Ossoff, Bottoms eye momentum behind historic early voting turnout

With early voting off to a record-breaking start, Georgia’s top Democrats urged supporters to the polls saying they could make a pivotal difference in close races up and down the ballot.

“We need you to work,” U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said at a Cobb County rally with former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is running for governor.

“Some people just happen to live in times and in places where history is made, and this year, once again, Georgia, that’s us,” Ossoff said.

More than 796,000 voters have already cast ballots during the first week of early voting as of Saturday at 6 p.m. More people voted on Tuesday than the first day of early voting in the most recent midterm election in 2022.

With the exception of Ossoff — who is in some polls double-digits ahead of his Republican opponent U.S. Rep. Mike Collins — Democrats are in neck-and-neck races and eying historic wins that could shift the balance of power under the Gold Dome.

The incumbent senator this week reported a staggering fundraising edge over Collins. Ossoff reported roughly $26 million in the bank in the final stretch of his reelection campaign, a stockpile the campaign says it will continue to tap for TV advertising, canvassing and other grassroots efforts.

Ossoff used the rally Saturday to boost Democrats down the ballot, including Josh McLaurin, who is running for lieutenant governor, Tanya Miller running for attorney general and Penny Brown Reynolds running for secretary of state.

But he also leveled familiar attacks against President Donald Trump and Collins, calling them “small men.”

“In 17 days, we’ll rebuke the crook President Donald J. Trump with such clarity and power that no president will dare such abuses again for centuries,” he said.

Ossoff and Bottoms held their joint rally in Cobb County the day after Trump touched down in North Georgia, where he was joined by Collins and Rick Jackson, the Republican candidate for governor.

While some Republican candidates are tiptoeing around Trump in an effort to win some swing voters, Collins is betting on turnout among Trump loyalists to boost his bid.

“You’re going to have a senator in the U.S. Senate who is going to have this man’s back,” Collins pledged to the crowd of Trump supporters during the president’s visit to Dalton on Friday.

“Jon Ossoff hates Trump more than he loves Georgia,” Collins said during his remarks.

Bottoms is also working to link her Republican opponent to Trump in the high-stakes race for governor.

“There is a clear contrast on the ballot this year Georgia. A man who looks out for himself, or a woman who works for you,” she said.

The former Atlanta mayor has focused her campaign on highlighting affordability issues — particularly rising healthcare costs — caused by decision-making in Washington, D.C.

“(Trump) has told us that he wants us to imagine that he is on the ballot,” Bottoms said. “Well Georgia, we heard him loud and clear.”

Jackson had been distancing himself from Trump before appearing alongside him Friday in Dalton. He offered restrained remarks about the president and took aim at his Democratic rival.