Could Jon Ossoff Be the Democrats’ Presidential Fix to Our Broken Politics? - Newsweek

Late into the wedding night of high school sweethearts Alisha Kramer and Jon Ossoff, two guests, Jen Cox, a 56-year-old real estate agent, and her partner, sat enjoying the celebration’s twilight hours while some of the happy couple’s friends had jumped in a large, lit swimming pool. Cox reflected on “how incredibly thoughtful all the details were,” from the comfortable furniture to the clear umbrellas in case it rained. They felt grateful to be there. After all, she had only known the couple for less than a year.

President Donald Trump was about three months into his first term, and Cox was feeling increasingly at odds with her community, a Georgia suburb that had gone strongly MAGA. Folks who’d once been quiet about their beliefs now flaunted them, so much so that Cox was considering moving away. But then, Ossoff ran for Congress in a special election that became the first major federal race after Trump took office.

“[Ossoff] changed my life,” Cox told Newsweek. “It felt risky to talk about Democratic values and display them publicly. His campaign made it feel like I was empowered. It made me feel like I could be responsible for bringing about change.”

Cox spent just about every day over five months volunteering for Ossoff’s campaign. And no matter how busy he was, Ossoff always took the time to make sure she and the other volunteers had what they needed. He was equally affable on his wedding day. “How y’all doing? Do you need anything?” Cox recalled Ossoff—who by then had ditched his tuxedo for jeans—saying, as he walked toward Cox and her partner. “Well, our glasses are empty,” Cox said with a smile. Ossoff walked off then returned shortly after. “I couldn’t find anything that’s chilled, so I put it in the fridge, but it’ll be ready in a few minutes.” He left again but minutes later returned with a cool, unopened bottle of white wine.

Perhaps no candidate this cycle has captured the imagination of voters quite like Democratic Senator Thomas Jonathan Ossoff of Georgia. With a message focused on tackling government corruption and a record to back it, Ossoff has inspired a coalition of Americans who view him as a perfect foil to the politics of Trump. With his ability to speak candidly and cut through the partisan fray, supporters see him as the kind of figure who can instill faith in a country where just 17 percent of Americans say they trust the U.S. government, according to Pew Research Center.

Unlike Democrats who have sought to combat Trump by mimicking his trolling, Ossoff has done rounds on the internet throughout the 2026 midterm season by delivering detail-rich speeches focused largely on critiquing the president’s ethics rather than his ideology. In the process, Ossoff has fundraised around $81 million—the most of any Democrat this cycle—all without accepting contributions from corporate PACs or federal lobbyists. The once-endangered incumbent now holds an 8-point lead over his challenger, Republican Congressman Mike Collins, in the RealClear Polling average. In June, Ossoff gained fresh attention after New York Times opinion columnist Michelle Goldberg penned a piece titled, “Why Everyone Wants Jon Ossoff to Run for President.” Since then, the 39-year-old has been unable to escape comparisons to one of his party’s most popular reformers-in-chief.

“The reason there’s a lot of excitement about him is that he’s young, he’s disciplined, he’s got the right message and he has the chops to do it,” Jonathan Alter, who wrote the first national magazine cover profile of Barack Obama for this 93-year-old institution, told Newsweek. “If he does decide to run for president, he’s in a pretty good position.”

Ossoff has rejected the notion that he’ll run in 2028, but the hype has not died down as online liberals swoon over his looks and charisma while operatives admire his fundraising prowess and political skill. Despite that, Ossoff is a private figure who faces several question marks. It is well documented that he rarely participates in the Washington social scene, returning home each weekend to be with his wife and two young daughters. He employs a deeply loyal staff, generally does not appear on political podcasts and has not been the subject of an at-length profile since he ran for Congress in 2017. Even for this story, his staff declined multiple requests for an interview.

However, Newsweek spoke to more than two-dozen people who know Ossoff, both personally and professionally. Nearly everyone said the same thing: Ossoff is the same in private as he is in public—careful, modest, empathetic, dutiful and never one to make a mistake. Even Republicans admit privately that Ossoff operates at near perfection. However, in the era of Trump, perfection has been far from a necessity to win in politics. Risk, candor and fight reign supreme. While Ossoff may embody much of the character people want in a leader, it remains to be seen whether he’s willing to seize the mantle of national Democratic leader and push his brand of leadership as an answer to America’s broken politics.

