Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff’s commanding reelection victory has dramatically elevated his standing as an early favorite for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.
At 39, Ossoff currently has a 27% chance of winning the White House, according to Polymarket, even though he said last month that he has “zero interest” in pursuing the presidency.
Democratic voters are increasingly watching the young senator, who has shown he can win in a key battleground state while energizing liberals with an oratorical style reminiscent of Barack Obama.
Ossoff defeated Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) by 18 points and rallied supporters with fierce attacks on what he described as Trump-era “corruption.”
Democrats and allied groups spent $136 million on his reelection campaign, making Ossoff the party’s best-funded candidate for much of the year before state Rep. James Talarico (R-Tex.) surpassed him.
The Democrats’ strong showing in the midterms has also revived talk of a possible 2028 campaign by “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and several other rising party figures.
Ocasio-Cortez, 37, traveled the country campaigning for progressive candidates alongside socialist ally and former presidential hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is 85 and increasingly faces questions about who might carry his movement forward.
“This will embolden her to run,” Democratic consultant Doug Schoen told The Post, citing Ocasio-Cortez’s support for victorious progressive candidates Troy Jackson in Maine and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential election, could also draw encouragement from the Georgia results. She campaigned there for Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms, while Black women won all but one statewide office.
Harris has remained at the top of Democratic presidential polling averages this year, helped by her broad name recognition despite her defeat in 2024.
“If she runs, it’s going to be a major factor in her favor,” said Charles Bullock III, a political science professor at the University of Georgia. He pointed to the consistently high turnout rates among Black women voters compared with Black men.
The Democratic field could also include several more centrist figures if primary voters push back against the party’s leftward shift and the influence of Democratic Socialists of America. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and former Obama Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg are all potential contenders.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, another possible candidate, was not on the ballot but helped lead the fight against a billionaire-backed tax measure that California voters rejected. The episode could help him appeal beyond the party’s progressive core.
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock, who also serves as senior pastor of Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, has begun sounding increasingly like a presidential candidate after Democrats swept the state’s executive offices.
“It can’t simply be opposing Trump. I think people are looking for a messenger and a visionary who will lay out a clear picture of who we can become,” Warnock told The Post.
With two years still remaining before the next presidential contest, one introspective Republican operative said, “People want to feel like they know you and they want to have faith in you. I knew the midterms were going to be rough. I don’t think anybody down here could have predicted how rough it would be.”
The Democrats’ nationwide rout has also unsettled the Republican succession battle and diminished some of the momentum surrounding Vice President JD Vance, who had been viewed as an early front-runner.
After Tuesday’s “bloodbath,” one stunned GOP operative said it was “hard to fathom anybody that’s in the administration being able to get us back on track.”
Vance’s Polymarket odds have fallen sharply since Labor Day and now stand at 19%. The election outcome “obviously has impact to anybody in the administration right now,” said retiring Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who sought the presidency in 2016, said last week that he planned to remain in his current role after a report suggested he could leave the administration to prepare for another White House campaign.
Republicans beyond the states hit hardest by the Democratic surge have begun describing the defeat in stark terms while presenting themselves as potential leaders of the party’s recovery.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible 2028 candidate, called the results the “political equivalent of a meteor strike” and “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans.” He also emphasized that Florida resisted the Democratic wave.
Pollster John McLaughlin, a favorite of President Trump, said DeSantis remains a “serious” contender. McLaughlin also predicted that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who called the midterms a “Watergate-level repudiation,” and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul will enter the race. Paul is the son of former Rep. Ron Paul, who ran for president three times.
“I think you’re going to see more candidates getting into it” after Tuesday’s setback, McLaughlin said.
“It puts DeSantis back in play. And it puts JD Vance in a very weak position, and it says to Donald Trump that he has one credible alternative for 2028, and that’s Marco Rubio,” said Schoen, a former pollster for Bill Clinton.
“I’ve consistently opposed the Iran war, consistently opposed the tariffs, and consistently opposed the deficit. I think that’s what the Republican Party needs to consider as a model moving forward,” Paul told The Post.