The American son of a Sydney-born political activist who once held Australian citizenship, Jon Ossoff, is a leading candidate to run as president for the Democratic Party in 2028.
Senator Ossoff easily held his Georgia Senate seat in the US mid-term elections on Tuesday against a strong Republican challenge, adding to speculation he will contest the Democratic primaries for the presidential nomination, which will be held in the first half of 2028.
No Democrats have declared their candidacy, but Senator Ossoff is ranked first on the SportsBet market at $3.75, ahead of New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Californian governor Gavin Newsom. Former Vice President Kamala Harris leads the potential candidates on two traditional opinion polls published in August, which estimated Senator Ossoff’s support around 5.6 per cent.
A 39 years old, he would be the youngest US president of all time, surpassing John F Kennedy, who was elected in 1961 at age 43 and Teddy Roosevelt, who was appointed president at age 42.
His victory in Georgia was not considered certain. Mr Trump won the state in 2024, and Democrats considered Senator Ossoff’s re-election as necessary to win control of the Senate.
A former chief executive of a London-based investigative television production company, Senator Ossoff focused his campaign on what he said was the corruption of the president and his family. He accused Mr Trump of being a member of the “Epstein class” and the “Mar-a-Lago mafia”, according to the New York Times.
The first millennial elected to the US Senate, of which he is the youngest member, Senator Ossoff’s connection to Australia isn’t well known in the US.
His mother, Heather Fenton, was born and raised in Sydney and moved at age 23 to Atlanta, where she co-founded a community group to help elect women to office across the state.
He was asked earlier this year about his Australian links and what America could learn from Down Under.
“Vegemite is a little bit of an acquired taste, but there is a laid-back culture in Australia,” he told TMZ. “We get a little bit wound-up sometimes over here.”
He said his grandmother was from Brisbane and his grandfather from the Melbourne suburb of Footscray.
Attacking perks
Senator Ossoff has said that he is not running for president and intends to serve his full six-year term, although he has been personally attacked by Mr Trump.
During a rally in Georgia earlier this year, Mr Trump told supporters the former Australian was a “terrible” senator and repeated a claim that some left-wing members of the Democratic Party are “communists”.
The senator accused Mr Trump of being more interested in the perks of being president than doing the job.
“He golfs and trades stocks,” he said at a rally. “See, he doesn’t want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenceless flying palace, gifted by the emir of Qatar.”
On Tuesday night in Atlanta, he said it was up to the Democrats to “contain one president’s wickedness”.
“In sweeping and decisive victories,” he said, “the American people have rebuked the depravity, corruption, and incompetence of the failed lame duck president Donald J. Trump.”
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