The September 11 terrorist attacks occurred five months before Ossoff’s 15th birthday. Before then, the America he knew was one of promise. Capitalism had triumphed over the Soviet Union, the internet was becoming mainstream and the economy was booming. Mindful of this great power and privilege, President Bill Clinton said in his 1993 inaugural address: “Posterity is the world to come; the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America does best: offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.”

That’s the ethos under which Richard Ossoff and Heather Fenton raised their only child. Nearly every individual Newsweek spoke to who knew Ossoff’s parents attributed his civic mindedness to the environment they created, an environment where he was brought up to be wise beyond his years. An attorney who once worked for McKinsey & Company, Richard Ossoff founded Strafford Publications, which provides continuing education services to attorneys, CPAs and business professionals. Fenton, who immigrated from Australia at 23, ran her own consulting firm. The couple’s success allowed them to send their son to Atlanta’s Paideia School, a private institution instructing children ages 3 to 18 that today costs up to $35,037 a year. However, despite growing up among a backdrop of wealth, Jon was not taught to equate success with money. Service and education came first.

Fenton co-founded NewPower PAC, a nonpartisan organization that works to elect women to Georgia public office. Richard Ossoff, the descendant of Holocaust survivors, made sure his son knew that history and recognized that their current freedoms came in part thanks to Jewish activists who partnered with Black leaders to advocate for civil rights in the South.

A year after 9/11 and now 16, Jon Ossoff felt the call to public service after reading the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis’ memoir, Walking with the Wind. He wrote a letter to Lewis asking to work in his office and was offered an internship that summer. That internship honed his interest in federal policy, prompting Ossoff to enroll at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. Jeff Carlson became a close friend of Ossoff’s at Georgetown as the two spent considerable time together as members of the men’s a cappella group, the Georgetown Chimes, for which Ossoff sang bass. In most ways, Carlson said, Ossoff was a typical student. He attended basketball games, partook in nightlife and played video games. He particularly enjoyed Star Wars and knew a lot about musicals.

“He could dork out with the best of them,” Carlson told Newsweek. He said that after the two became roommates, Ossoff taught him the art of conversing at length on a single subject. He was trustworthy and thoughtful, the kind of guy who lived his values. Ossoff was just the second person Carlson came out to as gay. “It didn’t change anything about our relationship,” Carlson said.

Beyond Ossoff’s character, Carlson said his friend was also notable, even by Georgetown standards, for his drive. For one, he attended university while working for U.S. Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia’s 4th Congressional District. In 2006, Johnson, a former DeKalb County Commissioner, challenged incumbent Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Lewis recommended Ossoff to Johnson’s campaign. “The campaign was kind of, I won’t say dead in the water, but it was it was in a pond without much rippling going on,” Johnson told Newsweek. “So, I had a couple of hours I could sit down and just talk to Jon, and in that conversation, I think he was able to discern who I was and what I stood for.”

That discernment helped Ossoff leverage Johnson’s Georgia-first message on social media to help him pull an upset over McKinney and ultimately win the general. Ossoff took a job in Johnson’s office the following year as a legislative staffer and went on to assist Johnson in national security and foreign policy work. “He exercised judgment beyond his years,” Johnson said.

Ossoff remained a staffer until the end of Obama’s first term and, in 2013, enrolled in a year-long master’s studying international political economy at the London School of Economics. Upon graduation, he invested a $250,000 inheritance from his grandfather to co-fund production company Insight: TWI (The World Investigates) with former BBC reporter Ron McCullagh, whom he met on a family vacation at age 16. The firm went on to produce documentaries focused on exposing corruption. One series, Ghana: Food for Thought, exposed the theft and black market sale of international food aid. Another, Nigeria’s Fake Doctors, exposed quack doctors practicing dangerous unlicensed medicine.

