Bottoms’ new BFF? Ossoff’s Senate bets are on unity with Dems against Trump
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is making two big bets in his reelection campaign.
The first is that running more aggressively against Donald Trump in a state the president captured in 2024 will help Ossoff energize Democrats and win over independents and disaffected Republicans.
The second is that locking arms early in a “united and determined” alliance with Keisha Lance Bottoms, the party’s newly minted nominee for governor, will help unify Democrats while Republicans slog through costly runoffs.
At a weekend kickoff of his campaign ground-game operations in south DeKalb County, Ossoff told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he sees both as central in a campaign against either U.S. Rep. Mike Collins or former coach Derek Dooley, who will square off in a June runoff.
“Increasingly, Republican voters and an overwhelming majority of independent voters oppose what this administration is doing,” Ossoff said, adding his belief that a majority of voters believe “what this administration is doing to our country right now is unacceptable.”
“It requires opposition, it requires the restoration of checks and balances in these midterm elections.”
He and Bottoms plan on debuting the new alliance at a Sunday rally in Atlanta. As part of that argument, Ossoff is already trying to force his would-be Republican opponents onto difficult terrain.
Ossoff challenged Collins and Dooley to say whether they support three Trump-backed measures: $1 billion in security funding tied to a new White House ballroom, barring the IRS from auditing Trump’s past tax returns and a $1.8 billion fund for people who say they were politically persecuted.
Previewing his November case, the Democrat branded the initiatives a “crooked ballroom,” a “slush fund” for Jan. 6, 2021, rioters and an effort to grant Trump “immunity from tax investigations while he rakes in billions of dollars in personal wealth while sitting in the Oval Office.”
Neither of their campaigns commented on where they stand on those issues. Collins issued a broader statement through an aide that he would make a contrast between the Republican “record of safety, security and law and order and the radical chaos, destruction and despair of that duo.”
And a Dooley spokesman said the campaign “won’t tire of reminding voters just how reckless and dangerous these two liberal peas in a pod are.”
‘Distance himself’
Ossoff’s approach is not without risk. Trump still commands deep loyalty among GOP voters, though the latest AJC poll shows one-tenth of likely Republican voters disapprove of his second term.
And while Bottoms captured the nomination without a runoff, nearly 44% of Democratic primary voters backed someone else. Republicans are delighting at the tag-team effort.
The Republican National Committee said Ossoff was “partnering with a left-wing lunatic,” while Georgia GOP chair Josh McKoon posted images of violent protests in downtown Atlanta during Bottoms’ tenure.
“Now the senator gets to fully own her disastrous tenure as mayor of Atlanta — mismanaging the city, going after police officers and letting the 2020 riots and their aftermath claim Secoriea Turner’s life," he said, invoking the 2020 shooting death of an 8-year-old at a lawless protest site.
It’s a strategy with a familiar echo that’s worked before. During Ossoff’s winning 2021 runoff bid, he and the Rev. Raphael Warnock campaigned as a tandem, often calling each other a “brother from another mother.” Both framed themselves as sharp Trump adversaries.
But this alliance comes with different dynamics: Ossoff is running a federal race, Bottoms is running for governor, both now have political records to defend and both are trying to restitch a Democratic coalition strained by Trump.
Ossoff’s allies hope that a united front could help him solidify the party’s base and electrify the Black women at the heart of the Democratic coalition. For Bottoms, aligning with a popular incumbent could help win over skeptical Democrats.
“We are proceeding with unity. We are proceeding with determination. We are united in our shared belief that Georgia and the nation are in a state of crisis,” Ossoff told the AJC, criticizing the impact of Trump’s tariffs and Georgia’s refusal to expand Medicaid as a shared Democratic fight.
“That makes this election crucially important,” he said, “and Mayor Bottoms and I will be proceeding together, united and determined.”
About the Author
Greg Bluestein is the Atlanta Journal Constitution's chief political reporter. He is also an author, TV analyst and co-host of the Politically Georgia podcast.
