Issue One is pleased to welcome former Republican Congressman Tom Osborne to our ReFormers Caucus. Congressman Osborne joins a distinguished group of more than 150 other former members of Congress and governors in the fight to restore our democracy by reducing the undue influence of money in our politics.
Mr. Osborne represented Nebraska’s 3rd District from 2001 to 2007, serving three terms and receiving 82 percent or more of the vote in each of this three elections. He is also widely known as the former coach of the University of Nebraska football team for 25 years, from 1973 to 1997. Coach Osborne’s teams posted a cumulative record of 255 wins, 49 losses, and 3 ties during his tenure as coach, earning him induction into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1998.
Prior to his coaching career, Osborne was an athlete, a soldier and a scholar: he played in the NFL for three seasons, served in the Nebraska National Guard for six years, and earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Nebraska.
While in Congress, Rep. Osborne supported the last major campaign reform legislation to pass, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002.
In his book Beyond the Final Score: There’s More to Life Than the Game, Rep. Osborne wrote “[W]e need to reevaluate the part money plays in our politics. … I think there’s a problem when there are millions of anonymous dollars flowing to candidates from special interests. … Time and again, I saw legislation that made sense for the American people undermined by the influence of special interests.”