During that period, Ossoff was splitting his time between Georgia, the U.K. and West Africa. But then, in 2016, Trump won. Carlson said Ossoff was fired up. He realized that his hometown Congressional seat—Georgia’s 6th—would be vacated so Republican Tom Price could serve as secretary of health and human services, and could be winnable. The seat had been a Republican stronghold since 1979, having once been represented by former Speaker Newt Gingrich. But with Trump’s election, Ossoff saw traditional political dynamics were changing.

Up until that point, Ossoff had worked outside the spotlight, in service of others. He was introverted, Carlson said, and careful with his words. But behind Ossoff’s attentive demeanor existed the presence of a leader. “He would be one of the last people to kind of say something, which gives its own kind of gravitas,” Carlson said. “People would kind of look to him to kind of see which direction to go.”

Each Wednesday that the Senate is in session, the Democratic Caucus holds a weekly meeting over lunch. These gatherings take place in the Kennedy Caucus Room, a conference hall-like space, not far from the Senate chamber. Besides the smell of fish—a lunchtime staple—that often wafts from the room, little about what takes place in these meetings is known to the public.

When Ossoff eventually took office in January 2021, having lost his 2017 congressional race, he was seated in the Senate chamber next to Colorado Democrat John Hickenlooper, who was also a freshman senator after serving as his state’s governor. The two became fast friends and would sometimes talk over cheese and wine at the end of a day. They each had children born less than a year apart, and Hickenlooper said he and Ossoff would “compete” over who’d shown more cute photos of their kids to colleagues.

As a lover of music, Hickenlooper was impressed with Ossoff’s ability to harmonize and share facts about folk works and the blues. Ossoff’s manning of third base during the bipartisan congressional baseball game also impressed him. But perhaps what stands out most to the Coloradan is how Ossoff conducts himself in those caucus lunch meetings.

“He oftentimes—by often I mean not every time, but maybe one out of four times—would be that person who speaks toward the end of the long debate and kind of sums up both sides and lets everyone look at it from a different perspective, which makes it easier to get to a compromise,” Hickenlooper told Newsweek.

Many of Ossoff’s Senate accomplishments derive from work where compromise can be struck. In 2020, Ossoff emerged from an intensely heated election where he made former Republican Senator David Perdue’s trading of stocks a focus of the contest. The attack had particular salience amid the COVID-19 pandemic as Perdue invested in firms including DuPont, which produced personal protective equipment. Perdue maintained that his finances were managed by an outside firm, but his rebuttal largely failed to land.

As a campaign issue, Perdue’s trading record presented a convenient foil to Ossoff’s resume as a documentarian focused on anti-corruption. However, the senator did not pivot away from the issue, despite Perdue being vanquished and Trump pushed from office.

In 2021, Ossoff was named chair of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Among his accomplishments in that role, he led an eight-month investigation that found employees of the Federal Bureau of Prisons had sexually abused female prisoners in at least 19 of 29 federal prison facilities that have held women over the past decade. In response, Ossoff partnered with Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa to pass the Prison Camera Reform Act, which required the federal prison system to upgrade outdated and broken security cameras.

In 2024, he scored an even bigger prison reform win with the passage of his Federal Prison Oversight Act, a bill he first introduced in 2022 which mandated routine inspections of all federal prison facilities by independent Department of Justice inspectors. For that, Ossoff was awarded the Carl Levin Award for Effective Oversight. Of course, that effort took place while Democrats held control of the Senate, allowing Ossoff to take the lead on such efforts. As a member of the minority unable to set the agenda, Ossoff has adapted his priorities to make the most of a minority role.

In 2025, he joined the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, taking on the role of ranking member of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. There, he helped co-author a bill that delivered $556 million for military construction projects in Georgia, the largest investment since 2010. Simultaneously, he’s utilized his perch on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to aggressively question Trump’s two directors of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard and Jay Clayton, in scenes that went viral. Ossoff has taken that record back to Georgia this year, where he’s again positioned himself as a foil to his MAGA opponent, Congressman Mike Collins.

Collins is currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for allegedly misusing taxpayer funds. Collins denies wrongdoing but faced additional heat after CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski reported that Collins’ son-in-law has spread pro-white nationalist messaging on social media. Not long after that report, a piece by the Washington Post’s Liz Goodwin and Olivia George revealed that a former Collins staffer had dressed in what appeared to be Ku Klux Klan robes and posted Nazi imagery.

