When Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., called for “working class” populists to run against Republicans this year, the model was Osborn, who convinced Democrats to avoid his race, reducing the risk of a split in the anti-incumbent vote. Ahlman, whose campaign is not part of the Sanders project, argues that his anti-monopolist politics have a bigger constituency than the cautious Democratic Party.

Ahlman points to an initial campaign poll to back him up: In head-to-head tests, Ahlman led Flood by 4 points, while the Democrat trailed by 12. (Neither candidate led Flood before biographies were read.) “The Democrat can’t win, but the independent has a path to victory,” pollster Adam Carlson told me.

But Ahlman isn’t only running against Flood, he’s entering a three-way race, and according to the same poll, when participants heard positive bios of each candidate, the Republican got 42%, the independent 28% and the Democrat 24%.

Democrats have won the House before without winning Nebraska’s 1st District, which is not on their target list. In dark red states, they do generally agree that independents might be able to compete for voters who hate their brand, especially non-Democrats with military experience. Ahlman, who has never run for office before, is running on the “Neo-Brandeisian” theory endorsed by the think tank Open Markets, where Ahlman worked, that there is a majority constituency for populist anti-corporate politics without liberal cultural politics.

“We are going to break up the corporations that are taking away people’s power and making it so they can’t afford to live,” Ahlman told me.

Ahlman needs to collect 2,000 signatures by the start of August to run.