Jon Ossoff wins reelection to hold Senate seat

Sen. Jon Ossoff has won reelection to the US Senate, fending off a potential seat flip by Georgia U.S. Rep. Mike Collins.

Ossoff built his reelection pitch as a fight against broad political corruption, focusing on President Donald Trump and the First Family’s dramatic increase in wealth since the president’s return to the White House.

Ossoff has lambasted Collins, a Trump acolyte who was elected to Congress echoing the president’s 2020 election lies, for a “pathetic, childlike devotion to Donald Trump.” And he’s repeatedly tagged Collins as a “bigot” who “brought dishonor to our state,” in part for having aides and a son-in-law who have met with white supremacists and circulated white nationalist propaganda online.

In his speech Tuesday night, Ossoff called the election a “sweeping and decisive” victory against Trump.

“The American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption and incompetence of the failed lame duck president Donald J. Trump. And if at times these last two years, amidst the ceaseless onslaught of brutality and indecency, you doubted whether our Republic would survive. Let tonight’s results give you courage that the first light of dawn is on the horizon.”

Ossoff said the win was more than just a win for the people of Georgia.

“Tonight, we’ve struck a necessary and undeniable blow on behalf of justice and progress. And tonight in Georgia, we’ve proven not just that unity is possible, but that we can overcome division without sacrificing clarity of purpose,” He said.

Ossoff also called on his mentor, the late-Rep. John Lewis, saying that he remembered his words that “we all live in one American house.”

“He called it the inevitable truth that we’re all members of one human family. And I know many of you have poured yourselves into this campaign not for my sake or for the sake of a Democratic Party, but because you’re so deeply troubled by the pain our fellow human beings are enduring right now. The terror of a child watching ICE take away her mother. The despair of the cancer patient losing coverage mid-treatment. But that ache in your heart? That pit in your stomach, that feeling is what reminds us we’re all in this together, that we’re not just one United States, we’re one united people,” Ossoff said.

“Tonight we celebrate this victory, and tomorrow we get back to work,” Ossoff said, ending his speech.

What are Ossoff’s Promises for Next Term?

Ossoff made lowering costs, protecting health coverage and keeping up his oversight work in Washington key parts of his reelection campaign.

Ossoff said he wanted to lower health care costs, reverse health insurance price increases and strengthen protections for patients. In a Nov. 3 interview, he criticized cases where cancer patients had to fight insurers to get treatment covered and said, “It’s wrong and we should ban it.”

He also pointed to his work helping cap insulin costs for seniors at $35 a month and said he wanted to keep prescription drugs more affordable.

His campaign listed lower housing costs as another issue he was fighting on.

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Ossoff pledged to keep pressing large technology companies on children’s online safety and privacy protections. That work builds on legislation he worked on during his first term.

He also highlighted federal resources he directed to hospitals, schools, colleges and seaports, including projects in rural Georgia. He said he would keep that approach in a second term.

Political corruption and checks and balances were also central to his campaign. Ossoff argued Congress needed stronger checks on Donald Trump and focused on corruption and abuses of power in Washington.

In his closing campaign message, Ossoff pledged to repeal tariffs he said were raising costs for Georgia families.

His campaign also pointed to his investigations into corruption and abuses of power as part of his case for a second term.

When did Ossoff’s career begin?:

Ossoff took office on Jan. 20, 2021, after beating incumbent Republican David Perdue in Georgia’s January 2021 runoff election.

His win, along with Sen. Raphael Warnock’s, created a 50-50 Senate and gave Democrats control through the vice president’s tie-breaking vote.

Ossoff won his seat at 33, making him the youngest person elected to the U.S. Senate since 1980 and the first millennial U.S. senator. He is now Georgia’s senior U.S. senator.

His official Senate biography says he passed more standalone bills into law during his first 2 years than any other freshman senator.

That legislation has focused on online child exploitation, public safety, fentanyl trafficking, veterans’ mental health services, unsolved lynchings and civil rights murders and security and corruption in federal prisons.

He also helped pass laws that capped insulin at $35 a month for seniors and expanded VA health care for veterans exposed to toxic substances.

A big part of his Senate work has centered on oversight investigations.

He has led bipartisan investigations into abuse of children in foster care, sexual abuse of female federal inmates, corruption and misconduct in federal prisons, medical mistreatment of women in federal detention and problems military families face in privatized housing.

Ossoff has also pushed Georgia projects tied to federal investment in broadband, ports, airports, roads, bridges, water systems and coastal resilience through the bipartisan infrastructure law.

His Senate office also credits legislation he supported with helping attract advanced manufacturing jobs and billions of dollars in investment to Georgia.

In the current Congress, he serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Rules and Administration Committee.

He also serves as ranking member of the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies, giving him a major role in military and veterans-related spending.

Before the Senate, Ossoff worked in Congress and later led an investigative documentary company that examined war crimes, corruption, human trafficking and organized crime.

He was also mentored by Georgia civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.