Ossoff is sticking to a playbook he embraced after his 2021 runoff defeat of Republican David Perdue, one of a pair of Democratic runoff victories in Georgia that flipped control of the Senate.

He’s voted reliably with President Joe Biden and other Democrats on major policies since taking office, but he’s also emphasized bipartisanship and consensus-building when possible, such as over infrastructure spending and immigration policy debates.

Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC

Credit: Steve Schaefer/AJC

His approach echoes that of many other Democrats grappling with how to counter the returning president after he recaptured Georgia and scored a decisive national victory. Many emphasize a willingness to compromise on key issues rather than all-out defiance.

But Ossoff is waging a reelection campaign in a remade political landscape. Four years after Biden flipped Georgia for the first time in decades — and voters elected Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the Senate — the GOP is again ascendant after Trump’s decisive win.

Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon said Ossoff’s “almost unanimous lockstep voting” with Biden, and recent support for failed measures to block U.S. sales of ammunition to Israel, will come back to haunt Democrats. (Ossoff said he hoped the vote pressures Israel to take more steps to save civilian lives.)

“His stated bipartisanship is a costume,” McKoon said. “And the mask has now slipped off for all Georgians to see.”

‘A political problem’

McKoon’s line of attack is a preview of the incoming fire against Ossoff in 2026, when he is certain to be a top GOP target. National Republicans are working already to recruit Gov. Brian Kemp or another formidable contender to join the race.

Ossoff said he’s unafraid to punch back, particularly over Trump’s vow to repeal Democratic-backed green energy incentives that helped fuel Georgia’s growing electric-vehicle industry. It passed despite staunch GOP opposition, including complaints from Kemp it created an unequal playing field.

“There are risks to Georgia’s economic development,” Ossoff said, framing the debate as a choice “between the president-elect’s promises to repeal manufacturing incentives that have supercharged Georgia’s economic development on the one hand and our state’s interests on the other.”

He added, “Congress will have to conduct vigorous oversight and guard against potential overreach, misconduct or abuse.”

Credit: Associated Press and AJC

Credit: Associated Press and AJC

But he also acknowledged Democratic shortfalls. Even as Ossoff criticized Trump for working to scuttle a bipartisan border security measure this year, he said there was a “substantive policy failure” by the Biden administration to address illegal immigration.

“The Biden administration’s administrative failures at the southern border were both a substantive failure and also, clearly, a political problem,” he said.

Ossoff’s approach hardly resembles his stance on Trump in 2017, when he ran unsuccessfully for a GOP-held U.S. House seat with a “make Trump furious” mantra that he ultimately abandoned in favor of more robust outreach to swing voters and Republicans.

That coalition helped him oust Perdue in a close 2021 runoff. But that tenuous alliance unraveled in November when a resurgent Trump cut into Democratic strongholds across Georgia and turned GOP bastions a brighter shade of red.

Now Trump is set to reenter the White House with a firm grip on the GOP and a unified Congress, while Democrats struggle over how to oppose the returning president.

Ossoff has said little about the soul-searching over the party’s direction — when asked about ongoing internal debate, he said he’s “looking for opportunities to get things done in Georgia” — while working behind the scenes to assert control of the state Democratic infrastructure.

Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC

Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC

And analysts say Ossoff’s shrewd to follow a strategy of targeted bipartisanship instead of outright opposition ahead of a midterm race in 2026 that could again hinge on swing voters.

“He has no choice but to work with who the public has elected if he is going to be an effective senator for the state of Georgia,” University of Georgia political scientist Audrey Haynes said.

“I don’t know what other path he has to reelection victory,” said Jeff Auerbach, a political scientist at Oxford College of Emory University. “He’ll have to win the same swing voters that helped elect him four years ago. He’s threading a needle, but that’s the only option he has.”

Here are excerpts from the interview:

On his strategy of working with the returning president:

“I sincerely hope that for Georgia the incoming administration can deliver and succeed for our state’s benefit. And I’ll actively look for opportunities to continue the bipartisan work that I’ve done for the last four years in my constituents’ interest ...

“I’ve been one of the most bipartisan members of the Senate. I’ve built deep and productive partnerships with Republican colleagues. I’ve led vigorous bipartisan oversight investigations. … I’m going to continue that approach with Congress in the new administration.”

On lessons learned from the election results:

“You’ve reported for years that I’ve criticized the Democratic Party on immigration policy. And you reported I thought it was a craven capitulation to election-year politics for Republicans in Congress not to pass a bipartisan border security measure last year. The outgoing administration’s failures at the border weighed heavily on the outcome of the election, and more importantly, were a substantive policy failure.”

On whether he is optimistic about working with Trump:

“I am actively seeking opportunities to work together in Georgia’s interest. My obligation is to the state, no matter who is in the White House, no matter who has power in Congress, and I’ll actively seek those opportunities to find common ground and get things done for Georgia.”