Ossoff Waits for Republican Challenger
The first Jewish U.S. Senator from Georgia is seeking a second term in what will be a closely watched and expensive race.
[Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles about Jewish candidates for federal and state offices in advance of the May 19 primary.]
Even before he has a Republican opponent for the November general election, Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff’s bid for a second six-year term in the United States Senate is becoming one of the most closely watched races in the nation.
Republicans want back the seat that Ossoff narrowly won in a January 2021 runoff, receiving 50.6 percent of the vote to defeat incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue.
Georgia’s first Jewish senator may have to wait beyond the May 19 primary as, with a five-man Republican primary field, there is a reasonable chance that a June 16 runoff will be necessary.
The Republicans seeking to run against Ossoff are: U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter; U.S. Rep. Mike Collins; John Francis Coyne, CEO of a real estate management company; Derek Dooley, a former college football head coach, and Jonathan McColumn, U.S. Army Brigadier General (ret).
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who disappointed some in his party by opting not to challenge Ossoff, has endorsed Dooley. Republican President Donald Trump has not made an endorsement in the race.
For now, Ossoff continues to raise money and home his campaign.
Republicans seem well aware that unseating the 39-year-old Ossoff — the only Democratic senator seeking re-election in a state won by Trump in 2024 — will not be easy. The Washington Post reported that in January, Carter told a Republican gathering in Roberta, Ga.: “Look, this guy’s no slouch. He’s pretty sharp, he’s articulate, he’s young, he’s handsome, he talks well. You better have somebody who can go toe to toe with him.”
The race will be one of the most expensive this mid-term cycle (along with the race to succeed Kemp as governor). The Senate Leadership Fund, a so-called “Super PAC” (political action committee) announced in April plans to spend $44 million to support the Republican candidate in Georgia, beginning this summer and running through the Nov. 3 general election. That money will show up in various forms of advertising, on broadcast and cable television, on radio, on online platforms, as well as in direct mail and text messages.
Meanwhile, Ossoff’s campaign has reported raising more than $50 million since Jan. 1, 2025. Add in funds from authorized committees and other sources, the campaign collected nearly $57.3 million in that period. As of March 31, Ossoff’s campaign reported having $31.7 million cash on hand, a figure some three times greater than the combined cash on hand reported by the five Republicans on the primary ballot.
Ossoff continues to criticize Trump on a wide range of issues, from Republicans not extending subsidies for Affordable Care Act premiums to the impact of tariffs on the financial health of Georgians to, most recently, the president’s handling of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.
At the same time, Ossoff’s campaign touts his efforts on more localized or statewide issues, measures that often include the Democrat joining with a Republican senator to co-sponsor legislation. He recently was a signatory to a letter urging that funding for the Non-Profit Security Program, which has been employed by Jewish institutions to upgrade protection measures, be increased to $750 million, more than doubling the funds currently allocated.
If the steady flow of news releases from the National Republican Senatorial Committee is any indication, Republicans will appeal to Jewish voters — particularly those who previously may have voted for the Democrat six years ago — by attacking Ossoff’s votes in November 2024 and April 2026 in support of several (but not all) resolutions against U.S. sales of certain weapons and equipment to Israel.
In a speech on the Senate floor, delivered after the November 2024 votes, Ossoff said, “I remain steadfastly committed to the U.S.-Israel alliance, and I also believe we must be willing to say no, even to our closest friends, when we believe it is in America’s national interest,” Ossoff said.
Polling conducted in October 2025 for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests a shift in public opinion regarding Israel, particularly among Democrats.
A survey of 1,000 likely Georgia Democratic voters found that 36 percent believed that supporting Israel is in the national interest of the United States, while 44 percent disagreed, and 20 percent did not know. A similar survey of 1,000 likely Republican voters found 85 percent agreeing that supporting Israel was in the U.S. national interest, while 11 percent disagreed, and 4 percent did not know.
The AJC noted that in its 2023 survey, 54 percent of Georgia Democrats thought supporting Israel was in the U.S. national interest, as did about 85 percent of Republicans.