AP: “‘Senator Ossoff has been passionately vocal about VA funding, and any time we’ve needed to call to advocate or to ask a question about benefits, his office has done everything we needed,’ said Courtney Eskew, whose husband, Joshua, was injured during an Army tour in Afghanistan.”

Atlanta, Ga. — New reporting in the Associated Press highlights Sen. Ossoff’s strong constituent services and legislative record of delivering for Georgians, with one constituent telling the AP, “his office has done everything we needed.”

The AJC recently detailed Sen. Ossoff’s “recurrent habit” of checking in with Georgians, including “pastors, small-town mayors, farmers” and constituents — regardless of party affiliation — “who are not expecting a call from” the senator. “Whether it’s good news or bad news or no news at all, Ossoff is often on the other end of the phone,” the AJC writes.

In recent weeks, bipartisan support behind Sen. Ossoff’s campaign has continued to grow, including that this week Georgia Peanut Commission Chair Donald Chase backed Sen. Ossoff for re-election in his personal capacity despite having “voted Republican for nearly his entire adult life.” Chase told the AJC, “I like people who will stand up for the things that I believe we, as Georgians, support.”

In the meantime, GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins continues to face scrutiny over a number of controversies, including his ties to white nationalism and an ongoing ethics investigation, that have led to growing concerns about Collins’ candidacy within his own party, both in-state and nationally. 

AP: How Jon Ossoff and Susan Collins are turning a mundane part of their jobs into a reelection pitch
By Bill Barrow and Patrick Whittle

KEY EXCERPTS

• After Hurricane Helene barreled through Georgia in the fall of 2024, Sen. Jon Ossoff was the first high-ranking official on the ground in Valdosta, where he took in the damage and promised locals he’d help them get the federal recovery assistance they needed.

• “Just about every week, I dial up Georgia mayors and pastors and farmers to find out how I can help,” Ossoff said at a recent campaign rally for his reelection bid against Republican Rep. Mike Collins. […]

• For Ossoff, it means attracting endorsements from Republican officials, including Valdosta Mayor Scott James Matheson, that have made it harder for Mike Collins to land attacks claiming that the liberal first-term senator from Atlanta doesn’t represent Georgia. […]

• A month from Election Day, Ossoff has gone from a top GOP target to a widely perceived favorite to defend a seat that Democrats cannot afford to lose as they try to regain a Senate majority. […]

• Ossoff and his aides say the senator tries to deliver on every aspect of what Washington calls “constituent services.”

• That could mean federal appropriations, disaster assistance or nuts-and-bolts matters like assisting a voter who is seeking Social Security disability benefits or a missing Social Security check. It includes surprise notes of congratulations or condolences to constituents — something Ossoff sends even to aides of Republican elected officials.

• Endorsing Ossoff earlier this year, Matheson, the Valdosta mayor, described himself as a lifelong conservative. But he praised Ossoff for his Helene response. The senator recalled “going block by block” with the mayor and serving “hot meals to folks who had just lost their homes.”

• Ossoff points to money secured for a dialysis center in nearby Tifton, Georgia. Mayor Julie Smith, another Republican, has endorsed Ossoff, too, explaining that “he’s been very good for south Georgia.”

• Courtney Eskew, whose husband, Joshua, was injured during an Army tour in Afghanistan, pointed to Ossoff’s work for veterans’ care. The couple both grew up in Republican households but said they were volunteering for Ossoff’s campaign.

• “Senator Ossoff has been passionately vocal about VA funding, and any time we’ve needed to call to advocate or to ask a question about benefits, his office has done everything we needed,” Eskew said after the couple attended an Ossoff event.

• Eskew said it’s a powerful counter to opponent Mike Collins’ attacks that Ossoff is too liberal for the historically conservative state.

• Ossoff “doesn’t vote the way I want him to vote” on contentious issues, added Chan Jones, who chairs the Georgia Republican Party’s 8th Congressional District committee. “But as far as the office and the way they’ve carried themselves and handled other aspects of the job, I can’t knock that.”

• Jones has his own example as a member of the Bleckley County Recreation Board.

• “We were having some trouble with a federal grant,” he said, adding that one call to the senator’s office fixed the issue. […]

###