ATLANTA: When a 30-year-old named Jon Ossoff burst onto the national political scene in 2017, he didn’t talk much about Donald Trump.
By running in the first major special elections of the Trump era – in the same district that Newt Gingrich once held – Ossoff clearly avoided attacks on the then new president. He presented himself as a centrist, not as a #Resistance resistance; a candidate more concerned with useless government spending than Trump.
More than three years after this defeat, the candidate was called the “high priest” of civilization The Washington Post he has changed his sermon. Where he punched Trump, Ossoff – who now faces Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) in a run-off run with control of the U.S. Senate – frames Georgia’s important Democratic campaign. as a way to stop it ”a figure like Donald Trump” from “achieving[ing] power simply threatening to burn everything. “
And it’s not just Trump who points in sharp terms, but Trumpism as well.
“I think a leadership like Donald Trump’s is only growing from the ground that has already been poisoned,” Ossoff said in an interview Tuesday with The Daily Beast, following a campaign event in downtown Atlanta. “So these races are about whether this administration entering the next Congress will have the capacity to govern and enact legislation that serves the interests of working families, and whether we can do things that help people determine whether on the road, there is a resurgence of reactionary, right-wing extremism. “
The change in Ossoff’s rhetoric not only shows his evolution as a candidate. It also reflects the dramatic change in political terrain in Georgia and across the country during Trump’s four years in the White House.
On his way to the White House, Joe Biden led Georgia by 12,000 votes, the first victory of a Democratic presidential candidate here since 1992. He won the Sixth Congressional District that Ossoff lost in 2017 by a margin of 11 points; Democratic Rep. Lucy McBath has twice defeated Karen Handel, the Republican who defeated Ossoff for the first time there.
To win in Georgia, Ossoff and Raphael Warnock – the minister challenging Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) – are betting on the new formula, not the one that seemed ripe for 2017 or the Republican-lite game book used for decades by southern democrats. Those who know Ossoff well say they wish they had done this sooner.
“I think what has happened to Jon from his original career so far has really found his true voice and who he is, and not just what the consulting class perceives he needs to be,” said state Sen. Jen Jordan , Democratic district belongs to the Sixth Congress and is a friend of Ossoff. “The maturation from the race to Congress so far – and he was a good candidate in Congress – has been really amazing to see the maturation,” he said.
Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA), Osoff’s former chief at Capitol Hill, said his assistant also depended on consultants in his 2017 career, “but this time he has scored all the shots.”
“He’s been a practical candidate,” Johnson told The Daily Beast. “He has not left this campaign in the hands of anyone but him.”
The question now is whether the 33-year-old can head for victory in what could be the most intense Senate campaign in recent history. He is seen to have a tougher career than Warnock, who runs against Loeffler, an appointed senator, whose short term has been marked by controversy over his financial relations. Perdue, first elected in 2014, has a mark on Georgia’s politics — his cousin, Sonny, was a two-term governor — and almost avoided a second round against Ossoff by reaching close to 50% of the vote. in the November general election.
But Ossoff tries to regain ground as a Republican civil war unfolds. Since Nov. 3, Trump has set Georgia as a zero point for losing the election, sewing in widespread distrust in the state’s electoral system, hammering Republican Party elected officials and sounding the party’s alarm. for his most devoted supporters to stay home during the second round of January. .
“What you’re starting to see now is that some Republicans are looking at their heads on the parapet as dust is wiped out in the presidency and they say go, we’ve only had the worst beating for an incumbent president seeking re-election since Roosevelt crushed Hoover in 1932, perhaps the control of the walrus that the Trump family has over the Republican Party is not electorally sustainable nor is it sensible, ”Ossoff said. “I want to urge people in the Republican Party who recognize Trumpism as a dead end and bad for the country to talk now that it has been defeated.”
But while Ossoff can speak more freely and critically about the Republican party in Trump’s time, he insists he doesn’t close the door on working with its members. The Democrat said there may be bipartisan energy to rethink key economic policies, and suggested that it be a priority to work with GOP senators on this front, specifically mentioning Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a recognized Trumpist who, however, has been the strongest Republican voice who has pushed for direct controls. of $ 2,000 as part of a coronavirus relief bill.
“I think there are people in the Senate, including perhaps Mr. Hawley, who see that there can be a bipartisan coalition that can be built to rethink some of these things,” Ossoff said.
