Atlanta – The American senator Jon Ossoff arrived home to Atlanta on Saturday to bring together the central democrats desperate for an effective action now against the president Donald Trump’s administration.
“Georgia will not bow to any king!” Ossoff proclaimed at the end of a 20 -minute speech that described Trump as corrupt, out of contact with the problems of regular people, and “trying to poison our democracy with fear and intimidation.”
“Atlanta, this is not an exercise.” As citizens, this is the proof of our life. Then tell me, Atlanta, are you ready to fight? “
The Ossoff campaign tried to tear down the idea that Saturday’s event was the launch of its 2026 re -election campaign, and never specifically asked the 2,000 Democrats gathered in a music hall on the gentrified east side of Atlanta by their votes. But others, including fellow Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, made it explicit, and the Ossoff campaign delivered patio signs to people when they left.
It is still so early that it is not clear which Republicans will oppose the first -term Democrat. Many Republicans would like to see Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Enter the race. But the governor of the second period has been stopping a decision and could choose to run for president in 2028 or withdraw from politics. If Kemp refuses to run, the Republicans, including American representatives, Buddy Carter, Rich McCormick and Mike Collins could seek the nomination, as well as the State Insurance Commissioner, John King. The American representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has also reflected on a possible career for the Governor or Senate of Georgia in 2026.
It is likely that any race in Georgia will be very disputed and fantastically expensive. The twin Senate races in 2020, when Ossoff and Warnock won and changed the control of the Senate to the Democrats, cost more than $ 900 million combined, according to OpenCrets, which tracks political spending. Warnock’s 2022 re -election about Republican Herschel Walker costs more than $ 470 million, they are open.
Ossoff, keeping his approach out of 2026, tried to talk to the alarm that Democratic voters say they are feeling, and promising that he was doing everything possible to fight.
“Maybe right now you feel surrounded by darkness. You may be a bit numb. You may ask if there is an exit,” said Ossoff. “But Atlanta, we don’t have the luxury of despair.”
Ossoff tried to forge a lane as a traditional senator who could do a bipartisan job in his first four years. With restless democrats and in the minority, you can be looking to change your tone to something more antagonistic towards Trump. But some issues that Ossoff sounded on Saturday are consistent with their first four years, including the opposition to what he sees as corruption rooted in the influence of money on politics.
“That’s why things don’t work for ordinary people,” said Ossoff. “It is not for trans children or wake up to university students or by our new archienemigo, Canada. Corruption is the reason why he pays a fortune for recipes. Corruption is why their insurance claim is still denied. Corruption is the reason why coverage funds can buy all houses in their neighborhood.”
Ossoff exhibited people who said they were being harmed by Trump’s policies, but in the hometown of the centers for disease control and prevention, it was not difficult to find others at the audience. Bev Roberts, attending his mother, was described as a “Trump refugee”, saying that she was fired by the United States Agency for International Development and forced to return home from Cairo. Like many Democrats, Roberts is not happy with what she sees as an ineffective opposition so far.
“I want to hear practical solutions, I don’t want to listen to rhetoric,” Roberts said before speech. “I think the Democrats need to change.”
Some questioned whether a campaign rally was suitable for this moment. Thomas McCormick, who led 140 miles to Atlanta from the central city of Dublin in Georgia, said he is not seeing any effective opposition of the Democrats, with the possible exception of the senator of Connecticut Chris Murphy. He expressed disgust with Saturday’s event and reflected on supporting a third party, saying that Democrats cannot wait until 2026, comparing the impact of Trump’s work so far with the explosion of the Hindenburg aircraft in 1937.
“That’s two years, it’s two years of damage,” McCormick said, since the strains of “Macarena” echoed in the hall before the rally began. “I’ve been on the left side of politics all my life. Is this the best I have?”