“Jon Ossoff has had six years, and he’s taken every chance to make life less safe, more expensive, and worse off,” Collins told Newsweek in a statement. “I come from the real world, where six years of making everything worse gets you fired. I’m a small businessman who’s delivered bipartisan results in the House, and I’m asking Georgians to do what any good boss would do: fire him.”

Newsweek spoke to a half-dozen Republicans who framed the campaign against Ossoff as one centered around casting him as a partisan, unaligned with the values of what’s still a largely red state. Though Georgia may have two Democratic senators, both chambers of the state legislature and all the major statewide offices are held by Republicans. Though Ossoff has crossed party lines to support legislation like Collins’ Laken Riley Act, which requires immigration authorities to detain certain noncitizens accused or convicted of specified crimes, The Lugar Center—which tracks bipartisanship—places near the bottom of the top third most bipartisan senators, ranking 33 in the center’s most recent index.

Having campaigned squarely against Trump, however, Ossoff will bank on his bipartisanship level being enough to draw support from Republicans who are equally incensed by the president’s actions. When it comes to the Trump administration, many have noted that Ossoff’s genuine disdain.

Democratic Senator Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland sits next to Ossoff in the Senate chamber and has seen the intensity in his eyes when he speaks of injustices, especially those that impact the people of Georgia. While Ossoff is known to be intensely professional and keep a low profile in the Capitol, she saw a different side to him when she traveled to Georgia to support his campaign earlier this year. There, she came to truly understand his strengths as a leader. “My seatmate changed in Georgia,” Alsobrooks told Newsweek. “It’s almost like he comes alive in a whole different way in Georgia, which is different. I see him one way in D.C., but Georgia clearly is the place where he is most comfortable.”

Following the 2024 election, Democrats were reeling, Georgia Democrats particularly so. Election analysis showed that nearly every county in the country had swung toward Trump from 2020—minus one concentrated area. Eleven counties surrounding the city of Atlanta all swung left. For some members of the Georgia Democratic Party, this reality became evidence of missed opportunities and unforced errors.

Following the 2024 election, this Newsweek reporter traveled to the Atlanta metro to interview young Democratic organizers. These individuals spoke of how the relationship between the Democratic Party of Georgia and the grassroots was characterized by dysfunction as messages failed to travel up and back down. Some of those organizers placed blame on the fact that the state party did not employ a full-time chair. Congresswoman Nikema Williams of Georgia’s 5th District held the part-time role, and on account of her federally elected position, she was restricted in her ability to fundraise. These critiques were not unheard by Ossoff.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein reported that Ossoff called Williams and urged her to resign. Williams reportedly messaged allies about the exchange, claiming Ossoff told her: “I don’t want you leading the party with me at the top of the ticket.” Allies of Ossoff’s “confirmed the exchange is a broadly accurate, though not verbatim, depiction of their conversation.”

Either way, Williams went on to resign, and in the contested race for chair, Ossoff endorsed eventual winner, Charlie Bailey, an attorney who’d previously come within 2.6 points of becoming attorney general in 2018 and five points from becoming lieutenant governor in 2022. “I like to joke that I’m like the best closest loser in Georgia history—in 2022, I had the smallest margin of any Democrat not named [Senator] Raphael Warnock—so I think [Ossoff] saw I’d proven that in campaigns,” Bailey told Newsweek. “We shared the belief that in a big battleground state like this, you need a chair that can lead a state party that is focused on building up the infrastructure, not just in the election year but year-round and in the off years. And in order to do that, you need a full-time chair who knows how to raise money.”

The move represented a remarkably political moment for the normally cautious Ossoff. But to allies, it’s clear the need for an improved organizing apparatus reflected the experiences he’d had running for Congress. Elena Schneider detailed in an article for Politico that back in 2017, Ossoff came close to flipping that congressional seat by using an outreach strategy known as “paid relational organizing,” whereby the campaign pays people to talk politics with their friends. The strategy was replicated to success in 2020 and again is being used by the campaign in 2026. As the thinking goes, politics is more fun when practiced with friends.

