Welcome to Power Players, The i Paper’s opinion series in which our writers and experts take an in-depth look at the key figures in American politics as the US reshapes itself and the world.

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Jon Ossoff may be the Democrat who has best figured out how to unite the centre and the left of his party, and how to steamroll the right. The Georgia senator’s current campaign for re-election in November is based on one solid messaging principle: President Donald Trump is incredibly unpopular. So attack Donald Trump – relentlessly, viciously, without fear.

Ossoff deployed this strategy to impressive effect in a speech last month. “While the sailors on the fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the President sleeps through his meetings,” the senator said. “He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.”

This blistering attack touched on a range of current scandals, including Trump’s losing war in Iran and his grotesque stock trading scandals. The part that caught the attention of the White House and the press, though, was his reference to Trump’s 35-year-old special assistant Natalie Harp.

Harp is the President’s constant companion. She reportedly controls his social media accounts, meaning she has great influence on what information he sees and shares. She follows the President around with a printer, running off laudatory articles to share with Trump to feed his ego. She also flatters him herself: in leaked quotations from her letters to him, she has told him, “You are all that matters to me”, and “I want to bring you joy”.

Ossoff’s quip led to furious pushback from the White House. Director of communications Steven Cheung referred to Ossoff as “Jon Jackoff” and said he was a “miserable person who hates his country”. The press leaped on the story gleefully.

Ossoff’s ability to almost casually dominate the news cycle, enrage the White House, and get the press on his side has caught the notice of Democrats as well. So has Ossoff’s rising polling in Georgia. At the beginning of the electoral cycle, analysts thought his would be a tough seat to retain, but Ossoff has been leading Trump-backed Mike Collins in polls by four to eight points. The FiftyPlusOne model has Ossoff winning 95 out of 100 simulations.

It’s a commanding performance, and one that has created a lot of interest among Democrats in an Ossoff 2028 presidential run. The senator’s youth (he is only 39) and good looks have led many voters to compare him to Barack Obama. But his fiery self-written speeches (“Our task is not just to contain his wickedness but to cure the rot that gave rise to it”) include the kind of partisan fire and clear denunciation of Republicans that Obama often avoided.

Ossoff has been a Democrat to watch for some time now. He interned in the congressional office of civil rights legend John Lewis in high school, and went on to become the managing director and CEO of Insight TWI, an investigative documentary film company. He has developed an impressive electoral record. He secured an eight point swing in a House contest in 2017, but lost to his heavily favoured Republican opponent. He won an uphill Senate election in 2020.

While his electoral record was impressive, Ossoff did not immediately stand out as a senator or as an anti-Trump voice. As a red-state Senate candidate, he deliberately avoided defining himself against Trump.

In the Senate, in his first term, Ossoff continued to keep his head down, acting as a loyal Joe Biden vote, and otherwise floating somewhere between the party’s moderate and progressive wings.

While he’s vacillated ideologically, Ossoff has gained a reputation as a tough questioner in Senate hearings. In July, for example, he pushed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth repeatedly to state whether he stood by statements from March that Iran’s military had been “destroyed” and “made combat ineffective”. Hegseth dodged and weaved and generally looked ridiculous as he refused to confirm that he had been wrong at best or had at worst made sweeping and false claims as the war drags on after six months.

That kind of confrontational pugnacity has now become Ossoff’s trademark. In February he delivered a barn-burner of a speech in which he coined the phrase “the Epstein class” to refer to the wealthy elite who bankroll Trump and serve in his cabinet—“Epstein” is of course disgraced financier and child abuser Jeffrey Epstein, who was Trump’s long-time crony.

Ossoff’s viral attacks – on Epstein, on Harp, on Trump – have supercharged his fundraising. In the second quarter of 2026 he raised $20m (£14.7m) and had $42m (£31m) on hand. His opponent, Collins, had raised $2.1m (£1.5m) and had about $2m (£1.4m) on hand. That’s a 20 to one fundraising advantage.

Nationalising the Georgia Senate race as Trump’s popularity sinks has put Ossoff in a commanding position to win re-election. And while Ossoff says he has no interest in running for president himself, he must have noticed that he is getting national attention and some solid 2028 polling. He is probably waiting in part to see whether Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms can win the Georgia governor’s race. When there is a Senate vacancy in Georgia, the governor appoints a temporary replacement, so if Bottoms wins, Ossoff could step down from his seat in 2028 secure in the knowledge that the seat would be filled by a Democrat.

Whatever the outcome of the governor’s race, Ossoff has to be tempted by the presidency. His experience in Georgia means he is likely to be able to appeal to Black voters in the south, which is a necessity for any Democratic presidential nomination fight. And he seems broadly acceptable to people across the spectrum in the Democratic Party – he’s been praised by centrist consultant James Carville and left-wing streamer Hasan Piker.

If he does enter the 2028 race more explicitly, Ossoff will have to make his position on a range of issues clearer. But Ossoff has already shown that dynamic, passionate attacks on Trump’s corruption, laziness, entitlement, and authoritarianism can energise Democrats across ideological lines to create a winning coalition in a swing state. Whatever his future career path, he has ensured himself a place as a party leader for some time—and perhaps given Democrats a blueprint for victory in 2026 and 2028.