Should he be elected, Ossoff would probably enter the Senate closely under democratic control. And, for the same reason, his vote would be immensely important for any legislative or confirmation effort before the House.
To his critics, it is seen as a rubber stamp for Joe Biden. And during his 2020 campaign, Ossoff made it clear that he would be a firm ally of the new president. He has welcomed Biden’s presence on the campaign trail, and his strong announcements and speeches emphasize that his victory would make Biden’s agenda possible.
But Ossoff still stressed that his critics are wrong. With the caution that has defined much of his political rise, he portrays himself as someone who would not leave with his party. “Sitting in the U.S. Senate, the incoming administration must understand that I will take an opposite approach, when appropriate, and not just be a partisan soldier,” he said.
Ossoff argued that it would be a force that would put pressure on Biden on a number of issues, and said it would be “critical and public” if Biden did not accept reforms on climate change, campaign finance, economic policy, government ethics and others. areas. .
When insisted where he disagreed with Biden, Ossoff did not name any specific area of divergence. But he did express concern about the direction of the Biden administration in some general areas, in particular financial regulation and fiscal policy. The former vice president, who considers himself a friend of major financial institutions, has not filled his cabinet and the administration of figures willing to take a confrontational stance towards Wall Street, in the eyes of some on the left of the party . People on Wall Street have been “delighted” with Biden’s selections, a Goldman Sachs executive told Bloomberg.
“I am concerned about the influence the financial services industry may have in the coming years and with the incoming administration,” Ossoff said. “I don’t want to go on with business as always, where economic stimulus and efforts to support economic growth are primarily about subsidizing the financial services industry.”
Although Ossoff has tried to get rid of the shadows of his first candidacy, he cannot go far on the campaign trail without escaping the political moment that launched him.
On Sunday, at an “Artists for Ossoff” event in the Atlanta Five-Point neighborhood, Osoff’s audience included some of his first fans. One of them, Deb Powell, a beer distributor in suburban Johns Creek, recalled the early days of 2017 when her group of “suburban housewives” held a meeting and greeting for Ossoff. Five people were expecting “maybe”; 135 were presented.
“It’s a complete circle for us,” Powell told The Daily Beast. “She is OK. We are excited to work for him ”.
Jordan, the Democratic state senator for whom Ossoff campaigned in her 2017 special election, said the race was instructive, not just for her, but for others, and clearly for Ossoff as well.
He showed her that he was capable of running for a higher position and doing so under intense focus. When DC Democrats asked for their opinion in 2019 on who could take over Perdue, Jordan had a quick response.
“Everyone assumed Ossoff wouldn’t be able to get it, but I was never that person,” he said. “I said if anyone would take it out, it would be Jon.”
In fact, perhaps no Democrat in Trump’s time has had as many entries as Ossoff. In 2017, Republican groups spent more than $ 16 million chasing it as a living cake with a silver spoon with no business in Congress.
Like Ossoff’s approach, his playbook has also changed. In 2020, Republican Party outside groups (which have set aside $ 61 million in attacks on Ossoff) have adopted a strategy to paint him as a supporter of the far-left Chinese Communist Party.
Despite Republican cracks that Ossoff is a weak empty suit, they clearly don’t underestimate him, said Brian Robinson, strategist for the Republic of Georgia. “They don’t underestimate him in paid advertising,” he told The Daily Beast. “The campaigns have shown that they know Georgia is competitive and that overcoming any Democrat who has good funding is a serious challenge.” Ossoff raised more than $ 106 million from October 15 to December 16.
Robinson also noted that despite his frequent appearances on television, the incessant message Ossoff has given up a few forages for attack ads. “Look at what the Republicans have posted and published: these are not Ossoff quotes, but AOC quotes, Chuck Schumer,” he said.
A previous Perdue attack ad was edited to make Ossoff, a Jew, look like he had a bigger nose. Perdue’s campaign said it was an accident. But in his only debate, in October, Ossoff saved Perdue from playing anti-Semitic troops; later, the Republican Party senator skipped a debate scheduled for Dec. 6.
Ossoff related these ads to the ads Republicans have posted against Warnock, which he and others have called “racist.” Former inmate of the late Representative John Lewis, Ossoff included it as part of a long-term strategy to “prevent the emergence of a multiracial coalition that demands equal economic opportunities and access to health care. “.
“This is the old south versus the new south,” Ossoff said of the GOP announcements. “It simply came to our notice then. And at the moment I don’t think it’s effective. “