The Untold Truth Of Jon Ossoff

During the 2020 elections, one Georgia politician became a household name overnight when his victory ended up deciding the fate of the Senate. That politician was Jon Osoff, and is made quite clear in a piece from The Sun, his drive runs in the family: both of Ossoff's parents are high-achievers.

His father, Richard Ossoff, is the owner of Strafford Publications, which The New Yorker describes as a "specialist publishing company." His mother, Heather Fenton, helped found NewPowerPAC, a political action committee that, according to the website, "directly addresses the absence of women in Georgia politics." In 2020, Jon paid tribute to his mom in a Facebook post for International Women's Day, revealing that Fenton was "the first in her family to graduate college" as well as an immigrant. "She became a U.S. citizen, a successful entrepreneur, & an accomplished advocate for the advancement of American women," he continued, posting a sweet photo of himself with his mother.

And Jon Ossoff has spoken about how his mother's work inspired him, noting on Twitter that Fenton "immigrated to America at 23 because she believed in this country." He also explained that she "became an activist because she saw the necessity of change" and "became a citizen to participate fully in our democracy." Finally, he told followers that they should vote for her sake. "Don't break my mother's heart," the politician urged his supporters.

Keep reading to discover how the ambitious young Jon Ossoff found his way into politics — and why the nation started to pay attention.

The late John Lewis was an inspiration to millions and Jon Ossoff was no exception. As The New Yorker noted, Ossoff worked as an intern for Lewis while he was still in high school and the activist was "a mentor" to him.

After he won the Georgia runoff election, the Democrat took a second to pay tribute to Lewis on Twitter, writing that he was "one of the most important people" in his life. Thinking back on their conversations, Ossoff noted that his win was only possible because activists like Lewis had spent years advocating for voting rights in Georgia. "I know Congressman Lewis is looking down on us today beaming with optimism."

Speaking with Haaretz, he pointed out that his fellow Georgia Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock also shared a connection with the civil rights legend, since Warnock had been his pastor at Ebenezer Baptist. As Ossoff recalled, his first conversation with Lewis was about "how he had marched alongside rabbis and Jewish activists for civil rights in the South in the mid-1960s." The political great "stressed how important it was to sustain this alliance," and Ossoff concluded that his and Senator Warnock's work "is a continuation of this tradition."

Although he's unusually young for a senator, Jon Ossoff hasn't spent his whole career as a politician. He also made time to produce documentaries for a company called Insight TWI, as Ossoff told WABE, which "specializes in investigations of organized crime, political corruption, and war crimes." The Democrat was credited on films like "Stacey on the Frontline: Girls, Guns and ISIS," which depicted the lives of a group of women fighting ISIS. 

In July 2021, he officially stepped down from his role at Insight, as Variety reported. "The thing I'm really happy about is that when I took over the company, part of what I set out to do was move towards bigger productions, bring in more clients, add ambition and increase diversity of the company's client base," the Georgia politician reflected, before observing that his "years of effort really bore fruit."

"Just before I left to enter the Senate, we took the company to even greater heights with our BBC Three productions in Iraq, the BBC One series on child abuse in football, and a successful conclusion to 'Sing, Freetown,'" he told Variety, referring to a documentary about Sierra Leone and its depiction in the media. Ossoff described these films as "significant projects that have been in development for a long time and told vital stories."

As one of the younger politicians in the public eye, Jon Ossoff's success has been helped by his massive audience on social media. The senator has over 500,000 followers on his official TikTok account, where he duets with supporters to directly interact with them and uses popular trends to talk about his policies. As Slate reported, he began using the app specifically to help his 2020 campaign for the Senate and has been more effective at gaining fans than many other politicians.

"Our campaign has built a robust and innovative digital program that is speaking directly to young voters on platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram about the issues that impact their lives, like stopping the spread of coronavirus, protecting our environment, tackling student loan debt, and passing a New Civil Rights Act," his press secretary Jake Best stated in an email to the Augusta Chronicle, emphasizing the Ossoff team's commitment to meeting young voters on their own territory.

According to data provided by CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, youth turnout was a massive factor in the 2020 elections. In Georgia, voters aged 18-29 were particularly crucial, accounting for 20% of the overall vote. Out of those younger voters, about 58% picked Joe Biden over Donald Trump, who only received 39%. So it makes sense that Ossoff would form a strategy for creating and inspiring social media engagement — including, according to Vogue, a lot of "internet thirst" over his looks.

Jon Ossoff burst into the national limelight when Georgia became a crucial battleground in the Democratic Party's fight for the Senate.

As The New York Times reported, the law in Georgia dictates that a politician has to receive more than 50% of the vote to actually win any election. If none of the candidates win a majority, then the state must hold a runoff election, in which the top two contenders keep fighting for the prize. After the 2020 elections, this meant that Ossoff and Raphael Warnock had to keep running against their Republican counterparts. And once it became clear that the Democrats would have to gain those seats to have a majority in the Senate, allowing them to win votes, the race to raise funds was on.

Ossoff actually managed to raise more money than any congressional candidate in the history of the American government, per Forbes, ending up with $162.6 million. His rival David Perdue received support from Republicans across the country but he still fell behind, with a total of $103 million in donations.

When his win was announced, Jon Ossoff made history and broke a few different records. Per Rolling Stone, he became "the first Jewish senator ever elected by the state of Georgia," as well as the first Jewish politician to win a Senate seat in the South since Benjamin F. Jonas was elected in the 19th century. Ossoff's age was also something of note, since he was the youngest Democrat to become a senator since Joe Biden himself in 1973. The politician wasn't alone in his achievements either, since his fellow Georgia Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock became the first Black American to ever reach "statewide office" in their state.

In his victory speech, Ossoff promised Georgia voters that he would represent them, regardless of whether they voted for him or not. "This campaign has been about health and jobs and justice for the people of this state, for all the people of this state, and they will be my guiding principles as I serve this state," the senator swore, per CBS. "Everybody who cast your ballot, everybody who put your faith and confidence in democracy's capacity to deliver the representation we deserve, whether you were for me or against me, I'll be for you."

When Jon Ossoff was sworn in to Congress, the Georgia politician paid tribute to his heritage and a civil rights hero by picking a special Hebrew Bible.

As The Washington Post and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, the book had previously been owned by Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, a civil rights advocate who had not only worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr., but established what the New Georgia Encyclopedia describes as being "a close personal friendship" with the minister. "That book isn't just about the synagogue and my Jewish background," Ossoff told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reflecting on why he chose the Hebrew Bible. "It's also about the necessity of reanimating the spirit of the civil rights movement and building alliances to pass landmark civil rights legislation."

Rothschild was the rabbi at Hebrew Benevolent Congregation Temple, a historic landmark that was bombed by white supremacists in 1958. Speaking with The Washington Post, the Temple's current senior rabbi, Rabbi Peter S. Berg, said it was "a special honor" for that particular Bible to play such a significant role in Ossoff's swearing in ceremony, noting that it was a "way to honor the work that he did with Dr. King to make this a better world."