Jon Ossoff

Democratic senator Jon Ossoff isn’t here to play just politics- he is being tipped as the man to beat in 2028.

Fresh from winning a second term in Georgia, Ossoff’s chances of becoming the next Democratic presidential nominee have jumped nine percentage points in a day to 24% on Polymarket, The Independent reported. The 39-year-old is a rising star in the Democratic Party and the youngest sitting member of the US Senate. Among bettors on Kalshi and Polymarket, he is also the favourite to win the 2028 presidency, at around 20% on both platforms, ahead of Vice President JD Vance, according to the Daily Beast.

Ossoff beat Republican Mike Collins by about 18 points in a state Donald Trump carried in 2024. He was the only Senate Democrat seeking reelection in such a state. During the campaign, he promised to finish his next term as senator if he were reelected. “I have zero interest in running for president,” he said during a debate. “I’m not running for president. I’m running for reelection to the Senate.”

Before politics, Ossoff was an investigative journalist. As chief executive of Insight TWI, a London-based production company, he made documentaries that exposed corruption and war crimes. According to his website, “His small business produced award-winning investigations of corruption and war crimes for international news organizations. Their investigations exposed serious crimes including human trafficking, judicial corruption, bribery, and sexual slavery.”

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He entered politics at 29. In 2017 he ran in a special election for Georgia’s 6th congressional district and lost narrowly to Karen Handel, in what was then the most expensive House race in US history. According to Jo Adetunji for The Conversation, “During the Georgia Sixth special election, the two candidates together spent about $33 million, and outside groups added about another $27 million on top of that. That nearly $60 million total represents almost $100 for every man, woman and child who lives in the district. It is the most expensive U.S. House race in the country’s history.”

Jon Ossoff and former president of the United States Barack Obama. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

He returned in 2020 to challenge Republican Sen. David Perdue, and won the runoff on 5 January 2021. Fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock won his runoff the same day, giving Democrats control of a 50-50 Senate. At 33, Ossoff was the youngest Democrat elected to the Senate in 40 years and Georgia’s first Jewish senator.

In the Senate, he became known for questioning Donald Trump’s appointees closely in hearings. His investigations have covered the abuse of children in Georgia’s foster care system, mistreatment of military families by private housing contractors, and civil rights abuses in federal prisons. He backs a ban on stock trading by members of Congress, and his campaign does not take money from corporate PACs or federal lobbyists.

His 2026 race was expected to be tightly fought, but it was not. Collins won the Republican nomination after Trump endorsed him over Derek Dooley, the candidate backed by Gov. Brian Kemp. NPR reported that scrutiny of Collins’s ties to family members and former staffers who have supported white nationalist and antisemitic views alienated independents and some Republican-leaning voters. Ossoff ran on healthcare costs and affordability, rallied with Barack Obama in Atlanta in late October, and in his victory speech thanked the “independent and Republican voters” who joined his coalition.

Ossoff lives in Atlanta with his wife, Dr Alisha Kramer, an obstetrician and gynaecologist, and their daughters, Eva and Lila. They married in 2017.

Namya is a seasoned journalist with nearly two decades of experience. A graduate of Miranda House, Delhi University, and Boston University's College o... View More