Could Jon Ossoff be the Democrats' presidential nominee?

Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff won the unofficial poll organized by the progressive media company Crooked Media on Saturday in Washington at its event called Crooked Con. The question was who participants would like to see as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee in 2028. According to IBTimes, 990 people took part in the vote, and Ossoff received 38.4 percent of the votes. Far behind him came New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with 16.6 percent, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with 13.9 percent. The vote was not a scientific opinion poll but a straw poll among participants of a political event, so at most it shows which way the mood of Democratic activists is leaning.

The rest of the field was much closer. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro each received roughly four percent, while Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Maryland Governor Wes Moore each got three percent. California Governor Gavin Newsom, often mentioned as one of the frontrunners for the nomination, received only 2.3 percent. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democrats' 2024 presidential nominee, got even less — 0.6 percent, or just six votes — tying her with Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin for sixteenth place. Crooked Media was founded by former Obama staffers and is best known for its political podcast Pod Save America, so its audience belongs to the party's active, progressive core.

Ossoff's popularity is also explained by the fact that just over a week earlier, on November 3, he won a convincing victory in Georgia. According to the Associated Press, he defeated Republican Representative Mike Collins, who had been backed by Donald Trump against Georgia Governor Brian Kemp's candidate in the spring primary. According to IBTimes, Ossoff won by an 18-point margin, an outstanding result in a state that had been reliably Republican for decades before 2020. According to NPR, Collins struggled during the campaign with questions about his family connections and the fact that former staffers of his had espoused white nationalist and antisemitic views. Collins also continued to repeat Trump's false claim that massive fraud took place in the 2020 election. According to NPR, Ossoff's work for his constituents earned him recognition even from some Republican officials, and videos of his remarks criticizing corruption in Trump's circle spread widely on social media during the campaign.

The 39-year-old Ossoff has represented Georgia in the Senate since January 2021. According to the American press, in the November midterm elections the Democratic Party won a majority in both chambers of Congress, which means divided government for the second half of Trump's second presidential term. According to the Spanish news agency EFE, whose report was also picked up by Agerpres and G4Media, the result is explained primarily by discontent over rising living costs. The same report notes that on the betting markets Kalshi and Polymarket, Ossoff now tops the list of favorites for the 2028 Democratic nomination, ahead of Ocasio-Cortez and Newsom.

Ossoff himself has so far consistently ruled out the possibility of a presidential run. According to IBTimes, during the campaign he said he had "no desire" to run for president, since he was campaigning for reelection to the Senate, and in October he answered yes when asked whether he would serve out his full six-year term. His opponent, Collins, however, said of him at the time: "He is running." The 2028 Democratic primary has not officially begun, and no major name has announced a candidacy. A straw poll at an activist event and the current odds on betting markets therefore show, for now, only that after the midterms Ossoff's name has moved to the center of Democrats' attention.

Ugar