Balancing Trump criticism and bipartisanship, Democrat Jon Ossoff walks a fine line in Georgia

MARIETTA, Ga. — There's the Jon Ossoff who built his political career around criticizing Donald Trump.

There's also the Ossoff who works with Republicans, advancing the interests of Georgia's farmers and military bases.

But they're the same guy — a 38-year-old first-term U.S. senator from Georgia who says his race will be the ''main event'' in 2026. He's the only Democratic senator seeking reelection from a state Trump carried in winning last year's presidential election.

Ossoff is among many Democrats looking for the right way to challenge Trump and Republicans after the GOP won the White House and congressional majorities in 2024. While some Democrats may be eyeing the presidency in 2028, Ossoff has a more immediate goal -- retaining his seat in Georgia, where Republicans hope to pad their narrow Senate majority.

Still, midterm elections typically favor the party opposing the president. And Republicans in recent years have often nominated candidates seen by moderates as as too extreme, including in Georgia.

Ossoff, meanwhile, picks his spots carefully, challenging Trump vigorously on some fronts while still professing a willingness to work with him. In recent weeks, he launched his reelection bid with a blistering critique of Trump's second term, weathered criticism from Democrats that he wasn't fighting hard enough, and touted patriotism and service to potential military academy students at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta.

Fighting Trump and working with him

Ossoff says there's no clash between bipartisanship and fighting Trump, but in this still-early stage of the second Trump administration, he's clearly looking to strike the right balance. Georgia voters returned to Trump in 2024 after narrowly choosing Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 and giving Democrats control of the Senate by electing Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in twin runoffs.

''My first and highest obligation is to deliver for the state of Georgia,'' Ossoff said in an interview with The Associated Press, vowing to pursue ''opportunities to work with this administration or to continue to partner with Republicans in Congress.''

But Ossoff isn't new to criticizing Trump. He became a resistance hero in his unsuccessful 2017 run in the first special election of Trump's first term, setting a then-record for spending on a House seat.

''We have never seen a president try to wield the federal government to crush his critics and political adversaries. That is something new in American history, and it is, in my view, un-American,'' Ossoff said. ''And it's something that should chill us to the bone, no matter our politics, no matter our policy preferences.''

At a recent town hall, some voters pressed Ossoff to more directly confront Trump.

''Do you think that there's nothing going to be done?" asked Kate Denny, of Avondale Estates. ''No. Do something more."

While Ossoff told Denny that ''there is no doubt that this president's conduct has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment,'' he also said he has ''no magic button'' to stop Trump. The only reliable solution, he said, is reclaiming the House and the Senate.

Ossoff said he won't change his approach.

''I am who I am, and I speak directly, I speak candidly," Ossoff said. "I also think before I speak.''

Democrats had hoped 2021 victories by Ossoff and Warnock signaled the party's resurgence in Georgia. But Republican Gov. Brian Kemp cruised to reelection in 2022 over Democrat Stacey Abrams. Warnock needed a runoff to dispatch the flawed Senate campaign of former football star Herschel Walker.

In 2024, Georgia voters favored Trump over then-Vice President Kamala Harris by 2 percentage points. Many Republicans bet Ossoff's election in 2020 was a fluke and aim to keep him from running to the center as Warnock did in 2022.

''Ossoff's far-left politics only worked in specific moment of GOP chaos,'' Republican political consultant Dan McLagan said. ''Now it's like he's showing up at a Lee Greenwood Fourth of July concert with a ‘Free Palestine' sign and a Che Guevara T-shirt. Everyone has already seen him, and it's too late to change his clothes.''

Moves have rankled some Democrats

Even within his own party, Ossoff's course hasn't always been smooth. Some Black Democrats took offense at his effort to oust U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams of Atlanta as chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia. The party changed its rules to make the position paid and full time, with Williams stepping down before Democrats elected a new chair Saturday. Ossoff said he asked Williams to quit, saying that to progress ''Georgia Democrats need a statewide party organization with nationally unparalleled professionalism, resources and capabilities.''

The first Jewish senator from Georgia, Ossoff also upset many Jewish voters when he supported a November resolution by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, to block the sale of some weapons to Israel.

The vote earned Ossoff a public letter of rebuke from many Jewish institutions, including The Temple, the historic Atlanta synagogue where he had his bar mitzvah. A second letter, first reported by The New York Times, was sent privately by top Jewish donors to Kemp urging him to seek Ossoff's seat.

In April, Ossoff voted against a new set of Sanders resolutions, and tensions have eased, said Alli Medof, a Democrat long active for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel group. ''The temperature is lowered, but the trust level is not yet restored," she said.

Ossoff touts his success in getting India to lower tariffs on Georgia-grown pecans and has cultivated voters in Republican areas beyond Atlanta. He enthusiastically backed Biden's incentives to build electric vehicles and has competed with Kemp to take credit for investments.

Ossoff walks a finer line on immigration. He voted for the Laken Riley Act, which requires detention of immigrants who are in the U.S. illiegally and are accused of theft and violent crimes. The law is named after a slain Georgia nursing student whose case Republicans publicized. Ossoff said that Americans ''deserve secure borders'' and that ''the Biden administration failed in its border policies," but he also says immigration policy must be "humane.''

Republicans have already launched ads attacking Ossoff's opposition to a bill barring schools from allowing transgender women to participate in women's sports. Ossoff calls that an obsession most voters don't share.

Ossoff the investigator

One of Ossoff's trademark moves is to announce investigations — a callback to his job producing documentaries examining corruption before he ran for the Senate.

''I think that in some ways, Congress has neglected now for decades the vigorous use of our oversight authorities," Ossoff said at the town hall.

One investigation led to the Federal Prison Oversight Act, which mandated prison inspections and created an ombudsman to investigate complaints. But not all reform moves have succeeded. After announcing a bipartisan agreement in July to ban congressional stock trading — a major theme of Ossoff's winning campaign against Republican Sen. David Perdue — the deal went nowhere.

One question is who Ossoff's Republican opponent will be. Kemp, likely the strongest GOP candidate, may decline to run. If he opts out, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is one possible Republican candidate.

Greene could be Ossoff's dream opponent, and he has seemed to invite her entry — betting the north Georgia firebrand would repel swing voters who couldn't stomach Walker.

Either way, the race won't be cheap. Ossoff raised $11.2 million in 2025's first quarter and is already spending heavily.

Ossoff declines to discuss possible opponents but says he's ready.

''I welcome any challenger," he said, ''and I am more than prepared for any challenger.''

___

Follow the AP's coverage of Sen. Jon Ossoff at https://apnews.com/hub/jon-ossoff.