A dark horse may emerge in next weekâs ferocious Republican Senate primary in Nebraska. While the bruising battle between establishment darling Shane Osborn and Tea Party favorite Ben Sasse has featured tough negative ads largely funded by outside groups, banker Sid Dinsdale has slipped through the pack to make the race a virtual three-way tie. Already, outside groups like the Club For Growth are turning their fire on Dinsdale, as the self-funding businessman moves up in the polls.

Dinsdale outlined his policy priorities in a March interview with The Daily Beast and noted that what distinguishes him from the other candidates wasnât ideology but life experience. He touted that he had never served in government and that he had a âmuch longer wider deeper resumeâ than other candidates. He noted his background in community banking as well as his âdeep involvement in agriculture across the state.â Instead, Dinsdale saw himself as a citizen legislator who âwouldnât be running if Obamacare was working, if the balance sheet of our country was in great shape or if we had great leadership in the White House or in Congress.â
Though, on the subject of congressional leadership, in a statement that may comfort some Tea Partiers while causing some troubles inside the Beltway, Dinsdale didnât have an answer as to whether heâd support Mitch McConnell to lead Senate Republicans again if he was elected. âI havenât really given that specific situation thought,â he said.
Dinsdale talked about immigration and reminisced about a trip âdown to the borderâ where he âwent to Nogales.â He described being appalled at the level of border security, while there was an â18-foot high fenceâ in town, once you travelled three or four miles outside into the desert, the fence stops and instead becomes a barrier of fence posts with Union Pacific rails tack welded to them. Dinsdale was shocked and noted âyou can just crawl right underâ while noting that he did go so far as to stick his foot under the barrier and into Mexico. If elected, his first goal for immigration would be to âbuild that darn fence.â Dinsdale also opposed a path to citizenship for undocumented aliens currently in the country. I âdonât want to send âem back, doesnât conjure up very good pictures for the United States,â he said. âBut Iâm not for amnesty.â
On foreign policy, Dinsdale saw the crisis in the Ukraine as the result of a weak president and weak foreign policy. He mourned that âwe got a community organizer up against the former head of the KGBâ and felt terrible for the Ukrainian people as a result. While he thought Obama âwas over his head,â Dinsdale pushed for âpeace through strength, like what Reagan had.â At the time of the interview in March, the Republican candidate thought the situation had âechoes of 1938.â
On domestic policy, Dinsdale said âthis central planning is driving me crazyâ and pushed for more vocational training, while believing the key to economic success was âless government interference, not more.â
With Election Day approaching, Dinsdale, who has lent his campaign $1 million seems poised to follow in the footsteps of incumbent Senator Deb Fischer, who won her primary in 2012 when two other candidates self-destructed in an establishment v. Tea Party fight. The question is whether the banker, after lagging in the polls for months, can pull off a surprise win in the home stretch.