Georgia’s Democratic senator Jon Ossoff has been crystal clear about his presidential ambitions in 2028: he has “zero interest” in the top job, he told the liberal news channel MS NOW last week.
The markets, however, beg to differ. After the 39-year-old single-handedly launched the juiciest news cycle of DC’s sluggish end-of-summer season, people rushed to place their bets. As of August 27, prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket had him as the second likeliest Democratic nominee, after New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
His magic touch? Making a well-timed jab at Donald Trump’s relationship with his platinum blonde executive assistant Natalie Harp, a woman who is rarely away from the president’s side.
The smooth-talking senator told a campaign rally that Trump would rather “travel with Natalie” than run the country – a reference to Harp’s presence alongside Trump on an alternate plane after a potential threat against Air Force One at a NATO summit last month.
It was a carefully worded taunt, short enough for social media and suggestive enough to send the internet into overdrive. And the speed with which it propelled Ossoff to national attention shows just how hungry Americans are for politicians who are willing to take the fight directly to Trump — and who are not afraid to aim those blows a little below the belt.
“He understands that in today’s media environment, you have to create conflict to generate attention and buzz,” wrote Michael Tomasky, editor of The New Republic.
A master of messaging that cuts to the issues facing ordinary Americans, Ossoff is emerging as one of the most intriguing figures in a crowded field of speculative 2028 candidates.
The Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement is clearly rattled. White House communications director Steven Cheung called Ossoff “Jon Jackoff” and said he was a “radical, extremist Dumocrat” as well as “miserable” and “a loser”. White House spokesman Davis Ingle showed equal maturity, calling Ossoff a “feminine theatre kid”.
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And this ability to ruffle the feathers of the MAGA faithful is gold dust in today’s combative political arena.
Right now, Ossoff is on the campaign trail not for the 2028 presidency, but to win a second term as senator for Georgia in the November midterms, up against the Trump-backed candidate, Republican congressman Mike Collins.
This is why Ossoff is demurring from any presidential speculation: when you are trying to convince a state to vote you in as their senator, you don’t want them to think that you will immediately be distracted by loftier goals.
But his senatorial campaign rallies have a lot of the sheen and energy of Presidential ones, and his knack for TikTok-friendly soundbites has propelled his talking points well beyond the borders of Georgia.
This is because Ossoff is a political unicorn: a Democrat whose messaging cuts across the traditional political divides and appeals to a broad church of voters.
Georgia is a purple state that swung from Joe Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024, and Republicans had targeted it as a potential midterm win. If they could flip it back to red, it would hinder the Democrats’ path to taking back control of the Senate.
That plan isn’t going so well: Ossoff is consistently polling above Collins, and his fundraising has dwarfed that of his Republican rival.
Ossoff’s attack line is the self-enrichment of the Trump presidency, going after what he calls “the Mar-a-Lago mafia” and the “Epstein elite”, and finding easy targets in projects like the president’s grandiose and costly schemes for the White House ballroom and the Trump family businesses which have benefitted from proximity to power.
All the Democrats running in the midterms know that affordability is a top concern for Americans. But Ossoff has translated that into an attack line which blames the president directly for their woes: they are getting poorer precisely because Trump is getting richer.
Ossoff himself comes from a well-off family, educated at private school before attending
Georgetown University and London School of Economics. He has spent much of his career in politics, so doesn’t have the man-of-the-people glow of some other up-and-coming Democrats.
But Trump came from wealth and still managed to convince the electorate that he stood up for the little guy against a monied elite, and Ossoff is playing the same trick against him.
Ossoff also straddles the warring factions within the Democrats. He is not aligned with the surging Democratic Socialist movement, but he is a millennial, so can appeal to younger voters. He is also Jewish, but critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, meaning he is well placed to try and bridge the divides within the party over the issue that most divides them.
Right now, former vice president Kamala Harris is polling highest among Democrats as their potential candidate. But it was the failure of her presidential bid in 2024 that sent the party into its doom spiral, so she is hardly the ideal bridge-builder.
There are also other potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidates who don’t hold back with their views on Trump, and both Ocasio-Cortez and California governor Gavin Newsom have been brutal in their criticism of the current administration.
But neither has much cross-over appeal and are less likely to appeal outside of the Democratic base. Ossoff, however, has a track record of attracting independents — and a photogenic young family which will appeal to more conservative voters.
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A similar prospect is Andy Beshear, Kentucky governor and another Democrat with that unicorn quality of being popular in a red state. But he is much less aggressive than Ossoff, promoting empathy and understanding as a way to solve America’s divides – which is admirable, but may not cut it against a brutal MAGA opponent.
Which brings us to the potential match-ups. Right now (if we don’t count the prospect of a third Trump term), vice-president JD Vance or secretary of state Marco Rubio are the most likely Republican candidates in 2028. Vance has more of the attack dog quality, and has already sparred with Ossoff, painting him as a “far left liberal” in a speech last year.
But if Ossoff manages to hold onto his Georgia seat, that attack line will be hard to stand up, and Vance will have an easy target on his back as a Trump lackey.
Rubio would be a trickier opponent: he may distance himself from Trump over the next few years and has a similar polish and easy-going manner to Ossoff. But Pollsters are already crunching the numbers, and Ossoff is looking strong.
The Emerson College poll published last week gave Ossoff 49% compared to Vance’s 44% in a hypothetical 2028 match up, and 47% to Rubio’s 44% (the remainder were undecided). Newsom had similar figures, but AOC was trailing both Vance and Rubio, while Harris polled as losing to Rubio but beating Vance.
Right now, this is all hypothetical: the race towards 2028 truly begins after the midterms, which will inevitably throw up some unexpected wins and dark horses.
But with Democrats fighting crucial Senate, House and Gubernatorial battles across the country, they should take heed of the lessons from Ossoff’s surging campaign: the issues and the policies matter a great deal, but the message should be delivered with a sharp tongue.
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