Jon Ossoff launching Georgia Senate campaign

Democrat Jon Ossoff announced Monday that he is mounting a 2020 Senate campaign, seeking to challenge Georgia Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). 

The former congressional candidate told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he would formally launch his Senate bid on Tuesday, adding he would “mount a ruthless assault on corruption in our political system” that has stopped Congress from addressing major issues. 

{mosads}“We have squandered trillions on endless war. We have squandered trillions on bailouts for failed banks. We have squandered trillions on tax cuts for wealthy donors. Then we’re told there’s nothing left over for the people,” he said. “The corruption must be rooted out. And Sen. David Perdue is a caricature of Washington corruption.” 

Ossoff is most well known for his 2017 special election campaign in a suburban Atlanta district that hadn’t elected a Democrat since 1976. The former documentary filmmaker raised more than $30 million and came within 2 percentage points of winning the district outright. 

He later lost to Rep. Karen Handel (R) in a runoff election. Handel was unseated by Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) during last year’s midterm elections. 

Ossoff told the Journal-Constitution that his campaign would “raise a grassroots army unlike any this state has ever seen” and that it would build off the foundation he laid in 2017. 

His announcement makes him the fourth Democrat to announce a 2020 campaign for the seat. 

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), the longtime Atlanta congressman, issued an endorsement for Ossoff in tandem with his announcement. 

“Like the many thousands Jon has already organized and inspired, I am ready to work tirelessly to elect him,” Lewis said to the Journal-Constitution. “Georgia and America need Jon.”  

Georgia will be home to multiple Senate races in 2020. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) announced last month that he would be retiring at the end of the year due to health reasons. 

Ossoff said that he elected to mount a campaign for Perdue’s seat because he “is one of the least effective and most out-of-touch members of the U.S. Senate.” 

“We’re in a state where one in three rural children live in poverty, where we have the worst maternal mortality in the entire country, and in a half a decade, this guy hasn’t come down from his private island to do a single town hall meeting,” Ossoff said. “He hands out favors to his donors. He runs errands for the president.”

UPDATED 10:48 p.m.