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March 20th, 2025 Len’s Political Note #713 Jon Ossoff Georgia US Senator
2026 General Election
US Senator Jon Ossoff
2020 was Joe Biden’s year. Donald Trump claimed Joe Biden and the Democrats stole the election from him. He still makes that claim.
After November 3, 2020 the count for the Senate was 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats. The two seats remaining were both in Georgia.
In 2019, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp had appointed Kelly Loeffler to the US Senate, replacing Johnny Isakson who had resigned for health reasons. Loeffler was the CEO of Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange IE) which provided financial services. Her husband was CEO of IE. She was also the owner of the WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream.
Loeffler would have to run for the Senate at the next election opportunity, which was November, 2020. The winner of that special election would complete Isakson’s term of office. The winner would have to run again in 2022.
The best known 2020 Democratic candidate was Raphael Warnock, an African American minister whose pulpit was the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. There is no more prestigious pulpit in the African American community. That was Martin Luther King Sr.’s pulpit which he shared for a period of time with his son, Martin Luther King Jr.
According to Georgia’s election law, a special election is decided through a non-partisan election. If no candidate gets more than 50%, the top two vote getters have a run off.
Two candidates ensured that no one would get 50%. Democrat Deborah Jackson, an attorney, an African American, and Mayor of the small town of Lithonia received 6.6% of the vote. Republican Congressman Doug Collins, currently Donald Trump’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs, received just under 20% of the vote. Incumbent Kelly Loeffler got 25.9% of the vote. Raphael Warnock received 32.9% of the vote. Other candidates received the balance of the votes.
The Reverend, Doctor Raphael Warnock won the run off with 51% of the vote to Loeffler’s 49%. He ran as an incumbent in 2022 and was reelected. He will run again in 202The other Senate contest was conventional but, nevertheless, unusual. Republican incumbent David Perdue had been elected Senator in 2014. A former CEO of Reebock and Dollar General, after his loss in 2020 he shared Donald Trump’s belief that the vote in Georgia in 2020 was somehow rigged. (A reminder. Despite multiple court cases, no court found any improprieties in the Georgia or any other 2020 election. Georgia was the state where Donald Trump, on the telephone, asked the Secretary of State to find enough votes for him to win.)
Every year, the city of Haverhill, Massachusetts (Northeastern MA and not far from the New Hampshire border) had a celebration – The Soles of Haverhill. Haverhill was a shoe making town. Shoe making relied on the city’s leather businesses. The Kladkys had been in the leather business since 1918. Eve Kladky married Michael Ossoff in 1941. In 1847, Michael and his brother Hyman started Ossoff Leather Company. That company lasted until the 1990s. Other Ossoff-owned leather factories in New Hampshire continued. Into the 21st century
Richard, one of Hyman Ossoff’s sons, was uninterested in the leather business. He moved south, married Heather Fenton who had immigrated from Sidney, Australia to Atlanta in her early twenties. In 1984 Reichard Ossoff founded Strafford Publications. The business, which is still operating, provides training and training materials for lawyers and accountants.
Jon Ossoff grew up in the world his parents created for him in Atlanta. He went to the internationally known Paidea School. While at the Paidea School he interned for Congressman John Lewis. Jon Ossoff returned to Washington for his undergraduate degree at Georgetown University’s school of foreign service, graduating in 2009, shortly after receiving a substantial, but not Trump sized, inheritance from his grandfather Hyman.
While at Georgetown and subsequently, he worked for Congressman Hank Johnson on national security and foreign affairs. In 2013 he left to obtain a Master’s Degree from the London School of Economics after which he received an offer. If he was willing to invest some money into the business, he could become the Managing Director and CEO of The World Investigates (TWI). Jon Ossoff invested $250,000 and possibly more as he led this firm that made documentary films about financial scandals – often working for BBC. Among the film topics Jon Ossoff oversaw were ISIS war crimes and East African death squads.
The 2016 election of Donald Trump moved him toward American politics. In 2017, with support from Congressman Hank Johnson and state House Democratic leader Stacey Abrams, he raised $8.3 million and turned a heavily Republican district competitive. He lost the runoff by 9,000 votes. (Len’s Political Note #2 encouraged support for Jon Ossoff’s candidacy for Congress.)
Some said Jon Ossoff’s loss was demoralizing for Democrats. The next election, in November 2018, ended any sense of demoralization. A not a all democralized Lucy McBath won election to congress and is still there, though some suggest she is thinking about running for governor.
Jon Ossoff had decided against running for Congress in 2018. He had his sights set for the US Senate. As is often the case, the Senate election did not turn on issues of substance. It turned on an anti-Semitic blunder. An advertisement on behalf of David Perdue showed a doctored picture of Jon Ossoff. His nose was made longer and wider. This was David Perdue’s vision (or the vision of one of his vendors, as Perdue claimed) of what a Jewish nose looks like.
This is not to say there were no issues to discuss in the campaign. The final conversations of the campaign were about federal Covid-19 stimulus payments. Democrats supported $2,000 payments; the Republicans opposed them, Raising money made it possible to communicate about the issues. Jon Ossoff raised $100 million for the campaign and that made a difference.
