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What Could Have Been: Why Jon Ossoff Doesn't Deserve a Second Term

By Martha Zoller Host of The Martha Zoller Show
Posted 8:00AM on Monday 25th August 2025 ( 1 day ago )

It was 50.6% to 49.4% in the runoff between Jon Ossoff and Sen. David Perdue in 2020. That’s about as close as it can get. I was very disappointed but I had hope that our new senator was a different kind of Democrat. I asked the question and still ask it, “If you have a result that is that close in a state that is this close, should you represent your constituents or your caucus?” It seems to me that you ought to vote with the GOP some of the time. But it wasn’t to be. Sen. Ossoff votes 98% with his party which does not reflect the people of Georgia.

In the beginning, he looked good. He came to the station and did several interviews. Then, he started to want to record them and not do them live which didn’t allow constituents to ask him questions in real time. Then, he became less and less available. At one point, Patricia Murphy called Sen. Ossoff and I the most unusual political duo in Georgia. I like him. He has a nice family and he was kind when my mother in law died. However, I think he is torn on the things he’s required to do for reelection because the disconnect between the Jon Ossoff I’ve spoken to and the one I see on the campaign trail is vast.

Today, he talks about missteps he sees from the Trump Administration when he participated in a party caucus who covered up the competency of their president for 4 years. He talks of fairness when his party pulled a bait and switch on the nominees in the last three election cycles. He finally voted for the Laken Riley Act when he was at the Georgia State Capitol on the day she was killed and could have jumped in the ring to protect others on that day—but where was he?  He abandoned Israel and aligned with the 20% of his party that is out of the mainstream on this and other issues. He’s in the 20% progressive wing of his party taking cues from anyone except Georgians.

Until he can criticize his own party, then he doesn’t deserve the 50% of the vote he got in 2020 and he doesn’t deserve to be reelected. He’s afraid of being primaried from the left. Well, he has nothing to worry about because that is where he is-in the left wing of his party. He talks a bipartisan line, but when it matters, he votes against the best interests of Georgians and then misrepresents the vote of others and the bill itself.

I will criticize my party and have done so as recently as today on my radio program. We don’t get everything right, but since President Trump took the oath for a 2nd time, everything has been out in the open and transparent, while Democrats are plotting their comeback. Problem is, we don’t trust them anymore.

So who will be the best choice to replace him. We have three very good candidates in the race at this time. The frontrunner is Mike Collins. It cannot be underestimated the power of his work on the Laken Riley Act that will help him with all Georgia voters. Sens. Ossoff and Warnock should have called him that terrible day and said, “How can we help? We are all Georgians in this fight.” But they couldn’t do it. He’s well organized and works amazingly well with all types of GOP primary voters.

Buddy Carter is from the most difficult to win district in the state for Republicans. It’s not a shoo in. He’s worked hard for the last two years preparing for this and getting better known all over the state and he’s all in.

Then, newcomer Derek Dooley is good with the press and can take criticism, but he needs to learn the issues. I worked on the winning David Perdue campaign in 2014 and we stumbled a bit in the beginning, too. Dooley can be a formidable candidate.

Whoever wins this primary, we must get behind him. And we must get out and vote. We cannot let anyone tell us our vote may not count. My biggest complaint about President Trump is he discouraged people from voting in the runoff in 2020. The GOP should have won both of those seats. But that’s in the past and we must win in the 2026 midterms across the board. They talked about a “Red Wave” in 2022—we cannot take it for granted in 2026.

I am a conservative because I believe our ideas are better. I will work with anyone and I will be fair because I’m an American and a Georgian before I am a Republican.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/8/1299118/what-could-have-been-why-jon-ossoff-doesnt-deserve-a-second-term

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