All eyes are on Georgia’s two runoff Senate races, set to take place on January 5th. One will decide whether incumbent Kelly Loeffler will defeat Raphael Warnock — whom Loeffler described as a “radical liberal” — in a repeat of Georgia’s special election. The other will determine whether incumbent David Perdue — who has represented Georgia in the U.S. Senate since 2015 — will defeat challenger Jon Ossoff.
On November 3rd, Perdue emerged with over 88,000 votes more than Ossoff. Georgia, however, requires that the winning candidate must receive a majority, and Perdue received 49.7% of the vote, meaning the race must also be decided in a runoff election on January 5th.
These two races are crucially important for both parties. If at least one of the Republican candidates — Perdue or Loeffler — maintain their seat, then the GOP will remain in control of the U.S. Senate, preventing Democrats from cementing control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. If both Democrat candidates — Ossoff and Warnock — defeat the incumbents, however, the Democrats will effectively wrestle control of the U.S. Senate away from Mitch McConnell and the Republicans, with a 50-50 split providing likely Vice President Kamala Harris with the deciding vote.
The RealClear Politics polling average currently gives Perdue a narrow 0.2% lead over Ossoff. The Trafalgar Group — who were “closer than any other polling agency” in Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio during the November 3rd election — are giving Ossoff a 1% lead over Perdue. In simple terms, this race is far from over for Perdue, and every vote is likely to count on January 5th.
Here are a few details about Jon Ossoff:
Ossoff has taken money from Al-Jazeera, a media company in Hong Kong which supports the Chinese communist regime, and Hollywood. All while condemning ‘Hollywood elitism.’
Since 2013, Ossoff has been CEO of London-based Insight TWI, a media production company which focuses on documenting corruption and war crimes across the world. Ossoff has close ties to the entertainment industry, as well as anti-democracy figures across the world.
In September, the National Review reported that Ossoff was “compensated by a Hong Kong media conglomerate whose owner has spoken out against pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.” These ties were not disclosed in his initial financial report.
Ossoff has also been “compensated financially by the Qatari-backed news agency Al Jazeera over the past two years,” receiving at least $5,000 during that time period.
In addition, Ossoff is also being backed financially by prominent Hollywood figures. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “the entertainment crowd has come out to support Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in the runoff election.”
Ossoff has attempted to distance himself from such financial ties, telling Variety in March that “There is a sense in the rest of the country that some folks in Hollywood look down [on them] and that cultural elitism can be a distraction.”
Such “distractions” don’t seem significant enough to impact Ossoff’s willingness to accept funds from all manner of sources antithetical to this message, of course.
Ossoff is a ‘trust fund socialist who lives off his family’s money.’
Much of the criticism launched at Ossoff surrounds his hypocrisy regarding his financially privileged background. For example, while criticizing skyrocketing living costs for students, during his time in Washington D.C., Ossoff lived in a home “bankrolled by [his] millionaire father,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Ossoff’s connections with his father, Richard Ossoff, have also been a source of criticism. Ossoff has campaigned against Perdue’s ties to “corporate America,” while his father’s company, Strafford Publications, has “partnered with a number of major corporate law firms.” Richard Ossoff has also contributed thousands of dollars to his son’s various campaigns.
In July, Strafford Publications “took a Paycheck Protection Program loan of as much as $1 million, claiming that the loan would save 30 jobs,” the Free Beacon reported. Months earlier, Jon Ossoff had criticized the PPP for “overwhelmingly” benefiting wealthy Americans. Ossoff also “used an inheritance from his grandfather to purchase an ownership stake” in what later became Insight TWI.
In response, Sen. Perdue has described Ossoff as a “trust fund socialist who lives off his family’s money.”
Ossoff is a perpetual political loser aiming to ‘fail up.’
In much the same way as Robert “Beto” O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams, Ossoff has attempted to use a perpetual lack of success as a springboard to “fail upwards.” With little political experience, Ossoff announced his candidacy for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in 2017 after Rep. Tom Price was appointed secretary of Health and Human Services. He received a slew of endorsements and support, including Democrat Reps. Hank Johnson and John Lewis — he had interned for Rep. Lewis while in high school, and worked as a staffer for Rep. Johnson for five years — as well as Stacey Abrams and Bernie Sanders. By April of that year, Ossoff raised more than $8.3 million. In total, Ossoff broke national fundraising records for a House candidate, raising more than $23 million.
In what became the most expensive House election in U.S. history, with combined spending amounting to more than $55 million, Ossoff was defeated. His fundraising ability was demonstrated again during his Senate campaign. After receiving 52.82% of the vote during the Democratic primary in June 2020, Ossoff broke fundraising records, hauling in over $21 million.
In the Democrat’s world, the saying is not “when you don’t succeed, try again,” but rather “when you don’t succeed, spend more.”
Ossoff claims to be a pro-Israel Jew, while also supporting and taking money from anti-Israel J Street.
According to Forward, “Like Bernie Sanders, Ossoff has been cagey about bringing up his Jewishness during his campaigning. He only addressed it briefly when faced with the antisemitic ads.”
Despite saying that he “stands with Israel and supports continued military assistance for the Jewish state,” he is also a supporter of J Street, and received “tens of thousands of dollars” from J Street’s “political action committee” during his 2017 campaign. He has also spoken at “J Street’s Atlanta chapter.”
While Forward laughably described J Street as a “liberal pro-Israel group,” the truth is far more ominous. As described by Ben Shapiro in 2019, J Street is “a Trojan horse group dedicated to undermining American support for Israel and justifying left-wing hatred of the Jewish state,” with the “anti-Israel radical George Soros” one of its “chief sources of funding.”
To provide context, J Street have actively defended open anti-Semites Rep. Ilhan Omar and Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Ian Haworth is host of The Ian Haworth Show and The Truth in 60 Seconds. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.