In a flashback episode of Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing, Leo McGarry and Josh Lyman travel to the state of New Hampshire to listen to then governor Jed Bartlet speak to a tiny crowd in a restaurant basement as he prepares to run for president.
Today, in the world of 24/7 news, the stage for presidential wannabes is much bigger. And if one were searching for a potential Democratic candidate who stood out from the pack, one might easily travel to Atlanta, Georgia, to seek out Jon Ossoff.
The 39-year-old Peach State senator put himself on the map recently with a blistering speech about US President Donald Trump, corruption and American democracy as he campaigns to retain his Senate seat – the only Democratic senator up for re-election in a state that Trump won in 2024.
He has already drawn comparisons to former president Barack Obama for his oratory – though some argue that is overstated – and for being a young senator who could emerge as an alternative to the crop of more established contenders, should he choose to do so.
“He has impressed a lot of people with his approach,” says Alan Abramowitz, a political scientist and author at Emory University in Georgia, “which is basically combining a relatively modern ideological stance with a very tough approach to dealing with Trump.
“He’s putting a big emphasis on the corruption aspect, and I think that’s something I would expect a lot of Democratic candidates pick up on this fall.”
The partisan crowd at the Tabernacle in downtown Atlanta went wild for Ossoff’s speech last Monday night, but clips of it ricocheted around the country. Two in particular garnered attention on social and traditional media.
Ossoff highlighted Trump’s increasingly manic posting on social media, which, that weekend, had included 52 posts and reposts within six hours – including an AI image that featured his face carved into Mount Rushmore.
“When not posting, he’s been trying to rob us,” Ossoff said. “He sued the US government he commands for $US10 billion [$14 billion]. Then he settled the suit with himself to create a $US1.8 billion slush fund so he can cut cheques to cronies and January 6 foot soldiers. Donald Trump’s brownshirts. He pardoned them, and now he wants you to pay them.
“He’s trying to put his face on the money, did you see that? He’s building a monument to himself. He’s doing these things now because no one will honour him when he’s gone. Because he’s a failed president and a national disgrace.”
Democrats trashing Trump is hardly new. California Governor Gavin Newsom, probably the leading contender for the Democratic nomination if the vote were held today, has led the charge by using Trump’s own rhetoric against him. But for many supporters – or independents who dislike Trump – no one has yet cut through.
“There’s a sense among a lot of Democratic voters, they don’t feel like their party’s leaders have stood up to Trump enough,” says Abramowitz.
“In some ways it’s unfair. It reflects a lack of understanding of the limitations that Democratic leaders in the House and Senate face right now in terms of their ability to actually oppose Trump, being in minority in both chambers. So I think when someone like Ossoff gives a speech like that, a lot of Democratic voters heard it and say, ‘Oh, that’s what we want, more of that.’ ”
Much of that disappointment is directed at the Democrats’ 75-year-old Senate leader Chuck Schumer, and to a lesser extent Hakeem Jeffries, 55, in the House. After a decade of federal politics dominated by ageing leaders – Trump, Joe Biden and Trump again, along with figures such as Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi – Ossoff looks and sounds like a breath of fresh air. “That definitely helps,” says Abramowitz.
It also helps that Ossoff is telegenic. And in a speculative field that appears to be heavy on white men (Newsom, Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear, Pete Buttigieg, Rahm Emanuel among them), Ossoff is a white man from the south – a successful combination for the Democrats in Bill Clinton.
“Everyone seems to think he’s very compelling,” says Ira Shapiro, a former Senate staffer and former trade ambassador in the Clinton administration.
“The way he speaks and comes across on TV has really distinguished him from some of the others. He’s also frankly a great age to potentially appeal to Democrats who are looking for a new generation of leadership.”
Ossoff’s age profile, manner and rhetorical skill have earned him comparisons to Obama, who came to national prominence in 2004 with a famous speech at the Democratic National Convention, preceding his meteoric rise through the US Senate.
Abramowitz says such comparisons are unfounded, especially as Obama became the first African American president – although he notes that Ossoff would be the first Jewish one. “There’s not going to be another Obama. Obama was a unique political talent.”
Ossoff has another asset, should he choose to run: he is from Georgia, a crucial swing state and one the Democrats have in their must-win column to carry the White House in 2028. His mother, Heather Fenton, was born and raised in Sydney before moving to the US at the age of 23 and settling in the Atlanta area.
“Georgia is one of the states that a Democrat would not necessarily have to carry to win the presidency, but it would also make it a lot easier,” says Abramowitz. “If a Democrat carries Georgia in the presidential election, they are very likely to win the election. He [Ossoff] would be a strong candidate in North Carolina as well.”
The primary calendar looks different now to the era of The West Wing, when the road began in Iowa and New Hampshire. Under Biden, the kick-off state became South Carolina, and there is a push within the Democrats to begin the process in the south again.
At any rate, there will probably be a group of southern primaries held together. “If that happens early, if he were to do well in that, that could be a boost,” Abramowitz says.
He and Shapiro both stress that it is too soon to seriously consider who might hold a strategic advantage in the primary race. While Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are clear favourites for the Republicans, the Democrats are likely to have a wide field.
“The people who are down on the Democrats have very good reasons to be, given a couple of serious policy failures and the failure to stop president Biden from seeking a second term. That was a terrible failure of the party,” Shapiro says.
“One thing about our campaigns is political competition will produce the next nominee, and it will be an extraordinarily talented person who emerges from it.”
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.