U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff returned to Atlanta on Saturday to rally Democrats eager for swift action against President Donald Trump’s administration.
During a passionate 20-minute speech, Ossoff declared, “Georgia will bow to no king!” He criticized Trump as corrupt, disconnected from the struggles of ordinary people, and attempting to “poison our democracy with fear and intimidation.”
“This is not a drill. This is not a bad dream,” Ossoff declared, addressing a crowd that could make him a key target for Republicans in the 2026 elections. “As citizens, this is the test of our lifetime. So tell me, Atlanta, are you ready to fight?”
Although Ossoff’s campaign downplayed the event as not being the official start of his 2026 reelection bid, and he did not directly ask the 2,000 attendees for their votes, other Democratic leaders like Sen. Raphael Warnock were more explicit. As the event ended, Ossoff’s team distributed yard signs to attendees.
It’s still early, and it’s unclear who will challenge the first-term Democrat in the upcoming election. Many Republicans are hoping that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp will enter the race, but he has yet to make a decision. Kemp could decide to run for president in 2028 or retire from politics altogether. If he chooses not to run, potential Republican candidates for the Senate include U.S. Representatives Buddy Carter, Rich McCormick, and Mike Collins, along with State Insurance Commissioner John King. U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has also hinted at the possibility of running for either Georgia governor or Senate in 2026.
Any race in Georgia is expected to be fiercely competitive and extremely costly. The 2020 twin Senate races, in which Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock narrowly won, flipping control of the Senate to the Democrats, totaled more than $900 million in spending. Warnock’s 2022 reelection victory over Republican Herschel Walker also exceeded $470 million.
Though Ossoff kept his focus away from the 2026 election, he addressed the concerns of Democratic voters, assuring them that he was doing everything he could to push back against the challenges they face.
“Maybe right now you feel surrounded by darkness. You might feel numb or wonder if there’s a way out,” Ossoff said. “But Atlanta, we don’t have the luxury of despair.”
Ossoff has spent his first four years in the Senate trying to establish himself as a lawmaker capable of working across party lines. With Democrats feeling restless and in the minority, he may be shifting his approach to become more confrontational toward Trump. However, some of the themes Ossoff discussed on Saturday align with his earlier years in office, particularly his opposition to what he views as corruption tied to the influence of money in politics.
“This is why things don’t work for ordinary people,” Ossoff explained. “It’s not because of trans kids or woke college students, or because Canada is suddenly our enemy. The corruption is why you pay so much for prescriptions. The corruption is why your insurance claims get denied. The corruption is why hedge funds are buying up all the houses in your neighborhood.”
Ossoff highlighted individuals who said they were suffering due to Trump’s policies, but in the city that houses the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it wasn’t hard to find others in the crowd. Bev Roberts, who attended with her mother, described herself as a “Trump refugee.” She explained that she was laid off by the U.S. Agency for International Development and had to return home from Cairo. Like many other Democrats, Roberts expressed frustration with what she sees as the party’s ineffective opposition so far.
“I want to hear practical solutions, not just rhetoric,” Roberts said before the event. “I think Democrats need to change.”
Some attendees questioned whether a campaign rally was the right approach for this moment. Thomas McCormick, who drove 140 miles from Dublin, Georgia, to attend, said he hasn’t seen any effective opposition from Democrats, except possibly Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy. He was frustrated with Saturday’s event and considered supporting a third party. McCormick said Democrats can’t afford to wait until 2026, comparing the damage Trump has done so far to the 1937 Hindenburg explosion.
“That’s two years, two years of damage,” McCormick said, as the strains of “Macarena” played before the rally started. “I’ve been on the left my whole life. This is the best I’ve got?”
