fortune exceeding $200 million and ranks among the wealthiest members of Congress.
Osborn works as a mechanic at a heating and air conditioning company and reported earning $108,089.91 last year.
His public profile grew after he led a strike at a Kellogg plant in Omaha.
A Wider Political Shift
The contrast mirrors a broader trend in which candidates across the country are drawing attention to the gap between working-class incomes and substantial private wealth.
Jim Begley, director of the William Brennan Institute for Labor Studies at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, said the political debate has shifted from left versus right to top versus bottom.
Begley said the growing focus on economic divisions reflects concerns among people who feel left behind as wealth accumulates at the top.
He also pointed to frustration over the disparity between those struggling financially and those seeing substantial increases in wealth.
Democrats from western Montana to northeastern Pennsylvania are challenging what they describe as a wealthy elite that has tilted the political and economic system in its favor.
In Ohio, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton is using comments by opponent Vivek Ramaswamy in an advertisement portraying him as disconnected from ordinary Americans.
Democrats are also emphasizing wealth in a House district around Palm Beach, Florida, targeting Republican candidate Casey Askar's financial standing.
In Maine, an attack advertisement against Republican Senator Susan Collins contrasts working-class Americans with wealthy people.
The Nebraska contest is part of a wider set of House, Senate and gubernatorial races in which candidates are highlighting differences in income and accumulated wealth.