As a Senator, Jon Ossoff is serving on the Appropriations Committee, the Rules and Administration Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. He has done local work – seeking and obtaining federal support for Historically Black Morris Brown College that had been failing financially. He has done national work – introducing legislation to prohibit Members of Congress and their spouses from trading stocks.
Jon Ossoff is in it for the long run – if he can win reelection. He has been willing to acknowledge the support of his parents and the inheritance from his grandfather (though he is unwilling to specify the amount he inherited). He says: “I openly acknowledge that the opportunity I’ve had is a function of my parents’ hard work. . . the opportunity to get a great education without debt, the opportunity to do what I love and pursue my passion, which is confronting and exposing injustice and the abuse of power,”
No Republicans have yet announced a candidacy against Jon Ossoff. I have a list of ten politicians who have been discussed as possible candidates. One of them is Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who Donald Trump said he would endorse if she ran. We need Jon Ossoff in the Senate in the age of Trump. DONATE. Donate now and often. The Republicans will not make a gift of this seat to the Democrats.
APRIL 1 LOOMS
Wisconsin – General Election April 1.
State Supreme Court
Support Democratic County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford against former Attorney General Brad Schimel. Currently Wisconsin’s Supreme Court has a 4-3 Democratic majority. There are only a few days left in this campaign. Susan Crawford is running to replace a Democratic justice who is retiring. A Republican win would give the court a 4-3 Republican majority. This race is crucial for preserving the right to abortion in Wisconsin, for preserving an un-gerrymandered state legislature and eliminating voter suppression. This is a very expensive election. Republicans are geared up. DONATE to Susan Crawford. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Elon Musk is heading toward donating $100 million to oppose her. Do your little bit to oppose Musk. It is not too late and no donation is too small. Of course, if you have a spare $100 million to match Musk, that would be nice. See Len’s Political Note #684
State Superintendent of Public Instruction – also on Wisconsin’s April 1 ballot
Support Democratic incumbent Jill Underly in the primary and in the general election. Jill underly serves as a bulwark against right wing culture war positions. DONATE. Keep a successful Democrat in a leadership role in Wisconsin. See Len’s Political Note #693.
Florida’s Special Election on April 1 – now less than a month away. In these two heavily Republican districts, with your help, we can see just how much damage Republicans have done to themselves during Donald Trump’s opening unconstitutional salvos. A Democratic win in either of these races would be cataclysmic for Trump and the Republicans.
Florida 01: Gay Valimont is the Democratic nominee. Gay Valimont is the former head of the Florida Chapter of Mom’s Demand Action, a gun safety organization. She has returned to politics after two family tragedies. She understands how Republican her district is. She is both courageous and energetic enough to give it her all in a very tough cause. Her opponent is the former CFO for the state of Florida. He proposed using Florida tax money to defend Donald Trump in his criminal trials. That proposal was too extreme even for the Florida legislature. DONATE to Gay Valimont. See Len’s Political Note #694.
Florida 06: Josh Weil is the Democratic nominee. He is a teacher of middle school boys who have not been able to remain in typical classrooms, a job that may be tougher than seeking election as a Democrat in FL 06. Originally exercised by the 2020 Democratic losses in Florida, he describes his commitment to his own children and his students as energizing his campaign. His opponent is Randy Fine, wealthy from the gaming industry, an opponent of rights for members of the LGBTQ community, an opponent of abortion. Fine is convinced that God saved Donald Trump so he could be president. DONATE TO Josh Weil. He has raised more than $8 million. That does not mean he has raised enough. That means he is competitive. See Len’s Political Note #704.
The following are dateless. New York 21 cannot be scheduled until the incumbent, nominated to be Ambassador to the UN, resigns from Congress. And the Republican Judge who lost the November, 2024 election continues his law suit, preventing the winner from taking her seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court.
New York 21. Blake Gendebien will be the Democratic nominee. There was opposition, but no primary. He persuaded all 15 of the Democratic Party Chairs who state law gives the authority to select the candidate to support him. He is a dairy farmer, not a politician. But he knows enough about politics to be successful. We have no idea who the Republican nominee will be. It appears that the Republican Party chairs don’t know much more than we do about who their nominee will be. Furthermore, none of us knows when this special election will be. We won’t know until the Congresswoman, who has been nominated to be Trump’s Ambassador to the UN, is confirmed by the Senate and resigns from Congress. Help Blake Gendebien maintain his head start. DONATE to his campaign. See Len’s Political Note #706
North Carolina Supreme Court
Previously appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court, Allison Riggs won her election in November. Unfortunately, her opponent continues to attempt to disqualify 65,000+ voters. Furthermore, her past and future North Carolina Supreme Court colleagues in what is now a 5-1 Republican Court, have thrown obstacles in her path. DONATE. Help her win her law suit. If she can sustain her effort, it is unlikely the Court would be so bold as to invalidate the election. See Len’s Political Note #594
Arizona Governor November 2026
Incumbent Katie Hobbs.
Katie Hobbs is the most vulnerable Democratic Governor, The election is not until November, 2026. DONATE now. Or soon. Wait until after April 1. Continue donating through November, 2026. Governors can be bulwarks against Trump. See Len’s Political Note #712