Staci Fox and Jenny Peterson were among the individuals like Cox who became friends with Ossoff following the campaign. Fox, too, was there to see Ossoff marry his high school sweetheart, and Peterson, who became close with Ossoff’s mother, had a one-on-one lunch with him, where he told her he planned to run for Senate. The three women each attributed their relationship with Ossoff to the atmosphere he created as the principle of a major campaign. Ossoff had a special kind of maturity from the early days of the race, they said, and a special ability to make people feel heard and valued. “I think it’s one of his superpowers,” Peterson said.

As a senator, Ossoff has sought to replicate the experience in the interactions between his office and constituents. Nearly every Georgian interviewed for this piece cited Ossoff’s constituent services program as perhaps his greatest strength.

Tracey Axnick, a 58-year-old retiree who worked in the commercial insurance industry, can attest to that. She identifies as conservative but dislikes Trump. Axnick voted for Republican Governor Brian Kemp in 2018 but backed Ossoff in 2020. She’s glad she did. In late 2021, she received a letter from the IRS stating the agency owed her $2,100 due to a filing mistake. Eighteen months later, she still hadn’t received the money. The individual she was dating at the time urged her to contact her elected leader. Axnick chose Ossoff and was swiftly connected with a member of his team who took down her details. Within two weeks, she received a check from the IRS for $2,100—with interest. “Ever since then, I’m Team Ossoff all the way,” she told Newsweek.

Jason Carter—a former state senator and the chair of the board of trustees at the Carter Center, founded by his grandfather President Jimmy Carter—believes Ossoff’s thoroughness and commitment to the work is what makes him so effective. In both the 2017 and 2020 campaigns, Carter said Ossoff never made a true mistake. Carter is among the half-dozen-plus former and current state elected officials who lauded Ossoff’s attentiveness, his practice of handing out his phone number and responding promptly. As Carter has gotten to know Ossoff, he’s come to understand that the senator is “authentically disciplined” in private and in public, which can be seen in how he runs his office.

Carter characterized Ossoff as a no-nonsense problem solver, a role that offers great appeal in today’s political climate. “Writ large, neither party is doing a good job of delivering for regular people, and Jon Ossoff gets that,” Carter told Newsweek. “He gets that people are feeling alienated from their government, and what he has tried to do is do a good job as a senator—get the constituent services right. When someone calls his office, make sure they have a good experience. Then in his actual substantive fights, on issues like prescription drugs, anti-corruption, even on the Iran war, he focuses on things that are affecting people in their daily life.”

Corruption tackler, problem solver, engaging campaigner. On its face, Ossoff checks three boxes that voters are looking for in a president. While a swing state incumbent can never feel too sure, under the current political climate, Ossoff’s standing is about as good as it could be heading into November. However, after this election is said and done, Ossoff’s career will no longer be what it was before.

Most individuals interviewed for this piece believe Ossoff when he says he’s not actively pining to be president. However, Clinton said the same thing when he was running for reelection as governor of Arkansas. Obama gave a similar response when he was asked the question while serving his first term in the Senate. The question will continue to face Ossoff, supporters will call for him to try and Republicans will increasingly view him as a salient threat.

The youngest senator in the chamber, who kept his head down, responded to problems and carried out the work will see new attention and hurdles as he navigates his path forward. He’s stuck his neck out and gone viral, raised $81 million in the process and presented himself as the antithesis of MAGA. People are now going to expect the leader who waits till the end of discussions to deliver his point to seize the wheel and chart the course forward. He’s already receiving some of that pressure in Georgia.

“I hope that coming out this break, that he will take his energy, his resources, and pour it in at the local level and these seats that we’re trying to win at the state house level and campaign with those candidates,” Fred Hicks, a longtime Georgia political strategist, told Newsweek the Friday before Labor Day weekend. “If you want to secure your reelection, then the best way to do that is to help Democrats downballot get elected. Because again, if people go out and vote for the local state representative and lesser-known statewide candidates, they’re going to vote for you as well.”

Less than two weeks after Hicks said this, news broke that Ossoff was taking steps to do just that. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Bluestein reported that Ossoff’s fundraising apparatus was transferring $3.6 million into the Democratic Party of Georgia’s coordinated campaign. Video calls from Ossoff asking for small dollar donations remain a constant across the web, and the senator has maintained a robust travel schedule across the state.

