Bookman: Ossoff’s presidential ambitions are undeniable

The late Harry Reid saw a lot of people come and go during his 30 years in the U.S. Senate. In an oral history with Columbia University, he recalled the first time he saw a newcomer from Illinois, a man named Barack Obama, deliver a speech on the Senate floor.

“I walked over to him. He’s sitting at his desk. I look down at him and I said, ‘Senator, that was really a good speech. That was good.’ He looked at me so seriously, and so intently, without a hint of braggadocio, and said, ‘I have a gift.’”

Jon Ossoff also has a gift, and like Obama, he knows it.

How could he not?

He’s running up 10-point poll margins in his Senate re-election campaign, in a state that Donald Trump carried two years ago. Brian Kemp, Georgia’s popular but term-limited Republican governor, decided that discretion was the better part of valor and declined to run against Ossoff. The national press sees him as a telegenic star. And in his debates with his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, Ossoff has had Collins wriggling at the podium like a worm impaled on a fish hook, just as he did with David Perdue in his first Senate campaign six years ago.

So people have noticed. People are talking. People are talking about the White House. Democrats love him. Republicans fear him. Donors flock to him. And like another white Southern Democrat, Bill Clinton, Ossoff has earned enough faith and confidence from Black voters to take him a long way in Democratic primaries, should he choose to run.

Yet Ossoff insists he’s not running and will not run. He gets asked the question in interviews and debates, and he has been steadfast in his rejection of a 2028 presidential campaign. As recently as his debate this week in Atlanta, he said he had “zero interest” in running and pledged to Georgia voters that if he is re-elected, he would serve his full six-year term in the Senate. 

Of course, they all say that. Obama said the same thing when he was running for the Senate in 2004, claiming to have no interest in the White House. Like Ossoff, he had two young daughters, ages 6 and 3 at the time, and a wife and partner who was skeptical of politics. He dismissed the idea of a presidential run as silly.

But party leaders, including Reid and Ted Kennedy, saw Obama’s talent and twisted his arm, reminding him that you don’t get to pick your time to run for president, the times pick you. 

And as we know, by the end of 2008, Obama was president-elect.

I have no doubt that Ossoff intends to be president. He’s been a man in a rush, elected to the Senate at the age of 33, the youngest senator in 40 years. The politician that we now see before us is the product of a lot of hard work and preparation for seeking the ultimate goal.

However, I also think Ossoff is being honest when he says he has no intention of running in 2028. He comes across as a man who sets his own timetable, who makes his own decisions and sticks by them. His self-discipline is part of his gift.

He is also 39. It will be another eight years before he turns 47, which happens to be the same age Obama was when first elected president. In 14 years – another three presidential cycles from now – Ossoff will still be just 53, and entering what for most people is their political prime. He has time to pick his time.

But the main reason I doubt Ossoff will run in 2028 is that his seatmate in the Senate, Raphael Warnock, is himself taking all the steps that a wannabe presidential candidate would be taking at this stage. He is visiting early primary states, raising his national profile, refusing to rule out a campaign.

Ossoff and Warnock are close friends and political allies. They campaign together, strategize together, spend time together. Given that relationship, it seems inconceivable that the two men haven’t discussed the 2028 presidential cycle. If Warnock is as serious about a presidential run, as he seems to be, then I take Ossoff at his word that he is serious about his refusal to run. They would draw from the same voter base and donor base, making both weaker, and it’s hard to imagine them as opponents.

So, if there’s a Georgia Democrat running for president in 2028, it will probably be Warnock. If there are two Georgians running for president in 2028, it will be Warnock and Kemp. 

There won’t be – probably won’t be – three Georgians seeking that office.