Jon Ossoff DEMDemocrat

Thomas Jonathan Ossoff (OSS-off; born February 16, 1987) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Georgia since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, Ossoff was previously a documentary filmmaker and investigative journalist. Born in Atlanta to a Jewish father and an Australian mother, Ossoff was the Democratic nominee in the 2017 special election for Georgia's 6th congressional district, which had long been considered a Republican stronghold. The special election proved competitive. It generated national attention, and became the most expensive House election in U.S. history. Ossoff narrowly lost the race to former Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel. In 2020, Ossoff won the Democratic nomination for the 2020 U.S. Senate election in Georgia to run against then-incumbent Republican senator David Perdue. Neither candidate reached the 50 percent threshold on the November 3 general election, triggering a runoff election on January 5, 2021, which Ossoff won. Ossoff serves alongside fellow Democrat Raphael Warnock, who defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in the 2020 Senate special election runoff, also on January 5, 2021. The two races attracted significant national attention and spending, as they decided which party would control the Senate in the 117th Congress.