Sen. Jon Ossoff hosted a few hundred donors and supporters for a recent Washington fundraiser — but it wasn’t just for him.
Instead, the Sept. 16 gathering was geared toward raising money for the Democratic Party of Georgia and its coordinated campaign, according to an Ossoff aide and one attendee, who was granted anonymity to describe a private event.
It’s part of his broader effort to boost state Democrats as they look to flip the governor’s mansion for the first time in over 20 years and improve their margins in the legislature. And the timing, just weeks before November, signals confidence in Ossoff’s own reelection prospects and the sizable warchest he’s raised for himself.
This month’s event was the latest of several similar fundraisers Ossoff has held over the last two years. He plans to host more fundraisers for Georgia’s Democratic Party and the coordinated campaign ahead of Election Day, according to one person familiar with his planning, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.
If his moves are successful and November ushers in historic wins for Georgia Democrats, Ossoff will have cemented his status as a serious leader in the critical swing state. He would hold on to a crucial seat in the Senate as the party looks toward the South to shore up its future. He’d be credited in part with helping elect former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as the country’s first Black woman governor. And though Ossoff has said he’s not interested in joining a 2028 presidential race, leading a November sweep would ultimately raise his national profile.
“It would be hard to call him anything but a leader of the [state] party at that point. He’s already inching his way towards that kind of designation,” said Andrew Heaton, a Georgia-based Democratic strategist who supports the ticket. “But if there is the kind of success that a lot of people are predicting for the cycle, he would receive a large portion of the credit for that.”
Ossoff’s campaign did not comment beyond confirming the fundraisers.
The events are just part of Ossoff’s endeavor to help build out the Georgia Democratic Party’s apparatus after a rough 2024 election cycle.
The senator has transferred $3.6 million of his own campaign funds to the party’s coordinated campaign to date, which the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported. Since the effort was announced in July, the party has opened 30 field offices across the sizable state, and employs more than 100 field staffers helping with grassroots organizing for races up and down the ballot.
The coordinated campaign is led by a former Ossoff political director, Kyle Tromley. Caroline Saudek, a longtime fundraiser for Ossoff’s political operation, also joined the state party in January in a fundraising-focused role.
Democrats across the state — from the densely populated Atlanta metro to Georgia’s small sliver of Atlantic coast — said they’ve seen a marked difference in the coordinated campaign’s involvement this cycle, from consistent communication to investment in smaller-profile races. That transformation, several noted, started when Chair Charlie Bailey took the helm.
Bailey, an attorney from rural Harris County and former statewide candidate for lieutenant governor, became the leader of the party in mid-2025 with Ossoff’s crucial support.
“It is definitely a stronger coordinated campaign than I’ve seen in years, and in previous cycles. And it feels like it is better staffed, they staffed up earlier,” Heaton, the Georgia-based Democratic strategist, said.
Republicans are also taking note of the newly improved Democratic machine in a state that, until 2020, was a safe-red hold for the most high-profile races. Already, GOP fears are growing about Rep. Mike Collins’ ability to beat Ossoff. And polls show GOP gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson locked in a tight battle with Bottoms, despite having dropped tens of millions from his own bank account into the race.
Georgia Republican Party Chair Josh McKoon shrugged off Democrats’ fundraising efforts and said he feels “very good” about Republicans’ field resources.
“We’ve had a field program in place for months now. We have field staff on the ground all over the state,” he said in an interview, though he declined to provide details on the size of the Georgia GOP’s paid and volunteer operation.
Others aren’t as dismissive.
“The Democratic Party has deployed resources to hire staff that mobilizes and turns out voters. Republicans have not had this competitive of a race in a while, so they don’t have that type of muscle memory,” said Ryan Mahoney, a longtime Georgia-based Republican strategist.
“The Democrats are in such a great spot,” he added. “It’s because the apparatus has been tested and is working.”
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