Each week, his rally speeches are clipped and circulated across social media, bolstering his hype. The best example of this is Ossoff’s line that Trump just “wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie [Harp] on their apparently defenseless flying palace.” This thrust the aide into the political limelight, casting her as a symbol of Trumpian excess. Ossoff’s speeches have become a reliable source of news for weekend teams covering the midterm campaign trail.

However, with great influence comes great responsibility, and Ossoff will increasingly be pressured to lead beyond Georgia. Hicks noted that when Ossoff ran his first race in 2017, he competed in a nonpartisan jungle primary, allowing him to skirt the defined partisan positions his peers in a bluer state must take. “I think that had a huge influence on how he ran his 2020 campaign, how he’s governed and how he’s managed his life as a U.S. senator,” Hicks said. “He learned to be a representative for everyone.”

Representing everyone is something Democrats could use after years of internal divisions. The same could be said for the nation as a whole. Right now, prediction markets have Ossoff neck and neck with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ahead of California Governor Gavin Newsom as the person most likely to be the Democratic nominee. The question is, does he want it?

Most individuals interviewed for this piece characterized Ossoff as a relatively modest person. Some said he may feel that it’s not his turn now. They note he’s already committed to representing the people of Georgia. Perhaps most compellingly, though, individuals spoke about what a dutiful father he is and the real concern he would reckon with regarding the effects that a presidential campaign and life in the White House would have on his 4- and 1-year-old daughters.

“He knows that if he runs for president and, God forbid, wins, his children would never have—he would never have that relationship,” Hickenlooper said. “He could still have a great relationship, but their childhood would be distorted, you know, for better or for worse. I think President Obama demonstrated that you could do a pretty good job of raising kids and still be a good president. I think Jon could do that, but it would be a fundamental sacrifice.”

Alter, who covered and knows Obama well, said the president also dealt with such family concerns as he weighed running in 2008. Was then really the right time after having served less than a term in the Senate? Perhaps a later moment could prove more opportune. But Obama was gaining attention, and many Americans were craving a leader just like him. Alter said a conversation with Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid shaped the trajectory of Obama’s decision. The consideration Reid raised is one Ossoff himself must face.

“The argument for running is the same one that Harry Reid made to Obama when he was Senate majority leader. He said, ‘Timing is everything in politics. You can’t do it on your timetable. You’re young and could run in 10 years, but that’s not what’s happening right now. This is your year. You got to grab it,’” Alter said. “Ossoff might get the same advice from people he respects. ‘Yes, it’s a problem. There are going to be people in Georgia that are mad at you, but in that case, you’d have five years to recover from it before you run for your third term, so go for it.’”

In the wake of Trump overhauling Washington in a manner many Democrats view as corrupt, during a time in which partisan vitriol has torn the country apart, Ossoff’s message may be more salient than ever. While Ossoff’s core work tackling corruption and solving constituent problems will prove striking, Alter said he must think about the other reasons why he’s the one to lead the country. Pressure on Ossoff will be high, Alter said, and it will be hard to maintain momentum for two years, regardless of oratory skills. “When Trump is like the lamest of lame ducks and corruption is old news, what’s his next message after that?” Alter questioned. Perhaps the roots of that answer can be found in the last president to spring from Georgia.

Carter noted that when his grandfather ran for the presidency, America faced a moment like this. People were fed up with both parties and wanted someone who could stand up for regular Americans. Carter sees parallels in Ossoff because though he may not spend his time on social media, though he may keep his social circle tight, though he may be more comfortable listening than talking, Ossoff’s character and commitment to justice cannot be questioned.

“[My grandfather] was somebody who believed in his heart that the collective wisdom of regular Americans is the best wisdom for our country, and he felt like he could help reconnect to that wisdom, and I think in that way, Jon Ossoff is similar,” Carter said. “I think he also shares that opinion that the voters are the ones who you put at the top of the pyramid instead of donors, instead of other politicians, instead of influencers and whoever else it is that most politicians spend their time focused on.”