Nov 9, 2020 - Politics & Policy
Jon Ossoff: Georgia opponent Sen. David Perdue embodies "Trumpism in a nutshell"
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Jon Ossoff says he and Rev. Raphael Warnock, the Georgia Democrats competing in two Jan. 5 runoffs to decide partisan control of the U.S. Senate, can win as a "team" riding the state's demographic changes.
Driving the news: Ossoff made the prediction in an interview for "Axios on HBO" in which he also said that his opponent in the Jan. 5 primary, Sen. David Perdue, embodies "Trumpism in a nutshell."
- Perdue made headlines last month for mocking the name of now-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who parents came from Jamaica and India.
- Warnock, who is senior pastor of Atlanta's famed Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was MLK's spiritual home, faces Republican Kelly Loeffler in the other Senate race.
- Long-red Georgia hasn't chosen a Democrat for president since 1992, but now President-elect Joe Biden holds a narrow lead over President Trump in results that will go to a recount.
What they're saying: "Warnock and Ossoff running together in the double Senate runoff of the century is sort of a beautiful clarification of where Georgia is now," Ossoff said.
- "A young Jewish son of an immigrant, mentored by Congressman John Lewis, and a Black pastor, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church," he said. "That's the team at this moment of transition for our state and this fork in the road for our country."
- Answering a series of questions about his views on specific policies pushed by progressives, Ossoff said he does not support the Green New Deal, Medicare for All, expanding the Supreme Court, defunding police or abolishing ICE.
- He said he does support statehood for DC and Puerto Rico.
- Asked if he supports ending the filibuster, he said "maybe" and added, "What I will consider is the implications in the long run when the shoe is on the other foot."
