For anyone hoping for a shot at the US presidency, the midterm elections are an excellent proving ground. There was one candidate this year who ticked all the boxes: Jon Ossoff, the incumbent Democratic senator from Georgia, who was the party’s first victor of the night.

This allowed him to take to the stage early and give a thundering victory speech, which resembled those of the Obama era. Throughout the campaign, the telegenic 39-year-old was greeted like a rock star at rallies across the state, giving rousing speeches that tapped into voter concerns about the cost of living and alleged government cronyism.

Ossoff has attacked the self-enrichment that runs rampant through the Trump administration, which he calls “the Mar-a-Lago mafia” and the “Epstein elite”; he has found easy targets in the president’s ballroom project, his family businesses and more. While all Democrats running in the midterms tapped into concerns about the rising cost of living, Ossoff went for the jugular and claimed that people were getting poorer precisely because Donald Trump was getting richer.

His peak arguably came in August at a campaign rally in which he made a jab about Trump’s relationship with his loyal executive assistant, Natalie Harp. He suggested that the president would rather “travel with Natalie” than run the country – a reference to how Harp had accompanied him on an alternate plane after a potential threat against Air Force One at a Nato summit in July. It was a carefully worded taunt, short enough for social media and suggestive enough to send the internet into overdrive.

While Ossoff might just be edging into the wider public consciousness, he has been a rising star in the Democratic Party for some time. His messaging skills cut across the traditional political divides and he appeals to a broad tent of voters. Republicans had targeted Georgia – a purple state that swung from Joe Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024 – as a potential midterm win. But Ossoff dominated the race and helped to carry Democratic gubernatorial candidate Keisha Lance Bottoms over the line.

Though Ossoff champions cost-of-living issues, he comes from a wealthy family. He was educated at a private school before attending Georgetown University and the London School of Economics. Early in his career, he worked in media and communications, before moving into politics with an unsuccessful House bid in 2017, followed by his Senate win in 2021.

As well as his charisma and sharp political instinct, the married father-of-two has another advantage: he straddles warring factions within the Democratic Party. As a millennial, he can appeal to younger voters and, while he is not aligned with the surging Democratic Socialist movement, he shares a lot of their messaging on big money. He is also Jewish but critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, which means that he is well placed to try to bridge divides within the party over the issue.

The midterm win has now sent his reputation into the stratosphere and prediction markets currently put him as the favourite to win the 2028 election. Of course, a long road lies ahead and there will be a crowded field of strong Democratic contenders. So far, he has denied any plans to launch a presidential bid. But his actions tell a different story. The US can expect to be hearing a lot more from the silver-tongued senator.

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