Jon Ossoff

Thomas Jonathan Ossoff (born February 16, 1987) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Georgia since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Ossoff was previously a documentary film producer and investigative journalist. Ossoff is the first millennial senator to be elected.

Quotes

 * People are sick of fake politicians who have no core and say one thing in private and another in public, or are just obviously doing anything right before an election. My sense is that voters of all ideological persuasions prefer candidates who are just real about what they believe and what they want to do, even if it’s not necessarily the precise policy platform that you agree with. You want someone who’s wearing their values on their sleeve and not B.S.’ing*. (Ossoff used more colorful language, but this is a family newspaper.)
 * Quoted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Jolt: Jon Ossoff says voters want ‘someone who’s not B.S.’ing’ (5 January 2020)


 * The last year has really brought home that it is truly a matter of life and death. The tangible, human stakes, the real-life consequences when we are led by fools, and when we are led by people who are more concerned with their own enrichment than they are with the financial well-being of the families that pay their salary.  We can get direct financial relief to people fast, and I know that this incoming administration wants to do it. But if we don’t win these Senate races, they’re gonna block help for the people because they’re not going to want to relieve suffering. If the Republicans hold the Senate, they’re gonna block it...   Every vote will count, every vote will matter, and we saw in November how every vote mattered. And the second is, there will be a big difference in your daily life depending on the outcome here.
 * Quoted in Jon Ossoff Talks With Rasheeda About What Dems Can Achieve If They Win Georgia Runoffs, By Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone (magazine), (4 January 2020)


 * We need to have perspectives in candidates that reflect the perspectives of a younger generation... Young people have demands and unmet needs. One thing I want to do is say that we can make change and enact legislation that will help.  Investment in clean energy, environmental action, real criminal justice reform, and college debt reform are issues that matter to millennials but get little attention in a Senate dominated by boomers and members of the Greatest Generation.
 * Quoted in Fortune (magazine), Jon Ossoff becomes the only senator under 40, injecting some much-needed youth, by Nicole Goodkind, (6 January 2021)


 * I will work in the U.S. Senate to support a robust public health response so that we can defeat this virus, putting Georgia’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the lead, trusting medical expertise, doctors, and scientists to bring the tools to bear, the technology to bear, the ingenuity to bear, and the resources to bear necessary to stop the spread of this virus to defeat it and to get our daily lives back — and to rush direct economic relief to people who need help right now.
 * Quoted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Jolt: Raphael Warnock exults, Jon Ossoff claims victory, and Republicans wonder what happened,  (6 January 2021)

Quotes about

 * In 2017 I remember whispering to myself... “He’s Jewish, accomplished, and single!?” Well, to all the Jewish mothers across the nation desperately searching for an eligible bachelor for their daughters, he tied the knot with his (Jewish) girlfriend of 12 years later that year. There were claims by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that he was “shamed” into marrying his girlfriend for an electoral boost. Members of the tribe… we know this is not true. Sometimes it just takes time for a nice Jewish man and a nice Jewish woman to take the plunge...
 * We Need Hot Jews Like Jon Ossoff in the Senate, Zach Schiffman, Alma (6 November 2020)


 * Doorknock for Warnock vote your Ossoff
 * Campaign slogan according to  Peter Doocy  on  Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace (January 3, 2020)


 * While pandemic relief was at the top of Ossoff’s list, he rattled off an array of other issues Democrats would be able to tackle as well with control of the Senate: raising the minimum wage, building new health clinics, re-opening hospitals that have closed, Civil Rights legislation to reform the justice system and policing, improving public schools, and expanding Pell Grants to make college more affordable.
 * Rolling Stone (magazine), Jon Ossoff Talks With Rasheeda About What Dems Can Achieve If They Win Georgia Runoffs, By Jon Blistein, (4 January 2020)


 * In an 2020 op-ed entitled, “We Need Hot Jews Like Jon Ossoff in the Senate,” Jewish feminist publication Alma noted that while Ossoff is married to Alisha Kramer, MD, a resident at Emory School of Medicine, “if you are elected to the Senate, you can be all of Jewish America’s husband.”... Like most internet-boyfriend-style crushes, the Ossoff admiration transcends mere good hair, encompassing his young-professor aura. Ossoff cites the late civil rights icon Representative John Lewis, for whom he interned, as a mentor.
 * The Internet Thirst for Jon Ossoff Is Strong, Michelle Ruiz, Vogue (magazine), (4 January 2020)


 * Ossoff said he’s feeling especially encouraged by Democrats’ turnout operation, which included making more than 1.5. million phone calls per day and knocking on tens, and in some cases, more than 100,000 doors every day in the last week. Ossoff has also hired thousands of young mobilizers to knock on doors and turn out voters. And he called the large crowds he’s gotten in small towns all across the state proof that if Democrats compete in rural Georgia, their ideas can win the day.
 * The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Jolt: Jon Ossoff says voters want ‘someone who’s not B.S.’ing’ (5 January 2020)


 * Democrat Jon Ossoff claimed victory over Republican incumbent David Perdue in his Senate race. He would become the second Jewish candidate to win a statewide race in modern Georgia -- and the youngest since Joe Biden was elected to the Senate in 1972.
 * The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Jolt: Raphael Warnock exults, Jon Ossoff claims victory, and Republicans wonder what happened,  (6 January 2021)


 * Democrat Jon Ossoff has a slim lead in his runoff against Republican Senator David Perdue. If Ossoff wins his race, the Senate will be split 50-50, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote, giving Democrats more power to pass President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda.
 * Georgia Turning Blue? In Victory for Grassroots Organizers, Warnock Wins Senate Runoff; Ossoff Leads, Democracy Now! (6 January 2021)


 * The Senate... suffers from a rapidly aging body of legislators. With an average age of 63 and five octogenarian... it’s no secret that the Senate is in need of younger blood. And on Tuesday evening, Jon Ossoff, at a spiffy 33 (he’s got six more years to make Fortune’s 40 under 40), provided just that. The former congressional staffer and investigative journalist will break through the wall of senior citizens to become the youngest member of the legislative body... Throughout his campaign, Ossoff touted his youth as one of his “greatest strengths.” Young people, he said, could easily make up the largest voting bloc and swing elections consistently if they were inspired to come out to the polls. Currently, the Senate has no millennial representation, despite being America’s largest generation.
 * Fortune (magazine), Jon Ossoff becomes the only senator under 40, injecting some much-needed youth, by Nicole Goodkind, (6 January 2021)