Following a crushing defeat of historic proportions for President Donald Trump, the future is looking bright for the Democrats.
In around two years’ time, US voters will go to the polls to elect Trump’s successor in the Oval Office… and it’s safe to say the momentum now appears to be with his opponents.
However, a lot rests on finding a candidate who will not blow what appears to be one of the best chances the Dems have had for several elections.
Many people appear to be settling on a name that might not be familiar for those who watch US politics only casually from afar: Jon Ossoff.
Who is Jon Ossoff?
Jon Ossoff rose to prominence ahead of the 2020 US Senate election, when he was facing off against incumbent Republican David Perdue – now Trump’s ambassador to China – for one of Georgia’s two seats.
Perdue narrowly won the initial vote but failed to get above the required 50% of the vote, leading to a runoff election two months later.
In that second vote, Ossoff managed to overtake his opponent to win by 50.6% to Perdue’s 49.4% and become the youngest incumbent US senator at 33 years old.
He and Raphael Warnock, who was elected on the same day in January 2021, became the first Democrat senators for Georgia since 2000. Their success contributed to a wave of optimism for the party after Joe Biden’s election.
Since his arrival in the Senate, Ossoff has gained a reputation as a talented orator and appears popular with Georgians – after yesterday’s elections, he appears to have widened his narrow margin of victory to almost 20 percentage points.
But in the wider country and world, his most viral moment came in August when he slipped a quick reference to Trump’s special assistance Natalie Harp into a speech, prompting fury from Maga forces.
While Ossoff didn’t even use Harp’s surname – saying only that Trump wants to ‘build his ballroom and travel with Natalie’ – his words led to days of awkward coverage over the aide’s eye-catching behaviour.
What are Jon Ossoff’s chances in 2028?
He is currently leading two other heavyweights in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the leading light of the party’s progressive movement, and Gavin Newsom, the popular governor of California.
The same bookies give him equal or even better odds than the Republican frontrunner JD Vance, the current vice president who could take a knock for his close association with President Trump.
Beyond his speech-making skills, he has impressed with his success and popularity as a senator in the South – typically solid Republican territory.
Ossoff has previously ruled out going for the job, saying in a debate last month: ‘I have zero interest in running for president. I’m not running for president. I’m running for re-election to the Senate.’
But it’s been widely pointed out that among the candidates who have previously made similar promises after being elected to the senate is… Barack Obama.
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