For a party that spent years warning Americans about personality cults, Democrats sure seem eager to build another one.
Their latest crush is Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, the photogenic 39-year-old Democrat whom liberal activists and social-media influencers are already trying to catapult from Senate incumbent to White House hopeful. Never mind that he’s fighting for political survival in one of the toughest Senate races on the map. In Democratic circles, Ossoff has apparently graduated from vulnerable incumbent to the Second Coming of Camelot.
The hype machine kicked into overdrive after a series of rally speeches in which Ossoff took aim at President Trump, Trump’s family, and Georgia Republicans. Within hours, progressive influencers were treating routine campaign attacks as if they were excerpts from the Gettysburg Address.
One viral moment featured Ossoff blasting what he called “Prince Eric and Prince Don” over business ventures connected to Kazakhstan. To hear Democratic activists tell it, the speech wasn’t merely political rhetoric — it was evidence that a new party leader had arrived.
Former Republican congresswoman and frequent Trump critic Barbara Comstock gushed online: “This is how you do it. [Ossoff] is so good.”
Democratic commentator Victor Shi piled on, calling Ossoff “one of those rare politicians who is more impressive every time he speaks.”
Others went even further off the deep end. One admirer declared: “I’ve seen enough. We’ve found our next Jack Kennedy.” Because apparently giving a campaign speech in Atlanta now qualifies someone for a place in presidential mythology.
Another liberal writer swooned that Ossoff is “handsome, articulate, and authoritative,” adding that he could produce “Obama-like margins” in a future presidential race.
Democrats are once again confusing political celebrity with political success. The timing of this lovefest is especially rich.
Ossoff isn’t some unstoppable political juggernaut cruising toward re-election. Republicans have spent months targeting his seat as one of their top pickup opportunities. Georgia remains fiercely competitive, and the senator will soon face the winner of a bruising Republican runoff between Rep. Mike Collins and former football coach Derek Dooley. The June 16 contest will determine which Republican gets a shot at sending Ossoff back to private life. Recent reporting shows both GOP contenders locked in an increasingly intense battle for the nomination while Ossoff waits on the sidelines.
At a recent rally, Ossoff mocked the Republican field after Gov. Brian Kemp declined to enter the race. Then came one of his most widely shared lines, a jab aimed at Collins and Dooley. “They tried to run Kemp, but he refused,” Ossoff said before launching into a family-dynasty attack. “So we’re left with the congressman who’s only a congressman because his daddy was a congressman and the coach, who’s only a coach because his daddy was a coach.”
The line got cheers. It also invited scrutiny.
Critics quickly noted that Ossoff himself has hardly been untouched by privilege. His father owns a publishing company, he attended one of Atlanta’s elite private schools, and family wealth has long been part of his biography. Collins wasted little time firing back, branding Ossoff “a Senator who only got here because of his daddy’s trust fund.” In politics, throwing stones from a glass mansion rarely ends cleanly.
Then there’s Ossoff’s favorite campaign slogan about the so-called “Epstein Class” — his term for wealthy and politically connected figures who supposedly escape accountability.
It’s a catchy populist soundbite. The problem is that campaign-finance records have raised uncomfortable questions for the senator, with reports highlighting donations linked to individuals whose names appeared in materials connected to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Critics argue the discrepancy creates an obvious vulnerability: railing against elite influence while benefiting from elite donors is the kind of contradiction opponents love to feature in television ads.
Yet none of that seems to matter to the Democratic fan club.
For many on the left, Ossoff checks every box. Young. Telegenic. Media-friendly. Aggressively anti-Trump. The fact that he generates viral clips is treated as proof of national greatness.
But Washington is littered with politicians who were supposed to be the future. The Democratic Party has spent years cycling through fresh-faced sensations who generated headlines, magazine covers, and online enthusiasm — only to discover that governing, winning swing voters, and surviving tough elections are harder than trending on social media.
That’s why the “next Jack Kennedy” talk says more about Democrats than it does about Ossoff. After years of electoral frustration and leadership uncertainty, many Democrats appear desperate for a new standard-bearer. They see a polished Senate speech and start imagining an inaugural address.
Ossoff: This is what small men like Donald Trump and JD Vance and Stephen Miller will never understand—that our national greatness flows not through our blood or our genes, but through our ideas.
Americans are not a race, we’re a people united not by ethnicity, but by our shared… pic.twitter.com/ZfyH4D7Cbl
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 31, 2026
